Evaluation: Million Dollar Wedge

And they do so in charity specials, when they replace the car envelope with one with €10,000. For contestants it's much better because you can try to hit this envelope (which I did without success), but as a viewer I wouldn't like it (although I don't know at this moment if the space in which they put the €9,000 was seen on-screen).

About the MDW:

1 and 2: It's fine just how it works. If it was put another time on the Wheel if lost, it wouldn't be fair: although it's hard to hit that space, they would be offering more than one opportunity to win $1M, and now that they want to save money... It wouldn't be coherent, would it?
3. I suppose that they introduced it in the same way they did when they introduced the $100,000 maximum with the Bonus Wheel, to make the show "updated": I don't know how many budget have other prime time game shows in America, but surely if they continued with the $25,000 prize in the BR now it would be ridiculous (in part because most players win more than that in many shows). In my opinion it gives a little excitement to the show, mostly when players get it in R1 or R2, and players don't have really to care about having it or not... The way they have to play doesn't change at all, although I would solve the puzzles as earlier as possible in order not to risk it, specially the Prize Puzzle which almost gives you the victory of the show.

Might as well update this for Season 33. Only 8, tying S27 for the season low and half of that of the prior season. That makes a total of 83 Million Dollar Bonus Rounds over 1,559 episodes with the wedge in play (not counting the 2011 episode where it was never placed on the Wheel and also not counting the Lottery Experience games), which is about 5.3%.

With all the cost cutting in seasons 33 & 34, I'm surprised they haven't limited the MDW to only round 1; sort of like how they did the Oreo $10,000 wedge.

My only complaint is you should be awarded $500 per correct consonant like all the other liftable cardboard.

^Goodness...Nine years?! That does make one feel old.

I was just thinking about how long the WILD CARD has been on the show....that will make one feel old.

"Is the million too hard to win? Too easy?"
I think it should be put back on the Wheel for the next round if it's lost to Bankrupt or by not solving the puzzle.
"Suppose the Million Dollar Wedge was lost in an early round (R1 or R2). Should it go back on the wheel?"
Yes. I was talking about this in the first question.
"Does the million dollar gimmick have any place on the show? It survived over 30 years without it."
Yes, it's now possible to win $1,000,000.

If you include the eight MDBRs we have, so far, for this season, we now have 125 Million Dollar Bonus Rounds, overall. 

This means that out of the 2,274 WOF episodes with the Million Dollar Wedge on the Wheel (All episodes from Season 26-now, not including the one episode where they forgot to put it on the Wheel), 125 episodes were played for a chance at one million dollars. 

According to my calculations (125/2274), this means that every episode has had a 0.05496921723% (or simply 0.05%) chance of the Million Dollar Wedge being taken to the Bonus Round. 

- acwof