Wheel of Fortune 2025-26 Season Discussion Thread

[PGS25]

"What Are You Doing" claims its first victim of the season.

[PatrickRox80]

TEXTING AND DRIVING?

That's worse than "Risky Business". Never thought Wheel would be encouraging something illegal.

[sayingsorry]

TEXTING AND DRIVING?

That's worse than "Risky Business". Never thought Wheel would be encouraging something illegal.

If you are a viewer in Montana it is not illegal at all, its America's game 

At the end of the show yesterday Ryan teased something big is going to happen on Tuesdays show

[Richie]

"What Are You Doing" claims its first victim of the season.

We had the Raw Deal list.   I had a feeling the WHAT ARE YOU DOING pick was going to be a disaster and it was.   

I was happy Rodney didn't call the G or I, BUT the M was a wasted letter pick.   They put multiple trap letters in the Bonus Puzzle, and Rodney took the bait on one of them.

[imhomerjay]

Okay, I don’t want to be a Negative Nancy, but can’t we just all agree that the staff of Wheel of Fortune should just stop introducing new categories?

Nope. It's injecting some long overdue variety to a show that has been historically wayyyyyy slow to move on.

I mean, sure they introduce some more variety to the show, but it’s just an sorry excuse to be hip and trendy with the viewers, and an attempt to bring in more viewers, which I do not appreciate.

Bring in new viewers....which is how the business works? That's their very job. And the last thing anyone would accuse Wheel of is being hip. Less stodgy is great, but that doesn't mean trendy.

Whereas Wheel would introduce a new category every few years, the staff is now introducing new categories in one season, which gets tiring if you get my gist. If you can, please handle my opinion on this, but I think Wheel should just chill on introducing new categories, because it gets tiring once in a while.

This is like one burst of several new items. Not like they have been introducing a dozen new categories every year for a dozen years. They don't have to live by some old rules in a world that changes rapidly.

[PGS25]

Finally! After an 11 year drought, someone finally won the $1,000,000. It was long hard struggle, but it finally happened.

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

Finally! After an 11 year drought, someone finally won the $1,000,000. It was long hard struggle, but it finally happened.

(Cue confetti and strobe lights)

[mechamind]

It's official. Ryan has now crowned his first $1,000,000 winner!

Also, the winning contestant Christina was a good puzzle solver, solving the Round 1 puzzle pretty early on. No surprise that she got the Bonus Round with a lot of space to fill in but those letters at the end of the puzzle PACK OF COYOTES. I got it with RSTLNE.

(I personally count Celebrity Wheel when taking $1M wins into account, but regardless, it's always impressive to see a 7-digit win on any show.)

[Richie]

Christina had a tough list for her Million Dollar Bonus round:  PHRASE/THING/LIVING THINGS.   I personally thought it was the Raw Deal list again.  Nope.

I was fine with LIVING THINGS as the choice but it wasn't promising at first with the original package.   Luckily the C and A helped her out.   I even solved it with her picks.

Christina, thank you for breaking the Million Dollar Curse that has happened for 11 years in the civilian version!   You deserved every penny of what you won.

[mechamind]

Eh, so we follow the biggest win ever with a much smaller win by today's standards. A Triple Toss-Up Triple Stumper on the puzzle COFFEE DATE certainly didn't help.

Still, a Ford Bronco Sport from the Bonus Round is at least something for contestant Andrea. Her youngest teenage daughter had already called dibs on the car before she spun the Bonus Wheel.

[chef855]

I was happy they at least acknowledged, on-air, the stray piece of confetti that managed to fall. Kinda shows that they tape back to back to back, but at least they didn't sweep it under the rug!

[mechamind]

That was a bit of a stretch. SWEATER WEATHER isn't quite a Rhyme Time answer.

And another memory of what The Office used to be like with the puzzle DESK DECORATING COMPETITION, though I never got involved in one.

And talk about Old School, as we got a three-liner in Round 4 again! This time, the puzzle LIBRARY CARD CATALOG could've easily fit in the middle rows, but even so, I'd like to see more of that.

And we're back to nights with decent main game totals but a tough bonus puzzle. Then again, the answer I HAVE A WACKY IDEA has enough C-D-M-A in it to possibly make it winnable.

[mechamind]

Last night was a much better game of Celebrity Wheel in terms of winnings. I also have a feeling that we could be getting back to the edgier puzzle writing from the first season, though still short of Harvey Feud standards.

We had a close call in the first Bonus Round with Joey McIntyre solving his puzzle with just a few seconds to spare for the $75,000. Retta had an even better second half and solved her puzzle instantly for the $100,000. Well, at least Oliver Hudson got to watch when he wasn't giving wrong letters.

Perhaps this is how we would've started if Ryan didn't have to worry about simply making his Celebrity debut in the previous show. Let's have another winning night next time!

[mechamind]

"Banana dress"? That guess on the $2,000 Toss-Up quickly brought to mind a classic moment: Pat announcing a "terrible tragedy" that a crazed gorilla entered the studio before it "peeled and ate Vanna White". That was one yellow dress Vanna was wearing that one night.

Actually, since this week is sweets themed, I'm feeling hungry for a banana split after that.

As for this game, contestant Wendell took all the money up to Round 2, but then contestant Rob came from behind thanks to the Express and a Triple Toss-Up sweep! Plus a little bit from the Speed-Up round. Too bad that contestant Emily only got to spin once and ended up calling a wrong letter, and she could've been the one to recover in the Speed-Up.

Oof in the Bonus Round. Rob got the first word to VISIONARY FILMMAKER with little help, but the second word stumped him even with the M's revealed.

[mechamind]

We got a bonus puzzle in which FUZZY wasn't as hard as usual this time. Paired with an easy second word in the puzzle FUZZY SLIPPERS, contestant Katie solved it with a little extra help from the Wild Card for a new Toyota.