This Show Just Hit a 3-Year Viewership High
Movieguide® Contributor
Though Wheel Of Fortune recently lost its mainstay host Pat Sajak, the show’s numbers are still high and thriving.
“Season 42 of the iconic game show, now hosted by [Ryan] Seacrest and franchise vet Vanna White, averaged 7.99 million total viewers from Sept. 9 to Oct. 6, marking WHEEL’s biggest premiere month audience in three years,” tvLine tvline.com/ratings/wheel-of-fortune-most-watched-tv-entertainment-show-ryan-seacrest-1235355707/">reported Oct. 22. “Year-over-year, that audience of nearly 8 million marked a 12% increase; in the 25-54 demo, Wheel Of Fortune is up +3%.”
WHEEL OF FORTUNE averaged 8.31 million viewers in its first week of shows, “a 21 percent gain over premiere week in September 2023…
READ MORE: WHEEL OF FORTUNE CELEBRATES HIGHEST RATINGS SINCE 2015
The show was the most-watched series across broadcast, syndication and cable in the month of September.
“Seacrest’s very first episode as full-time host, which aired on Sept. 9, drew north of 9.6 million viewers — surging 70% from last fall’s premiere to mark Wheel Of Fortune’s most-watched season opener in nine years,” tvLine said. “Seacrest’s first week as host averaged 8.31 million total viewers, up 21% year over year to deliver the game show’s largest premiere week audience in five years.”
The Season 42 premiere had a household tv/news/wheel-of-fortune-no-1-ryan-seacrest-1236187166/">rating of 4.62 in overnight markets, which is nearly twice the ratings of Season 41’s premiere.
Season 42 is available on ABC at 6:30 p.m. CT every weekday until its final episode airs on Nov. 1.
Sajak will still return to host CELEBRITY Wheel Of Fortune but not on the original schedule. Thanks to ABC’s introduction of six MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL simulcasts, the show was shoved from its Oct. 14 release date to an unspecified date in 2025.
“This move will give the ABC game shows CELEBRITY Wheel Of Fortune and PRESS YOUR LUCK a more consistent, weekly run in midseason when there are less preemptions (i.e. football, 2024 election),” said ABC in a statement.
“ABC is a destination for marquee NFL programming including, as part of our new deal, SUPER BOWL 61 (February 2027), the first of two,” read the statement. “The decision to add more simulcast games was made in conjunction with the NFL, and is just for the 2024-25 season. This schedule leans into the cross-promotional opportunities maximizing the reach of NFL programming across the Disney ecosystem.”
Ellie Kemper, Tiffany Haddish, Oscar Nunez and Andrew Rannells are a few of the celebrities slated to appear on the show next year.
- Content: +2Share:
- Content: +1