Season 42 Hopes/Predictions

^ Yes. I thought they should have done some road shows for Pat's last season. New York would be nice for a road show! And yes, how about a tournament! As you know, Pat was opposed to tournaments, so with a new host, there could be some more tournaments. I think maybe we should bring back Friday finals every week!

They definitely need to bring back a way for contestants to retain their turn if they make a mistake. A “Free Spin” type token that doesn’t necessarily need to be named as such. Since the show began in ‘75, there has always been something like this in place in one form or another, and it’s absence is mind boggling in my opinion.

I'd love for road shows to return also (especially NYC!) and to bring back free spins/free plays in some way too. One thought I had was that they could give a Free Play to the winners of the opening Toss-Ups, which can be used at any point during the game.

I could also see them eliminating the $1,000 Toss-Up and start with the $2,000 Toss-Up to decide who begins round 1. Perhaps start with 1 $2,000 Toss-Up at the open, and then do a Double Toss-Up before round 1 for $2,000 each. Also, make $2,000 the house minimum.

I'm sure many of us have been wanting $4000 as top value in Round 3 for a while now. I love the concept of the top value going up every round, at least up to Round 4. The idea of bringing up the first Toss-Up to $2000 is not bad either, but if that were to happen, I don't think it would hurt to bring the second Toss-Up to $2500 or $3000, but definitely keep the Triple Toss-Ups untouched for now.

I would also bring up some of the $500 spaces up for sure. The purple $500 that housed the Gift Tag could be brought up to $950. I was also thinking about bringing up the $650 next to it up to $850, but one of the green $500 spaces, specifically the one next to the blue $550, could be brought up to $800. The green $500 next to the pink $650 could be brought back up to $700 or maybe even higher to $750. Ultimately, there's really no reason for the Wheel to not have every three-digit multiple of $50 from $500 upwards at this point.

And although I love the Express, I always felt it should've replaced the Mystery and not the Jackpot. There are too many similarities between the Mystery and the Express, but I doubt it's return, at least anytime soon. Now if the Jackpot isn't brought back for next season, I'd move the Mystery to Round 1 and the Express to Round 2. I like how each Round had its own gimmick in Season 30 (Jackpot in Round 1, Mystery in Round 2, and Prize Puzzle in Round 3).

And a while back, a friend pointed out to me that Round 4 could have more four-digit dollar values. Initially, in addition to $5000, I thought about having $1500, $2000, and even $1250, but then for some reason, my mind just went all-in and decided upon also having $1000, $2500, $3500, and $4000 added to the mix. That way, it would potentially be easier for someone to overcome a huge lead. The fact that the contestant in control now determines the value combined with the $1000 rule helps this cause.

Another thing, add some flair to the Puzzle Board's border. Ever since Season 21 (barring Vegas episodes), the Puzzle Board has just seemed bare, even with a few shapes here and there behind it.

I also would like for vehicle rugs sporting Wheel layouts to come back. I remember we had that earlier in Season 41, albeit for just one week.

And then for $100,000 and Million-Dollar wins in the Bonus Round, give the on-screen graphics some pizazz. I know it has happened, but it's rare.

Yeah, that's right. I admit I was a little too focused on the civilian version. That said, however, if they can do that on the Celebrity version, they can definitely do that for the civilian version as well. If they use the same borders used on the Celebrity version albeit in a different color or maybe even a color scheme, that will at least be a step in an ideal direction.

$750 was used on the show on the show. It was originally used in Round 2 when it first in 1975 then it disappeared in July of that year, but it came back in 1979 (the year I was born) as the top dollar value in Round 1. $750 was used on the show until 1996. And $1,000 was retired from the show at the start for the 18th nighttime season, but it came back in Season 22. And spinthewheel123 is right, they should bring back $750, $1,500, and $2,000; they should also bring back $1,250 from the Bob Goen.

But my hopes for when Ryan Seacrest starts hosting next season are 2 things I'd like for Wheel to bring back:

1. Bring back the lights dimming in the bonus round.

2. Have the graphics of post-bonus round totals flashing on the screen again, but only when there's a bonus round win; if the bonus round is lost, then the graphics will just be a still image. (I wonder why Wheel stopped having the post-bonus round totals flashing?)

I would absolutely prefer to have the bonus round win graphics be color coded by amount, $40,000 wins would be colored pink, $50,000 wins would be colored yellow, $75,000 wins would be colored cyan, and $100,000 or $1,000,000 wins would be colored gold with a green border. I also want the prize value and post-bonus round total graphics to be in silver with a green border.

I would also prefer for Neutraface to be used for category strips, RSTLNE and contestants' letter combos in the bonus round, the maingame scoreboard displays, letter bubbles that are shown on the bottom left of the screen, the contestants' totals shown on top of the screen, the Express graphic showing the current total for the contestant riding aboard said wedge and the closing credits as well as the aforementioned prize value, bonus round win and post-bonus round total graphics.

Don't worry, though; the puzzle board itself should remain in Helvetica Black Condensed as it always has been since 1997.

Removed unnecessary markup. It doesn't display properly on mobile devices and overall makes your post much harder to read.

Definitely want to see more HDV's in later rounds like the old days. Season 16 onward when we went "Layout B Forever", there's been a lot of gimmicky wedges that come and go, and while increasing just the TDV increases average DV, it doesn't do much for median DV, which makes the game progression much less interesting than it used to be. Aside from specials, spins on R4 are not that much different than spins on R1. Add a $1000 in R2, a $1500 in R3, and then $1250 and $2000 in R4, each replacing one of the lower DV's. It would be even better if the whole layout can be swapped at least once, but I seriously doubt we'd see that due to stopdown time concerns and having to swap add-ons and get them repositioned right and I get that. Maybe we can swap half a layout and thus bring back an updated Layout C?

I'd like to see fewer tossups. Good puzzle writing is at a premium as someone else pointed out, and it's not really efficient use of that resource to have half your puzzles thought about for less than 30 seconds apiece. With fewer tossups, each one can be made more valuable. Let's just do two tossups, a $3k between R1 and R2, and a $5k between R3 and R4.

Also, my wife is light-sensitive, so if we can keep the sparkles and flashes in the FX to a minimum and convey excitement in other visual ways, that would be great.

^ Yeah, but I don't see a new music package coming. I actually liked both the 2006-16 music package and the 2017-21 music package. And I thought the 2017 cues would last longer than they did. I could see a new Final Spin and Express cue though possibly.
Also for Wheel layouts, I really think Wheel should've kept the minimum at $300 back in Season 32, even with inflation. Jeopardy! still has $200 and $400 clues! The S30 and S31 layouts were my favorite.