Help with WWTBAM history

[Vandal]

I’m trying to recall what I refer to as “the fourth lifeline” during the early year of WWTBAM. Supposedly, some dude kept a spreadsheet of all the questions and noticed that the correct answer was never (or rarely) the same letter,A, B, C, D, for consecutive questions. If played correctly, a player could use this knowledge as a fourth lifeline.

Is this true, did imagine it or is this a case of the Mandela Effect?

[littlebeast13]

I do remember something like that, but not the particulars...

I made the observation during my days playing MBFFB with the SyndieBAM questions (which was, gasp, 20 years ago now!) that it seemed like for questions where it was asking for a number or amount, the answer was always one of the middle amounts on the primetime show, and was always one of the extremes in SyndieBAM.

For instance: What number am I thinking of right now?

A. 7
B. 9
C. 11
D. 13

If Regis was sitting across from you, the answer was almost certainly either B or C. If Meredith was sitting across from you, the answer was almost certainly A or D.

And that went by the numbers, not necessarily the letters if they mixed the numbers up...

lb13

[triviawayne]

I noticed for many years on the syndicated one, the number choices would always increase from A to D, the answer would always be either B or C; and while I don't know at what point 50/50 was no longer random, but when it was not random, using it on a number question would always leave B and C.

[triviawayne]

There was also what I would call the "3 and 1" question, which I failed to recognize in my game.

If you spill stuffed pasta on your sleeves while dining in Italy, it would be correct to say that you just spilled what?
A. Farfalle on your farfalle
B. Orecchiette on your orecchiette
C. Capellini on your capellini
D. Manicotti on your manicotti

only one of the three could be stuffed; this was a style of question used often, and a tactic I employ at my trivia nights.

[mrkelley23]

I’m trying to recall what I refer to as “the fourth lifeline” during the early year of WWTBAM. Supposedly, some dude kept a spreadsheet of all the questions and noticed that the correct answer was never (or rarely) the same letter,A, B, C, D, for consecutive questions. If played correctly, a player could use this knowledge as a fourth lifeline.

Is this true, did imagine it or is this a case of the Mandela Effect?

I'm not saying it isn't true, but if it is, I think it would be a violation of the Game Show Standards and Practices -- the same reason that Jeopardy categories are randomized, so very few people (when I was on, it was only Trebek and the exec producer, and maybe the head writer) who knoew which categories would be shown on which day.

The choices should be randomized, so this phenomenon should not happen.

[triviawayne]

I’m trying to recall what I refer to as “the fourth lifeline” during the early year of WWTBAM. Supposedly, some dude kept a spreadsheet of all the questions and noticed that the correct answer was never (or rarely) the same letter,A, B, C, D, for consecutive questions. If played correctly, a player could use this knowledge as a fourth lifeline.

Is this true, did imagine it or is this a case of the Mandela Effect?

I'm not saying it isn't true, but if it is, I think it would be a violation of the Game Show Standards and Practices -- the same reason that Jeopardy categories are randomized, so very few people (when I was on, it was only Trebek and the exec producer, and maybe the head writer) who knoew which categories would be shown on which day.

The choices should be randomized, so this phenomenon should not happen.

How would that be a violation? It is still the creation of a portion of an overall question. Just because someone noticed a pattern, doesn't mean it is not allowed (see PYL Michael Larson). As you can see from what I wrote, there was a clear choice by writers to make number questions increase in value with B or C always being the answer, and B&C left after a 50/50 is called.

50/50 started as random, then it wasn't because it became a pre-written part of the question, in which answers are sometimes placed in a particular order for a psychological effect.

[triviawayne]

I’m trying to recall what I refer to as “the fourth lifeline” during the early year of WWTBAM. Supposedly, some dude kept a spreadsheet of all the questions and noticed that the correct answer was never (or rarely) the same letter,A, B, C, D, for consecutive questions. If played correctly, a player could use this knowledge as a fourth lifeline.

Is this true, did imagine it or is this a case of the Mandela Effect?

I'm not saying it isn't true, but if it is, I think it would be a violation of the Game Show Standards and Practices -- the same reason that Jeopardy categories are randomized, so very few people (when I was on, it was only Trebek and the exec producer, and maybe the head writer) who knoew which categories would be shown on which day.

The choices should be randomized, so this phenomenon should not happen.

How would that be a violation? It is still the creation of a portion of an overall question. Just because someone noticed a pattern, doesn't mean it is not allowed (see PYL Michael Larson). As you can see from what I wrote, there was a clear choice by writers to make number questions increase in value with B or C always being the answer, and B&C left after a 50/50 is called.

50/50 started as random, then it wasn't because it became a pre-written part of the question, in which answers are sometimes placed in a particular order for a psychological effect.

Also, look at the Regis days when D was often a joke answer, nothing random about it being there.

[mikehardware]

Yeah…. That was me. And I caught some grief over reporting it to TPTB.

Back around the 2005-2006? syndicated season. I had the spreadsheets and checked the 50-50 to see if it was random. It wasn’t, due to an answer pattern problem. (If I remember correctly, the answers were OK for the shows taped at Disney World for one week, but applied for the other shows from NYC.)

The answer patterns were all groupings of ABCD (so BDAC, DCBA, etc.) AND answers never repeated, (so you could not get ABCD followed by DCBA, for example).

Since the $100 question always had D as a joke answer, and the previous answer not being the answer to the current question, instead of playing with four choices - if anyone had picked up on this, they would be playing with only three. That is a significant shift in the odds. You could always eliminate one answer. But it gets even better (or worse depending on your point of view).

Then because it always used all four letters in a grouping before going to the next grouping, This would give you, even randomly guessing, 3 choices for the first, 3 for the second, 2 for the third, and only 1 for the fourth. I could freak out my wife when watching the show, by telling her the answer to the fourth questions - even before they showed the question.

The effect on the 50-50? If the answer to the last question was left - then it was 100-0 that the correct answer was the other letter.

I emailed TPTB my analysis. Never heard anything back from them. But the answer pattern problem was corrected the next season on the first episode. Answers could repeat after that, and eventually the 50-50 went away too.