Video: “Wheel of Fortune” Judging: Wednesday’s Contestant Gets Caught, But Thursday’s Doesn’t?
Wheel of Fortune, America’s most-watched game show, has had two similar situations ending up with two different results in the past week. Renee Durette and Michael Rufus (who goes by “Rufus”) are two contestants who appeared on the program on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. On Wednesday, after accruing thousands of dollars, Renee opted to solve her puzzle which looked like this:
S E _ E N / S _ _ N S
_ – S _ _ M M _ N G
After she gave her solution, the audience began to cheer, Vanna began to clap and Pat began to say “Yeah.” However, that was cut short by a quick buzzer, the applause ceasing and Pat saying, “We can’t accept that.” According to the producer’s ear, Renee solved the puzzle as “seven swans a swimmin’.” leaving off the “G.” Renee offered an excuse of “I’m from Florida,” followed by an upset sigh after learning that she was ruled incorrect. This incident didn’t go unnoticed by the public, with a few Twitter reactions during the show and even a small story on the Huffington Post this week. In my opinion – and I would love to hear yours as well – I think that this judgment was fair. However, in comparison to incident from the next night, it does not seem as just.
During Thursday’s program, contestant Rufus has one letter left and is ready to solve this puzzle:
H I C K O R Y – S M O K E _
C O U N T R Y / H A M
Rufus gives his guess and without a moment of hesitation from anyone, he is ruled correct. But, upon reviewing the video (and even hearing it slowed down), it clearly sounds like Rufus left off the last letter of the first word, saying “hickory-smoke country ham.” In my opinion, especially in comparison to the previous incident, I think the contestant should not have been awarded a correct solution. It confuses me how two very similar incidents could occur in the same taping day, ending up with two different results.
What do you think? If you were the producer of Wheel of Fortune, how would you rule on either situation? And what would you do if you were a contestant playing against Rufus and you think you might have heard something differently? Video clips from both shows are below. Weigh in with the comments section!
Seven Swans a Swimmin’?
Hickory-Smoke Country Ham?
Rufus absolutely left off the “d,” so he should not have been credited. I think they were right to rule against Renee, based on some previous rulings, but I wouldn’t have quibbled if they’d given it to her.
That has to be the second worse adverse judge’s rulings in game show history. The worst was during an episode of Hot Potato when the guys’ team response of French fries was accepted as a vegetable while the girls’ team response of candy bars wasn’t accepted as chocolate.
You can’t forget the “Match Game” riot of 1977 when judge Ira Skutch wouldn’t take ‘finishing school’ for the answer ‘school’ – Richard Dawson and Debralee Scott went NUTS over that ruling! In this case, clearly the first person should have won, as she picked the letter, but the second person didn’t say ‘smoked’, as the ‘d’ wasn’t even chosen! I agree with R.V. – bring the wronged contestants back – after all, they did so on “Match Game” 35 years ago!
I haven’t seen that one…yeah, that’s bad. I think “School Riot” & “Harry/Hairy” on Password Plus are just as bad though.
My big question: did these rulings adversely affected the final outcome of the game? If so, bring the wronged contestant back.
For the missolve on Thursday, it didn’t end up affecting the game, as it was only in round 1. But it did end up affecting the outcome on Wednesday because had the judges accepted Renee’s solve, she would’ve won the game.
As for my own take on the missolves, I believe that if a solve is debatable, the decision should be to the benefit of the solver. Hence, I would’ve ruled both answers correct. Plus, Wheel has stated that they are sensitive to regional dialects, so I think the judges owe Renee because they did screw her out of the win.
I think that while they are sister shows, the producers need to establish that WoF is not Jeopardy. Solving should not be such an exact science, especially because the contestants cast come in a variety of backgrounds and accents.
I think this goes back to “Pristinely” in some ways. In the “swimming” situation, the G was on the boards. She gave a slang pronunciation, but clearly knew the G was there by the fact that she called the letter “G”. By doing so she displayed that she knew all parts of the puzzle and should be given credit.
In the second case, he ddi not pronounce or call the letter “d”, so you’d have to rule him incorrect, even though it is painful to do so.
Consider this my argument to get rid of the archaic rule of having to pronounce the puzzle correctly even if you fill in all the letter (i.e. pristinely). If you don’t know how to pronounce something ((i.e. Kelly Ripa) filling in all the letters should be a suitable defense, allowing the player to win.
I agree. Wheel of Fortune is not Jeopardy, and it shouldn’t be treated as such.
You know, incidents like these only serve to bring back bad memories of the old days, when game shows were intentionally rigged and they had to pass laws to “supposedly” prevent such things from happening again in the future.
Everyone’s tone of voice and dialect is different. Certain people have speech impediments, and some people can’t speak English as well as others. There is never a 100% correct way to pronounce a certain word or phrase, so if you already have all the letters in place on the board, and you read out the word or phrase, you should be credited for the win.
It’s definitely not fair comparing what happened in each of these two episodes, and if I were Renee, I’d consider suing the producers, using Rufus’ episode as evidence that you don’t need 100% correct pronunciation of a word or phrase in order to solve the puzzle. That is, of course, if the producers didn’t already offer her something as compensation after the episode was taped. After all, we don’t know exactly what happened afterwards.
A couple of judgement calls that coincidentally happened on consecutive shows really isn’t comparable to patently deceptive practices.
The first one- She should have been credited. It’s not Jeopardy!
The second one- You leave out the ‘D’, you don’t get the $$$
No Shakespeare theory here.
I’m not excusing Thursday’s incident, but we don’t know what went on behind the scenes. In addition to the theories regarding the final outcome of the game, notice that Pat says something along the lines of “it doesn’t get much easier than that” or whatever just before the solve, and upon investigating, the powers that be decided to give it to Rufus since Pat’s comment could have been misleading. I know watching at home is far different than playing in person, but I had to look twice to notice the blank space in “SMOKE_”. Again, not much of an excuse, but we don’t know what went on after the cameras went off.
Both incidents were handled exactly the opposite of how they should have been.
On the Wednesday episode, the contestant called “G” right before solving. It’s not like she didn’t know it was there. And dropping the “G” from any word ending in -ING is very common, and quite normal to hear even if you’re not in the South.
On the Thursday episode, the “D” was not called or pronounced. And it’s not common to any dialect I know of to leave the “D” sound off of a word ending in -ED, even monosyllabic ones. Consider how ridiculous the following sentences sound: “You’re playing with a stack deck.” “Please enjoy these delicious bake goods.” “Mildred is lucky, she has a whip husband.”
If the shows were taped in the same order that they aired, I’ll bet the judges were told after the Wednesday incident not to judge quite as harshly — resulting in the goof on Thursday.
The Wheel has had some questionable judgement calls this week, that’s for sure. The night before Renee’s show, a lady (Mrs. Crump, forgot her first name) was able to basically solve the puzzle 3 times because she got some words mixed up while saying her solution and was able to correct it. She ended up winning the game, but it took a $6000 speed up round to win.
For the record, I agree with others here that Renee should’ve been awarded her winnings and Rufus should not have been awarded for their respective puzzles. When I’m singing the 12 Days of Christmas, I am more likely to say seven Swans-a-Swimmin’ than with a “g”.
Boo hoo hoo! Just say your words correctly, and NONE OF THIS WOULD BE AN ISSUE!
The official International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation of swimming is [ˈswɪm ɪŋ]. The last symbol, ŋ, indicates an “ng” sound _without_ a final g. So putting on the final “g” would technically be wrong, and could also be used to rule a solution “incorrect.”
But, again, WOF is not J!. Dialects exist, and slight imperfections should be tolerated.
Boo hoo hoo yourself.
You don’t like this discussion? Then don’t even think about clickin’ on this page again.
Simples.
Never implied that I didn’t like this discussion. Again, pronounce your words correctly with the proper emphasis and none of this would be an issue.
Wheel has been a stickler about pronunciation for years. This is no surprise; it’s a shame that they didn’t catch the second mistake, though.
That is my “simples” analysis, unlike your name Uosdowis (or whatever the hell it is).
Well I’m sorry, but I think “boo hoo hoo” DOES imply that you don’t like this discussion.
And I think you’re missing the point of it, too. Do you not think that it’s actually normal for a significant proportion of the American population to pronounce ‘-ing’ words without any emphasis on the final ‘g’, just as Renee did?
Like almost everyone else on here, I’d have credited her and not credited Rufus (who had absolutely no reason – accent or otherwise – to leave off that ‘d’ altogether).
I agree. Should have been done exactly the opposite. Nothing more I can add on that without repeating.
Although, on the subject of extremely poor judging, I’m kinda surprised no one has brought up the “Hairy/Harry” incident on Password Plus. That one probably takes the cake for me…along with the School Riot ep.
Swimmin is fine for swimming, just as the dictionary has the pronunciation of “ax” for “ask”; but no way does smoke get acceptance for smoked.
Neither is as bad as when Pat ruled a contestant wrong because he felt the guy from North Carolina said “the check is in the MILL” as opposed to MAIL.
Yeah, because it’s certainly plausible for a check to be in a mill, and likely that would be what the guy said.
“Ax” is most certainly NOT a good pronunciation for the word “ask.” That’s crazy!
The “ax” pronunciation for “ask” is accepted dialect according to Mirriam-Webster:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ask
As a former contestant on the show, the rules CLEARLY state, and it is drilled into you during practice, that if the puzzle is “Seven Swans a-Swimming” and you leave off the G, you are ruled wrong. The same rule, by the way, applies if you ADD a letter, such as if the puzzle is “Rollin’ on the River” and you say “Rolling on the river”, you are considered wrong.
So basically, the ‘g’ MUST be sounded, even if it is normal for the likes of Renee not to do so.
In that case, the judges WERE right not to credit her – and all those who would have done the opposite, myself included, are wrong.
Fair enough. ;)
However, the rules also clearly state that if you finish solving a puzzle, and then go back to pick up a word or something that you originally stated incorrectly, you are ruled incorrect. That happened not too long ago where the contestant finished the solve, went back and added the word they forgot, and they took it. Wrong in my book.
@Grumpel: Although you might not have noticed it, it is common in certain dialects, and among less educated people, to leave the -d off past participles, especially when they are used as adjectives.