TPiR Recap - 9/22/2017

[imhomerjay]

The historic 2nd SCSD has gone viral of course. This is just a thought, but do you think it's possible the wheel was rigged??

Absolutely not. No one is likely to be that stupid, let alone multiple someones to allow such a thing.

It happened. The odds may have been fairly long, to put it mildly, but rigged? There’s nothing on which to base that.

[SteveGavazzi]

This is just a thought, but do you think it's possible the wheel was rigged??

How much longer do you want to continue posting here?

[mechamind]

It is possible for a contestant to memorize spin patterns and "aim" the Wheel, so something like this would have to happen eventually. But that's not rigging.

Of course, it may also be pure luck. And that's much more likely, as I highly doubt that a typical contestant would be able to focus on something like spin patterns once they're called down. If they focus on anything, it's the prices.

[blozier2006]

It is possible for a contestant to memorize spin patterns and "aim" the Wheel

And as a producer, if you suspect that's the case, you do two things on all future episodes:
1. When briefing the contestants during the break, tell them to always spin the wheel as hard as possible, and
2. Tell the contestants that, if you think they're trying to aim the wheel, you'll have Drew tell them to spin it again.

Wheel of Fortune, I believe, does both of those (and in their case, both Chuck Woolery and Pat Sajak have been known to make contestants spin again if they thought they weren't spinning hard enough).

[Ton80]

And as a producer, if you suspect that's the case, you do two things on all future episodes:
1. When briefing the contestants during the break, tell them to always spin the wheel as hard as possible, and
2. Tell the contestants that, if you think they're trying to aim the wheel, you'll have Drew tell them to spin it again.

There's already a perfectly good rule regarding the Big Wheel.  It must go all the way around at least once. 

If a player tries to finesse a spin (which I've seen MANY TIMES), then they'll either have to spin again if it doesn't go all the way around (amidst a chorus of boos), or the contestant may benefit from said spin by hitting the number they were "aiming" for.  (Or they'll lose their turn if it happened to be a bonus spin...)

Either way, we don't need more convoluted rules to govern a simple spin.  If it fulfills the required rule of "must go around at least once", then who cares if the player tried to "aim" for a number, or tried to spin the wheel off its axis.

[Off_trak]

The rigging of game shows being highly illegal aside, the Wheel's tension *is* adjustable, and we've all seen it spin very fast and loose, as well as slow and tight. So is there a known level of tension that the Wheel can be set at, that favours $1 wins, if spun with the right force?

[TPIRfan#9821]

So is there a known level of tension that the Wheel can be set at, that favours $1 wins, if spun with the right force?

Unless the producers can rig what the other people before them spin, I doubt that this is even plausible.

[Ton80]

So is there a known level of tension that the Wheel can be set at, that favours $1 wins, if spun with the right force?

Technically, ANY level of tension favors a $1 win, if spun with the right force. 

Seriously, it would be virtually impossible to "set" the tension of the wheel to favor a specific outcome because literally every contestant would spin with a different amount of force.