Wheel of Fortune…narrowly missing perfection

Allow me a little (or a lot) latitude with this post. I feel like Wheel of Fortune is probably the best game show on TV today. The rules are simple enough that really anyone can play, the puzzles offer enough of a challenge to keep you on your toes and some serious cash is on the line – just a romping good 30-minutes of television. BUT, it could go from good to perfect.

#1 – Pat Sajak is too bossy.

Overall an absolute great host, but every night he has two tics that drive me crazy – they both happen during the bonus round. First, when the contestant spins the prize wheel he’ll always point out the slice they need to pick up. I mean there is a big white arrow already telling them that!

Next as everyone takes their place for the final puzzle he points out their “mark.” No need to make that audible Pat, the audience at home doesn’t need to know where this guy or gal needs to stand – we’re looking to see how much almost-cash we could pick up. I know I’m nitpicking, but no need to micromanage these things, Pat.

#2 – The $1,000,000 Space.
Remember when I said the rules are simple? Well get this…they have a prize on the wheel that allows the contestant to win a million bucks and all they have to do to win is…

-          Spin the wheel and land on the million, plus correctly guess a letter in the puzzle

-          They then need to correctly solve that puzzle and the Million Dollar Slice is theirs

-          From that point forward, they cannot land on a Bankrupt

o   AND, they must be the big money winner to qualify for the final puzzle

-          They must correctly solve the final puzzle (not an easy task)

o   AND, when spinning the wheel they must land on the $1,000,000 space again (about a 1/30 chance)

Holy Buckets! Let’s make it difficult, not impossible – I mean why bother with the million in the first place? Here’s my solution – keep everything before the finale puzzle to build the drama, but replace half of the prize slices with the $1,000,000. If they get through all that, they have a 50 / 50 chance to win a million.

#3 – The Final Puzzle

Ok, here’s where I may be grasping at straws, but hear me out. I liked it when they made the change to giving every player R – S – T – L – E and allowing them to pick three more consonants plus one more vowel. My problem is why should they be limited to only one vowel? Why can’t they pick any four letters? Moreover, why don’t we handicap this a little bit and give them one consonant and one vowel for winning the game plus an additional letter for every puzzle they correctly solved during the game. It would make it more difficult for the guy that got lucky during the prize puzzle and wasn’t heard from again, right?

There you have it, two really good (and one borderline) changes to make the best game show on television perfect – at least in one guy’s opinion.