Wheel of Fortune fans think that the contestants on the show have changed since Ryan Seacrest became the host of the game show. Seacrest took over for Pat Sajak in October 2024 when the longtime host retired after 42 seasons. Some Reddit users believe that the people appearing on Wheel are personality hires and don’t actually know how to play the game.
“Don’t know how to play?” a Reddit user posted. “I’m noticing an increase in the number of contestants who seemingly don’t know how to solve, especially after the Final Spin.” For the final spin, each contestant has to guess one letter, whether it is a vowel or consonant. If they can’t guess the puzzle after the letters are on the board, the turn moves to the next player. However, recently, contestants have been continuing to guess a letter after they already called one for the final puzzle.
“I really and truly need to understand why this is happening so much this season. Production needs to step in. It’s ridiculous,” a fan commented.
One fan believes the change happened when Jackie Lamatis left the show as a producer. “She was the one who really ran a tight ship and made sure contestants knew what they were doing,” they said. “I also feel like the contestant recruiters are focused more on personality than puzzle-solving skills; I’ve been hearing that they’re not even doing the traditional five-minute written test with 16 partially-complete puzzles anymore.”
“I said this on another post, but I have noticed an increase in contestants I’d call characters. It seems like being a fan of the show and wanting to play is not enough to get on the show anymore. You have to be quirky, or over the top, or unique in some way. It seems that production is putting having characters on the show over people who know how to play, and it’s frustrating for people who watch every night. I think it’s an attempt to get a younger crowd interested in a show that’s been on for 40 years,” commented another fan.
“They are picking contestants that will make for quick and viral-worthy videos for social media,” another said.
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