And tonight was "Wheel"'s premature season finale, ending with the week without an audience (obvious when the winning contestant's family got their usual top-of-the-bonus-road showing standing in front of a flat instead of sitting in the audience. And officially this was Harry Friedman's last day as showrunner of both shows, as he hands the keys over to Mike Richards:
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/jeopardy-wheel-of-fortune-executive-producer-harry-friedman-exits-sony-pictures-television-1234595091/ Besides how to get back in production and respect the pandemic, Richards is inheriting from Friedman Alex Trebek's health problems and the possible imminent retirement of "Wheel"'s hosts (made clear by Pat Sajak's time in the hospital this season), meaning he's probably going to have to make complete host changes within the next few years. (And Johnny Gilbert is 95--they may have to have him pre-record and have someone else do the warmup.) In addition, there are many who feel that "Wheel" needs more than just a few format tweaks to bring the ratings back up (less of a problem with "Jeopardy!", especially when they have a charismatic and dominant champion). The question is if Richards can make them without pissing off the loyal, if aged, "Wheel" audience. Mark Jeffries Saints Spotlight Editor [email protected] On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 10:02 PM Jim Ellwanger <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Apr 21, 2020, at 3:03 PM, Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > My (slightly related) question: have the fine folks at Sony Pictures > hinted at what they'll do once they run out of new episodes? From a brief > perusal of the Web, it sounds like they're good through the end of May. > > This rerun of the GOAT tournament is being plugged into a slot that was > originally set for the annual Teachers’ Tournament, which is apparently now > going to run in the two weeks starting on Memorial Day. > > So now, unless they change the schedule, the end of new shows for the > season will be a week with regular contestants that was taped without a > studio audience, airing June 8-12. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/08062A97-8067-4226-B448-6612E4E45993%40ellwanger.tv > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJ_uKi8-gygtU98SY%2BdyksfGsD%3D2WfQE25cY0HD%2BBG-nBQ265Q%40mail.gmail.com.
