Spin the Wheel - General Discussion

[Whimsy]

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Spin the Wheel pits contestants against a colossal, spinning 40-foot wheel that holds large sums of cash prizes in its rotation. Throughout the game, players answer trivia questions – where the correct answer adds more cash in the wheel’s wedges and the incorrect answer adds more dangerous wedges that could instantly bring their total back to zero.

Discuss the show here.

[Whimsy]

Sounds like The Wall with a wheel. 

[SHD]

There’s no way anyone is actually physically spinning that wheel with just their own power, so right away I question how easily it could be manipulated by the show.

[preeya]

11 hours ago, SHD said:

There’s no way anyone is actually physically spinning that wheel with just their own power, so right away I question how easily it could be manipulated by the show.

I was also skeptical about the wheel. This disclaimer was shown at the end of the episode.

As you can see the spins have already been manipulated, but by an "independent technology company."

The amount of money in play is certainly a cause for skepticism.

[Madding crowd]

Watched this last night. Seems like a cross between Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Deal or No Deal. 

[preeya]

53 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

Watched this last night. Seems like a cross between Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Deal or No Deal. 

I had that same thought, but in this game, you can't take the money and run (unless I misunderstood the rules).

Edited June 21, 2019 by preeya

[Madding crowd]

Well, his brother had the option to take a pay out at certain points which he did, but you are right they don’t have the option to take the total amount.

[iMonrey]

I thought this was kind of dumb. And I'm not even sure I understand how it works. It seemed like he had to earn a spin for the first 8 to 12 spins (?) then the last four spins were just free spins. I didn't really see the point of including the brother either. And I would have been SUPER PISSED that my brother cost me more than a million dollars by taking a payout. 

The questions were way too easy, too. Judging by the way the contestants are selected it seems like the goal is to do a feel-good type of show by rewarding local heroes. The wheel itself is sketchy as hell. The whole thing is ripe for rigging.

I miss The Chase. That was the best game show I ever saw. That and The Weakest Link, up until it became over-saturated with multiple shows per week and then a syndicated version.

[Madding crowd]

My whole family loved the chase! I also thought the questions were very easy and the whole show was too complicated with bringing in family members etc.

[Whimsy]

3 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

Watched this last night. Seems like a cross between Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Deal or No Deal. 

I thought it was a cross between The Wall and Deal or No Deal.

14 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I thought this was kind of dumb. And I'm not even sure I understand how it works. It seemed like he had to earn a spin for the first 8 to 12 spins (?) then the last four spins were just free spins. I didn't really see the point of including the brother either. And I would have been SUPER PISSED that my brother cost me more than a million dollars by taking a payout. 

The questions were way too easy, too. Judging by the way the contestants are selected it seems like the goal is to do a feel-good type of show by rewarding local heroes. The wheel itself is sketchy as hell. The whole thing is ripe for rigging.

I miss The Chase. That was the best game show I ever saw. That and The Weakest Link, up until it became over-saturated with multiple shows per week and then a syndicated version.

Like the Wall, it seems they are picking "worthy" contestants which I find annoying.  I (think) I understood the gameplay, though.  This is what I got out of it: 

The contestant "spins" the wheel (as stated above- clearly not really the contestants power that spins that thing).  Dax Shepherd asks the question.  If they get the question right they win the money that the ball lands on.  If they get it wrong, they LOSE the amount the ball lands on.  It probably wasn't clear because he didn't lose any money until the end and that was because he was landing on negative amounts. 

The last four spins is not question based but they put the power into the family member's hands so the risk is less about the contestants trivia knowledge but more about what the other person chooses to do- take a deal or let the spins ride out.  I really dislike the component of the family member.  

I like The Wall better.  I like CH much better.  I think DS did ok, but I just feel that Chris is more genuine (I know- a lot of people don't like him, but that's my sense).  He'll give the contestants hugs and stuff and Dax just ran around the stage but didn't really interact with the contestant much. 

[iMonrey]

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I thought it was a cross between The Wall and Deal or No Deal.

I've never watched an entire episode of The Wall. I can't stand Deal or No Deal either. Always hated Millionaire too. The problem with all three is that they are excruciatingly slow. Eons are spent debating the answer to a single question. There are discussions, there are options, there is input. (Hell, I don't think Deal or No Deal even HAS questions as far as I can remember. Just a bunch of people agonizing over cases.)

This game seemed to move at a fairly decent pace so that's about the only thing going for it.

I didn't know what to make of Dax Shepard. I generally like him but not sure that Game Show Host is a good fit for him.

[Snow Apple]

Well, at least it was pretty decently paced. Any game show that don't talk about the continent's life story for 10 minutes between each question is a plus in my book. It's still early yet though.

I don't understand putting control in someone else's hands though. I don't envy the brother. They need to get rid of that feature and just go for all or nothing. I also don't like how the contestants don't really have control of the wheel. Wheel of Fortune and the wheel on The Price is Right are not flashy but at least they're real and the fate is in your own hands.

[Wandering Snark]

"The duration of the individual spins has been edited down for broadcast" So that helps but imho even ADDS to the 'janky carnival game' feel of this one. Yes you "build" your wheel but it just seems so terribly prone to shenanigans. For example was that a metal ball?? So there could be magnets that make it 'settle' or 'roll' from one spot to another... I'm just seeing all kinds of red-flags on this one.

I also don't care for the "deserving player" however they decide that either.

I must admit I also spent a large portion of it staring at Dax trying to figure out why he looked so damned odd. Is it the facial hair throwing things off or the odd vertical bag/lines under his eyes or was there some kind of 'work' recently done? I mean he just didn't look 'normal' to me.

[Madding crowd]

I don’t understand why anyone would take the first offer when there are numerous spins left. Even if you go back to zero in one, you could win 2 million on the next one. Something seemed different on this one than the first episode but I don’t know what it is.

[Wandering Snark]

I'd like to add that the obvious voiceovers really give the show an odd feel. If they are going back and editing in voiceovers what else are they monkeying with?

Anyhow it was obvious by the end of tonight that the poor kid just choked under the pressure and took the first offer given since the alternative was $0 at the time... should have put an adult in the seat not the daughter.

[themadman]

Haha, that was hilarious. The daughter (who was supposed to be 21) was a terrible choice for the hot seat. Should have gone with the husband instead. She didn't think rationally, panicked, and just took the first offer. Even the next spin would have taken the 39K to 80+. *sad trombone*

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎6‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 9:10 AM, Madding crowd said:

Watched this last night. Seems like a cross between Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Deal or No Deal. 

Wow, if the host weren't enough to make me not want to watch, that'll do it!

On ‎6‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 12:31 PM, Whimsy said:

Sounds like The Wall with a wheel.  

It looks like a rip-off of Wheel of Fortune to me, sans the word puzzle.

[Robert Lynch]

On 6/28/2019 at 8:58 AM, themadman said:

Haha, that was hilarious. The daughter (who was supposed to be 21) was a terrible choice for the hot seat. Should have gone with the husband instead. She didn't think rationally, panicked, and just took the first offer. Even the next spin would have taken the 39K to 80+. *sad trombone*

That always make me roll my eyes when people like that crack under pressure. It always begins like: this seem like a lot to me and a sob story bs. Get the heck out of here. You need to have guts to win the game. Little do they know the taxes would be astronomical. I have better odds at a casino or Jeopardy than to watch some people crack under pressure.

[Kiddvideo]

Ended up watching the whole episode with the Vegas family bc remote was too far to reach w/out getting up.

This show is awful. Incredibly slow. Only one contestant. Still have bits of “my Nanna loved the color red so I’m going with “rhubarb”, final answer” crap. That wheel is idiotic - at least have something that uses luck and skill.

This is a hard pass.

[Maximoose]

On 7/8/2019 at 8:43 PM, Kiddvideo said:

Ended up watching the whole episode with the Vegas family bc remote was too far to reach w/out getting up.

This show is awful. Incredibly slow. Only one contestant. Still have bits of “my Nanna loved the color red so I’m going with “rhubarb”, final answer” crap. That wheel is idiotic - at least have something that uses luck and skill.

This is a hard pass.

It's atypical summer filler, game shows they throw together in mere weeks.

There's no real spinning as it's all computer ran, which was probably done in the name of "fairness" (and the sheer weight of the thing, though my sarcastic side would say they did it for drama/TPTP control of the thing)

Don't care for the button mechanic either as it does nothing but build fake drama for the inevitable "I cracked under the pressure" moment of the evening

[Whimsy]

I’ve been watching all of the summer game shows and I’m seeing a repeat of a LOT of questions. Super annoying. 

[ShellySelf]

I actually like it, for what it is (brain candy/time filler...no thinking required). 

[iMonrey]

Tried watching a second episode and good God, it's SO boring. Who wants to spend an entire hour watching a wheel spin around? The frustrating thing is that the show would actually have some potential if they fixed some things. They need to dump the family player in the airplane seat, that makes no sense. They need to speed things up and have 2 contestants each episode instead of spending an entire hour on one. Finally, they if the contestant is down to $5000 and loses a question worth $10,000, they should go down to -$5,000, not zero. Raise the stakes!

[lynxfx]

On 7/31/2019 at 11:21 AM, iMonrey said:

Finally, they if the contestant is down to $5000 and loses a question worth $10,000, they should go down to -$5,000, not zero. Raise the stakes!

They've had a couple episodes where the player zeroed out at the end. I think the stakes are high enough. 

I agree with the pilot seat. Not needed and really you should double up on every question. There are so many questions after that and what you make in the first 8 spins rarely matters. I think nearly every contestant went back to zero or near zero after spin 8. 

I like the show more than Deal or No Deal. At least here you can play along with the trivia parts. 

I do really want to see someone win really big though. 

[knitorpurl]

This show finally limped through its finale with a double episode. I couldn't watch them both back-to-back as the ridiculousness of this game annoys me too much for that. 

The nurse who played in part one of the finale had to be the worst player of the season. She knew next to nothing. But of course that doesn't really matter because it's a complete game of chance. Not that that worked out for her either. Listening to her sister tell how she had played an amazing game in the overly sincere wrap up speech was too funny.

If this manages to come back next summer I'm going to pass- it's not much fun to watch a game so heavily weighted against the player's success. Justin Timberlake and his fake trucker's coat need to go back to the drawing board.