TPiR Recap - 2/23/2018 (TPiR Season 46 Big Money Week - Day V)

[Wayoshi]

No, you're giving them way too much credit, IMO. They (meaning, apparently, Adam Sandler) created a game that would offer $100K as a gimmick, and when they quickly saw that that amount would probably never be won with only one correct solution, started compromising the concept to force a few wins, because having one cash game where the advertised top prize is all-but-impossible to win looks bad enough. I don't think they're anywhere near as clever as you think they are.

Fair enough, but I think it was definitely designed to be very difficult. I think they realized how difficult it was.

It takes a playing or two to realize that the cheapest in the mailbox is not a good strategy. Of course one playing is all it takes.

[Wayoshi]

I miss when the show just had regular shows and let surprising moments happen whenever they would play games for expensive prizes or cash like, 3 strikes, Plinko, triple play, or non car game like now or then, bonus game or clock game would be played for a car. The showcases would offer two or three cars.

The Big 3 being treated like the plague is one of the biggest disappointments of the Mike era.

It's gotten a bit better in the past couple of years, but the gold standard in the DOB era was each got a playing within 4-6 weeks at a time. Now the standard is we just one of them, on a rough rotation, per month. They seem to dislike the games as a whole, preferring to super sex up the other games in the gimmick weeks, and it's hard to understand why.

[GuyWithFace]

When Wheel did Big Money Week. Could you imagine them putting 11 $100,000 cards in play?

No, for the simple reason that "Big Money Week" has become just another theme to them. Why go into the effort of increasing any stakes whatsoever when the mere title shall attract eyeballs?

Another idea - have every single prize and dollar lost to a bankrupt accumulate in a jackpot, a la the "Big Bank" on new-era Press Your Luck. Except it carries over between shows.
[...]
It carries over between shows and keeps growing until it's won.

Wheel of Fortune has no week-to-week continuity and (it would appear) generally tries to give away as little as possible, so this would not be feasible.

[JT]

Why does this game have to be either super-easy or mega-hard with very little leeway in-between?

Best comment in this thread.  I did not enjoy the $200K win.  It was manufactured.  I didn't like the cash equivalent gimmick either and not sure all the contestants understood it.  The $5,000 cash bonus was much easier for excited/nervous contestants to understand.  I also don't see why they had to do a cash game on a cash equivalent show and showing a sign for $100,000 and saying it's really $200K doesn't make any sense.  That game will just never sit right with me.

[greg]

Was there any real reason for Big Money Week?  It just seems like they chose some random week to throw tons of cash around & make wins from other episodes seem cheap...

[SamJ93]

Was there any real reason for Big Money Week?  It just seems like they chose some random week to throw tons of cash around & make wins from other episodes seem cheap...

It was much better executed in the past, IMO, when the big money was confined to just one game. Then it was interesting because there was actually some suspense to who might get a shot at winning some huge $$$. Just tacking on $10K to every single pricing game win or just straight-up playing Cliff Hangers for cash (as opposed to starting with $250K and decreasing, which I thought was one of the best Big Money Week ideas they had) reeks of laziness.