The biggest change for this season along w/ Ballamie Blackstone taking reign as the new EP is the introduction of a new puzzleboard. The little LCD monitors for each individual letter space have been replaced w/ one whole laser-powered LED screen, meaning animation displays are now possible.
And for the second season in a row, the graphics & animations package has received an overhaul — There’s a new Toss-Up wipe with multi-colored spokes and a black base, the closed-captioned letter circle that appears at the lower-left corner of the screen that lets you know what letter has been selected has gotten a makeover with two-tone shading, “NO MORE VOWELS” is updated for the first time since S24, new look for the contestant name and score graphic boxes that appear above the puzzleboard at the beginning of Rounds 3 and up with an outline matching the contestant’s color surrounding a black base, the LED scoreboard coloring and saturation has been enhanced, the category strip coloring has been changed slighty for the main rounds and the BR has an entirely new graphic interface.
Slight modifications were made to the music package, namely the toss-up cue
For the first time since S31, Teacher’s Week does not serve as the premiere week.
Opening week for this potentially historic milestone season: ✨Wheel of Fortune XL✨
For this week only, the MDW is placed on $500 near $600 with the full wedge side up, similar to Celebrity WoF (though the shot of the wheel showed it on $500). If a player takes a MDW to the BR, there will actually be TWO million dollar envelopes available. The prize wedge is placed on that $500 space. And at the start of R2, another MDW on the wheel is placed on the other former 1/2 CAR location ($500 near $900). Also, the MW next to LaT moves to the normal prize wedge spot ($500 near $800) for this week only. Not only that, but there’s also an XL wedge placed on $850. If the player who claims it takes it to the BR and solves the BR puzzle, they win an additional $40K in addition to whatever they won from the envelope, meaning someone could cross the $100K mark the hard way even without the grand prize envelope for the first time since April 8, 2020 when Dave (a.k.a. the Wheel of Fortune James Holhauzer) dominate the maingame big time.
A $5K cash bonus alongside the PP trip is also being put in for this week.
First trio left to right celebrating FORTY SEASONS ON TELEVISION
–Adriana Beals, a married lady to Justin of six years with three children from Menifee, CA
–Robin Cayetano, a woman who doesn’t like to fly but would go anywhere to go on vacation married to Bernie for almost 20 yrs. with two kids from Culver City, CA
–Rasheen Donaldson, a lawyer married to Amanda for five years with a 20-month-old daughter named Emery and loves quotations from Commack, NY
Final Scores: Adriana: $24,610 cash & Croatia/Robin: $16,650 cash & Bahamas/Rasheim: $2K
GT: $41,610
NO BANKRUPT TRASH!
Scary moments
-The first toss-up was ALMOST an INSTANT TRIPLE STUMPER as Rasheim thought there were such a thing as “FUNNY SEASONS ON TELEVISION!” (No way, man.. -__-) not knowing that this show’s celebrating “FORTY SEASONS ON TELEVISION!“
-We got two $0 puzzle wins including the Prize Puzzle. The first was due to an untimely LaT for Adriana to let go of $2,150 cash & Peter Thomas Roth and then Robin neglecting to go for the pair of B’s and instead going straight to solving for the house minimum, and then second…
I _ _ E N S E / P O D
O F / _ _ A L E S
Adriana calls C for CRITICAL DUD to throw away $3,500 + Bahamas trip + another $5K cash courtesy of XL.
-We also had a cut NULL CYCLE in R2.
First choices of the 40th season: THING/PHRASE/AtH
First whip from the XL: BMW X3
$100K Bonus Round: Adriana finds the $45K (so that amount wasn’t retired after all…) HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT which keeps the winning streak for season premieres dating back to S36 as well as the Monday winning streak (now at three) alive!
Adriana’s Final Total: $69,610 cash & Croatia
New GT: $86,610
ant0824’s Rating: 8
Adam’s Rating: 7
Skipps’ Rating: 7 (C-) (front game could’ve been better minus the R1 PR)
My Rating: 6 (D+)
GAME SHOW QUICKIES — Your Game Show Hub For The TL;DR! 
Another successful season premiere episode! However, I would say that this was a bit of a step down from previous season premieres for the following reasons:
– Adriana initially saying GREAT for the top word in Round 1 which scared me at first
– Robin solving for just the house minimum in the Mystery Round instead of going for at least the 2 B’s, and
– Adriana calling C for CRITICAL DUD to in the XL PP/Express Round
I wasn’t sure that Adriana would get the BR puzzle from her letter picks, but those G’s were all she needed for the $45K. So that prize isn’t retired this season after all. Hopefully that means that the minimum will stay at $40K in Season 41 and beyond.
My Rating: 7 (C+) (orig. an 8)
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