Subtle Change - Prize On Wheel Retiring Early

You know, I wondered what happened to the prize wedge on tonight's show. I missed R1, but saw all of R2 and noticed that yellow had a good total after that round, and then thought that I saw the prize wedge in the wide shot just before the commercial break, but then I noticed it was gone before R3, so I figured that it was either bad editing or just my imagination and either yellow won the prize or somebody else picked it up at least.

I checked the first four episodes of Desert Hideaways week, and this did indeed start during that week. Halloween week still had it on in R3.

Here are screenshots from the Monday episode.



Great find, Wayoshi. How did none of us notice this earlier?

Well, considering I didn't notice at all until $350 was actually spun when the prize should have still been there while WOFTracking, I'd say WOFTracker has the perfect eye while I'm along with masses that got fooled.

Except it's one of the better pieces of cardboard.

Personally, I'd get rid of the Gift Tag after R2, and keep the Prize Wedge.

EDIT: Whoops. Quote removed.

I didn't notice that before, but it does make sense with the PP now in a fixed R3, so that there's always only one prize available in the first three rounds. About the prize though, I thought up until October 14 and again December 5 - 8, it was available up until not the end of R3, but rather all the way to the Speedup, so it could be picked up in R4 and beyond. Or was that a long time ago, and then at some point it was limited to up until R3?



As I've said before, what I do think is great is that they're finally realizing that the Prize Puzzle can't be the Jackpot or Mystery Round, because those two rounds, as well as, up until Season 25, the Bankrupt/$10,000/Bankrupt and in Season 25, the Big Money Round are about spinning as much as possible to try to win those prizes, while, to quote Pat sometimes, "Why did you solve that puzzle so quickly? Oooh, it's a Prize Puzzle!"



I agree, and I do wonder if the many pieces of cardboard now on the wheel is partly why they did it.



But there'd be no way to win a gift tag after R2, while there is a way to win a trip, and the PP and R1 featured prizes are no different. It particularly made sense during Sandals Golf Getaway, since for all such episodes, both prizes were to a Sandals Resorts, and one such prize is enough per contestant, let alone available at one time. Besides, with the prize gone, it gives us a $350 space, of which that's the only one, so it makes that amount available, while the gift tag covers $300, and there are many $300s out on the wheel.

Also, as I've also said before, the Prize Puzzle should be R1, not R3, and should switch with the Jackpot Round (or the Jackpot should go back to Round 2 and the Mystery back to Round 3). Here are the reasons why:

The PP can sometimes be the easiest round, not the hardest.

The Jackpot and Mystery prizes would be great challenges to a contestant with a high total after winning the PP prize.

It means that BEFORE & AFTER and SAME NAME could, most of the time (I'm guessing 90 - 95%), only be one possible round, R2, which really doesn't make sense. It's understandable why those two categories could hardly be R1. Yes, we've had more episodes with them in R1 since October 17, but none have been in the past two weeks, and in those past two weeks, only two episodes (the Friday of Great Escapes and the Tuesday of Sandals Golf Getaway) didn't have those categories. And last season, only three episodes had BEFORE & AFTER in R1 (12/17/10, 5/5/11, and 6/9/11) while only one had SAME NAME (1/4/11). Here's hoping that in Season 30, R1 and R3 switch, and in the meantime, BEFORE & AFTER and SAME NAME are seen more in the Jackpot Round. Also, with them slowly phasing in this change last season with the PP not allowed in R1, I really do think that this is why they got rid of the great rule of Season 27 that every episode must have one of those two categories, broken only four times, three of which were among the first four weeks of the season.

Another thing I wonder about is, even though a new PP graphic debuted this season and as sad as it would be to lose the PP cue echoing the category reveal cue, with the PP now in a fixed round, could Jim announce that it's the PP round, just like he does with the Jackpot and Mystery (and Vanna sometimes does for the latter)? That would make total sense, especially with no announcement at the start of R3. Of all my ideas, this I really think is most likely to happen, and soon. In fact, is it remotely possible that anyone who saw a taping of a future show notice that it's debuting sometime soon?

I'm also thinking that if the PP is in R1 and the featured prize doesn't come on the board until R2 and they took on my latter suggestion, this would give Jim or Vanna something to announce at the start of all three rounds, even though R1 would be very little (just a PP announcement) and R2 would be heavy (brought to you by the following, featured prize, and $10K, all in that order). Or maybe now that the Mystery Round sponsor is gone and unlike in Seasons 20 - 23, it's always $10K available, they could take the next phase and just not have a Mystery Round promo, making the pre-R2 announcing lighter.

Also, did I hear that the December 8 6th show taping was for Best of the Best, not Ports of Call? If so, does that mean that we'll have the old format next week, as well as for the upcoming POC 6th show taping? I know I'll find out Monday, but would rather not have to wait that long.

My best guess would be when the prize moved from being introduced in Round 2 to Round 1.

I was thinking of Season 24 being the time where it had to have been taken off after Round 3. I'll watch a Season 24 episode tomorrow and see what happens...

The extra tokens (including the second Bankrupt) were removed after Round 3 beginning in Season 23, which is also when the Prize Wedge moved to Round 1.

And, for what it's worth, the Wild Card began to be removed after Round 3 in Season 26.

Thanks go out to the FAQ Timeline.