Should the Picking of the Bonus Round Categories Go Away?

Even so, it's still a downward trend of 74-65-62.

(Season 37 is currently at 34 wins, and I'd like to think we can get more than 28 wins in the remaining 99 episodes.)

Another factor in the downward trend of annual bonus round win rates: Season 32 is when they started that (stupid and pointless) gimmick of the (cash) minimum being (season number x $1,000). As that amount has climbed, the win rate has dropped (with S34 an anomaly of sorts).

Let's look at the pros and cons of letting the contestant choose their own BR category.

Pros:
-Gives the impression of greater control over the outcome of one's puzzle--you can have a difficult or unfair puzzle in pretty much any category, but everyone's got their favorite
-Another place for the audience at home to yell at the contestants ("Don't pick THING! You fool!")

Cons:
-Costs a few moments before the last commercial while Pat presents the categories and awaits the winner's decision
-Means the puzzle writers need three potential Bonuses of different categories on hand at all times, ideally of comparable difficulty
-An added element of complexity that according to the stats above hasn't significantly impacted win rates

Rules of elegant game design would dictate that if it isn't significantly impacting how the game plays and simply takes up time, then as you say, it could probably be done without. Maybe it hasn't actively made much of a difference in the downward win rate trend, but the main point is that it *feels* better as a contestant to have some hand in your fate, regardless of how consequential it is, and it is another fun moment as a viewer at home where you can feel smugly superior to a contestant if they make a different decision from yours and get burned for it. As some of us know, that is a pretty unfair attitude to take given the pressure of the scenario, but those moments where you feel like you could have succeeded where the people on T.V. failed are what sell a game show and make average people at home watch it.

Best Seller has never been offered as a choice, and Character(s) stopped being offered altogether after Season 35. Plus, that has no RSTLNE so it would never be a bonus puzzle today anyway. I get that's just an example, though.


Another pro about having a category choice is that some puzzles that likely would have been Thing(s) in the past are now a bit more specific. I'm sure OLD VINYL ALBUMS would have been Things in Season 30 instead of Around the House, for example.

Yes, definitely. Guess what set of categories was given tonight?

Thinking of making a Garbage Gameshows thread for tonight's episode... hmmm....

Exactly..

I really hope so, because I'm rather infuriated with this show as of late. I can't wait until Friedman's gone, he's gone down the tubes since he introduced the minimums being increased by the season number (Season # x $1,000), and the winrate has gone down each season because of it plus many other factors (aside from it going up in Season 34 then back down onwards). Lately it's been more frustrating than fun to watch,