Season 35- Entire Season Recap & Review/Final Thoughts?

Note: Moderators, if you feel like something needs to be added to this recap of Season 35, such as additional statistics, memorable moments, etc., please feel free to expand on this post.


Hi, everyone. This is acwof.


Now that Season 35 has come to a close, I thought it would be a great idea to do a recap of the entire season, relive some memorable moments, and even provide a few statistics regarding the season. So, without further ado, let’s begin!


Season 35 was a milestone season for Wheel of Fortune, because this season celebrated 35 years of Pat Sajak and Vanna White being the power couple for America’s Game. (Pat actually joined WOF in 1981, while Vanna joined in 1982, which is why we’re celebrating 35 years of them working TOGETHER on the show.)


Season 35 kicked off with Teacher’s Week, and we were introduced to some new gameplay elements/promotions:


• A new category was introduced, that category being What Are You Wearing? As the name of the category implies, puzzles in this category relate to what people wear, which can range from actual clothing such as BROWN CORDUROY, to jewelry such as FANCY GOLD WATCH, and even facial expressions such as MY BIGGEST BRIGHTEST SMILE.


• Trips to Cuba were offered this season.


• Instead of the 5K Everyday Spin I.D. Giveaway, a new promotion was introduced where if a contestant won the $10,000 Mystery Wedge during the Mystery Round, then a random Spin I.D. would be chosen, and whoever had the winning Spin I.D. would also win $10,000, as well.


• The biggest change in gameplay this season, of course, was the ability for the contestant who won the main game to choose his/her own category for the Bonus Round out of three pre-selected categories. (e.g., The categories are Person, Place, and Thing, and the contestant chooses Person as the category for the Bonus Round.)


And now, a few statistics, regarding the season:


Note: Some of these statistics courtesy of the following source:


andynwof.wordpress.com/author/andynwof/


• A grand total of $9,392,010 in cash and prizes was given away this season. This averages out to around $240,820 being given away each week, and around $48,164 being given away in each episode.


• Halloween Week gave away the most money this season, with a whopping $323,729 in cash and prizes, while America’s Game Week 2 gave away the least amount of money, only giving away $145,337 in cash and prizes.


• We had 16 Million Dollar Bonus Rounds this season, which averages to one Million Dollar Bonus Round every other week or two.


• The Red position came out on top this season with 74 wins in the main game, followed by Blue in second with 64 wins, and Yellow in third with only 57 wins.


• Thing was offered the most for a possible Bonus Round category, being offered a total of 97 times. Occupation was offered the least, only being offered a total of 8 times.


Like every other season of Wheel of Fortune, Season 35 had its good, bad, and really ugly moments.


Let’s start off with the good:


• Season 35 had a $100,000 win (03/21/2018). This was the only $100,000 win of the season, and the first $100,000 win since the 12/01/2016 episode back in Season 34. In addition, this was also the first $100,000 win with the new music package.


• We saw some epic last second Bonus Round solves (PIZZA PARLOR, MOVING BOXES, VIRAL VIDEO, etc.)


• For the first time Season 32, Wheel of Fortune went outside of its Culver City comfort zone, and taped some episodes ON LOCATION. To celebrate Season 35, Wheel of Fortune went to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and taped three weeks worth of episodes at Epcot. One week consisted of grandparent/grandchild teams, one week consisted of married couples, and the other week was just a regular, solo contestants week.


• We had a lot of representation from the BuyAVowel forum, this season, with some of our members becoming contestants this season.


The following members were contestants this season on Wheel of Fortune. Please note that this list is in no particular order.


anthonycw


puga203


spunkybrewster


ryancdn


behxtd


alideekb


stevenw


tonyscv


woffreak82


cptsparky


chrism


tvdave


LeafApollo


wofdreams21


bjphlt


horvatron


flystook72


angelane


BRMDW


area51john


iroc24


tenpoundhammer


andy


Note: For any Moderators reading this, if I forgot to add someone, please make sure they get added to the list!


If my math is correct, we had a total of 23 members become contestants this season!


We also had a special appearance by none other than Andy Nguyen, a fellow Wheel of Fortune recap guide!


Even though we had some great moments this season, we also had some bad moments:


• The Bonus Round was only won 65 times this season, compared to Season 34’s 74 Bonus Round wins. This averages out to the Bonus Round being won only 33% of the time this season.


• Two main game puzzles went unsolved this season (I LOVE YOU MAN & WKRP IN CINCINNATI). Coincidentally, both of these stumpers were Toss-Ups, and happened during Best Friends Week. (Though to be fair, one of the puzzles was during an America’s Game Week on the Best Friends set.)


• We were “skunked” a total of SEVEN times this season.


(Note: Skunked means we went the entire week without a Bonus Round win.)


We were skunked on the following weeks:


Salute to Texas


Great Outdoors


America’s Game Week 2 and Week 3


Disney Sea & Shore


Spa Getaway


Tennis Week


• We did not have a perfect Bonus Round week this season. We had a few 4-1 Bonus Round weeks, though, such as Hawaii Week.


(Note: A perfect Bonus Round week is where the Bonus Round was won all week.)


And, now, it’s time for the really ugly moments.


• This season, we had a total of ELEVEN Grand Prize losses. There were NINE $100,000 losses (09/21/2017, 11/07/2017, 11/10/2017, 01/01/2018, 01/05/2018, 03/16/2018, 03/26/2018, 05/24/2018, and 06/06/2018), and not one, but TWO $1,000,000 losses, (11/15/2017 and 12/21/2017), as well.


Coincidentally, one of the $100,000 losses and one of the $1,000,000 losses both had a puzzle that had some use of the word “kayak”.


• We had some really cringe-worthy missolves this season. (The FLAMINGO DANCE LESSONS catastrophe, the Macadamias Prize Puzzle Crossword fiasco, the “What Planet Are You From?” Crossword URANUS mishap, etc.)



• And let’s not forget some pretty impossible, yet infamous, Bonus Round puzzles. (OCEAN KAYAKING, WOKS AND PANS, KAYAKER, etc.)

 

Season 35 definitely went through a lot this season, with both good and bad moments, though mostly the latter. However, no matter how you look at it, at the end of the day, Season 35 of Wheel of Fortune was definitely a season to be remembered, for both good and bad reasons.


So, what did YOU think of Season 35? Was Season 35 the monumental, milestone of a season it was supposed to be? What were your favorite/least favorite moments from the season? Any other final thoughts about Season 35? And finally, what are your thoughts as we head into Season 36 in the fall?


If you’re going to give a review of Season 35, please be mindful of other people’s opinions, and keep any form of venting (such as profanity) to a minimum.

I, and hopefully the Moderators, will be reading these reviews, and will delete anything that goes against the rules on this forum.


With that being said, this is acwof signing off for Season 35! It’s been a privilege to recap this milestone of a season, and I hope to see you all back in the fall when I hopefully get to recap Season 36, as well!


Until then, I’ll catch ya on the flip side!


- acwof