Post by nowhammies11 on Sept 15, 2017 16:12:09 GMT -5
I've been in contact with Wheel recently about the eligibility of Canadians to appear as contestants. I haven't seen any contestants from my home and native land in a great many years, and I thought I'd get to the bottom of why. I'd love to be on the show just as many of you do (and in many cases, already have). The Toss-Up Challenge yesterday on Facebook (featuring our very own MarioGS) piqued my interest in appearing on the show once again.
Let me give a little background. Contestants used to appear on WOF with some regularity, appearing about as frequently as they do on Jeopardy! (maybe once every six weeks or so). Again, we have Wheel alumni on this very forum (looking at you, luggature) who are Canadians. But sometime around the Neonification of 2003, Canadians seemed to disappear from Wheel.
When I looked on Wheel's "Be A Contestant" form yesterday, I think I may have found a reason why. The form has two things in place that prevent Canadians from entering their contact information:
My theory is that most people would go "Oh well" and not bother going any further. However, I have it on Harry Friedman's authority that Canadians are indeed eligible to appear on Wheel, from a tweet he posted to Jeopardy!'s Twitter account in 2015:
So, last night, I wrote a letter to Wheel using their Contact Us form outlining my concerns about their form, believing this to simply be an oversight on the part of whoever coded the form. I received an email reply from "The Wheel of Fortune Team" where they tell me: "Due to recent changes in Canadian privacy laws, we’re unable to accept personal information [sic] Canadian citizens at this time."
This puzzled me (no pun intended). While Canada's Anti-Spam Law (CASL, or CAN-SPAM) did have an effect on Jeopardy! during their Season 32, they have worked out whatever issues they may have had with the new law and have indeed begun to accept applications from Canadians once again, as they always had. But Wheel's problems still remain. Why? Surely if Jeopardy! has worked out their issues with CASL, the same issues would follow for Wheel.
I phoned the offices this afternoon looking for an answer to my questions. However, the contestant department was out of the office, as they are filming today. I will be calling again Monday to see if I can find out what exactly is going on, and if they will accept applications from Canadians going forward. Watch this space.
Let me give a little background. Contestants used to appear on WOF with some regularity, appearing about as frequently as they do on Jeopardy! (maybe once every six weeks or so). Again, we have Wheel alumni on this very forum (looking at you, luggature) who are Canadians. But sometime around the Neonification of 2003, Canadians seemed to disappear from Wheel.
When I looked on Wheel's "Be A Contestant" form yesterday, I think I may have found a reason why. The form has two things in place that prevent Canadians from entering their contact information:
- The "State" area features a drop-down box listing only the 50 United States, not a freeform text box to enter your own state/province. The drop-down does not list any Canadian provinces or territories.
- The ZIP code box limits you to five characters, exactly enough for a US ZIP code, but one character short of Canadian postal codes (which are in the format A1B 2C3)
My theory is that most people would go "Oh well" and not bother going any further. However, I have it on Harry Friedman's authority that Canadians are indeed eligible to appear on Wheel, from a tweet he posted to Jeopardy!'s Twitter account in 2015:
So, last night, I wrote a letter to Wheel using their Contact Us form outlining my concerns about their form, believing this to simply be an oversight on the part of whoever coded the form. I received an email reply from "The Wheel of Fortune Team" where they tell me: "Due to recent changes in Canadian privacy laws, we’re unable to accept personal information [sic] Canadian citizens at this time."
This puzzled me (no pun intended). While Canada's Anti-Spam Law (CASL, or CAN-SPAM) did have an effect on Jeopardy! during their Season 32, they have worked out whatever issues they may have had with the new law and have indeed begun to accept applications from Canadians once again, as they always had. But Wheel's problems still remain. Why? Surely if Jeopardy! has worked out their issues with CASL, the same issues would follow for Wheel.
I phoned the offices this afternoon looking for an answer to my questions. However, the contestant department was out of the office, as they are filming today. I will be calling again Monday to see if I can find out what exactly is going on, and if they will accept applications from Canadians going forward. Watch this space.