The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: opimus on June 21, 2007, 11:23:00 AM
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What happens in a situation like that?
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Game show contestants, as I understand, always have the option to refuse any prizes they have won, and not just for tax reasons.
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I believe there was an 80s Pyramid contestant who won a trip to Alaska, their home state. IIRC, the show offered the contestant another vacation spot.
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[quote name=\'opimus\' post=\'155743\' date=\'Jun 21 2007, 11:23 AM\']
What happens in a situation like that?
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It varies from show to show. I can remember an instance on TPIR where a contestant from Wash. DC played for a trip there and Bob played it up for laughs, but made it pretty clear that she was stuck with it. I can also remember an episode of "Sale of the Century" with a contestant from Nevada being offered an Instant Bargain for a trip to Vegas. Jim, chuckling, asked him how far a drive Vegas was and the contestant answered, "Ten minutes." A voice offstage shouted "Palm Springs!" and Jim turns around and says "Palm Springs! We'll offer you a trip to Palm Springs instead, would you like that?" and the contestant took it.
(And yet I can't remember where I put my keys...)
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Would they at least fly you back for nothing after the show ends?
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I could swear that, somewhere in the murky past of ATGS, it was also mentioned that one could often arrange to begin a trip from near one's hometown (rather than Los Angeles) as long as the airfare was cheaper.
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[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' post=\'155782\' date=\'Jun 21 2007, 02:32 PM\']
I could swear that, somewhere in the murky past of ATGS, it was also mentioned that one could often arrange to begin a trip from near one's hometown (rather than Los Angeles) as long as the airfare was cheaper.
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I would imagine the folks who furnish the prize would be pleased to let you pay the difference, too.
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My week on wheel featured someone that lived five blocks from the studio win a trip to San Diego - she was able to pass up the airfare and just drive, because it was cheaper.
Ryan.
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Similarly, what you win on Price is what you have to either accept or decline, but the airfare and hotel stay are considered two separate prizes, so if you win a trip to your hometown, you can forfeit the airfare and just take the hotel stay, if you so choose.
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Scott Robinson
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This is why I don't generally like shows where they mostly give away prizes instead of cash. Knowing that the contestants are going to have to make complicated decisions about whether they can accept the prizes makes it hard for me to enjoy the show.
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[quote name=\'fishbulb\' post=\'155972\' date=\'Jun 25 2007, 12:58 AM\']
This is why I don't generally like shows where they mostly give away prizes instead of cash. Knowing that the contestants are going to have to make complicated decisions about whether they can accept the prizes makes it hard for me to enjoy the show.
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I can enjoy the show because it's not me who has the pay the taxes and if it's a program with a healthy play-along factor, that adds to my enjoyment.
As a contestant, though, yes, I'd prefer the shows where cash is the major or exclusive prize.
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[quote name=\'fishbulb\' post=\'155972\' date=\'Jun 24 2007, 09:58 PM\']
Knowing that the contestants are going to have to make complicated decisions about whether they can accept the prizes makes it hard for me to enjoy the show.
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Ya know, I just have a really hard time buying whether accepting a prize, and therefore the tax burden, but ONLY the tax burden, and turning it down and being absolutely no worse off than when you arrived at the studio that morning, is a terribly complicated decision. It sure as HELL isn't one that I would feel sympathy for the contestant having to make.
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This reminds me of something that confuses me when it really shouldn't. On Wheel, during shopping, let's say you finish with a total of $4,000, and you bought $3,900 in prizes.
Do you get a total of $7,900 (cash and prizes), or just $3,900 in prizes plus the $100 gift certificate?
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[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'155998\' date=\'Jun 25 2007, 12:04 PM\']
This reminds me of something that confuses me when it really shouldn't. On Wheel, during shopping, let's say you finish with a total of $4,000, and you bought $3,900 in prizes.
Do you get a total of $7,900 (cash and prizes), or just $3,900 in prizes plus the $100 gift certificate?
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Just the prizes and GC. There was NO cash on Wheel (none, nada, zero) until they went to the all-cash format. (In the front game, anyhow; I don't remember if the $25K in the bonus round appeared before or after the all-cash change.) The money you won during the puzzle was immediately converted to prizes during the shopping. Simple.
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'156000\' date=\'Jun 25 2007, 03:07 PM\']
Just the prizes and GC. There was NO cash on Wheel (none, nada, zero) until they went to the all-cash format. (In the front game, anyhow; I don't remember if the $25K in the bonus round appeared before or after the all-cash change.) The money you won during the puzzle was immediately converted to prizes during the shopping. Simple.
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Got it...thanks!
And now it makes more sense why contestants supposedly clamored for a change in format. But then again, you choose to go on a show where you win all prizes, that's your fault when you get into a tax pinch.
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'156000\' date=\'Jun 25 2007, 03:07 PM\']
Just the prizes and GC. There was NO cash on Wheel (none, nada, zero) until they went to the all-cash format. (In the front game, anyhow; I don't remember if the $25K in the bonus round appeared before or after the all-cash change.) The money you won during the puzzle was immediately converted to prizes during the shopping. Simple.
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The 25K wasn't there until the "Month Long Big Bonanza of Cash " made it's debut...leading to a permanent change to all-cash-all-the-time on the nighttime version.
However, on the daytime end, the "Jackpot" space was worth $1000/a day increasing until it was won, so there was a little cash on the side of the shopping.
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[quote name=\'tvwxman\' post=\'156009\' date=\'Jun 25 2007, 03:45 PM\']
However, on the daytime end, the "Jackpot" space was worth $1000/a day increasing until it was won[/quote]
To which Pat Sajak would occasionally remark, "...building toward a theoretically possible billion dollar cash jackpot".
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Don't forget that the shopping was never Merv's idea--it was Lin Bolen's. I would suspect that "If It Ain't Broke..." was the only thing that kept him from switching to cash sooner (and they never switched on daytime until the move to CBS).