Wheel channel coming to Pluto in August

they might just be embarrassed of the shopping era these days

^ Perhaps, but it doesn't mean the show should keep it buried. People actually want to see the shopping era because of the "so bad, it's good" factor of it in retrospect. Even the journalist of the original Vulture article makes a comment about it. Yeah, it was cheesy. So were a lot of the prizes and pricing games we see on TPIR Barker Era.

Even so, the shopping era was far from the majority of the show's run in syndication. There's no reason Pluto can't start at the all-cash debut or shortly afterwards. Avoiding showcasing the shopping era shouldn't mean jumping all the way to 2017. It's going to look embarrassing for Wheel if they're strictly modern era while J! is all eras, and nobody's going to watch the Wheel channel for more than an hour if that's the case, and never tune back to it again unless they know a friend's episode is coming on. The two channels don't have to be running the same eras at the same time, but Wheel should at least do some sort of special occasion marathons consisting of vintage episodes fitting a certain theme, like TPIR does.

The collection is up On Demand... and I'm pretty sure all of these were already part of a streaming collection, one way or another.

EDIT: On a second look, I think there's more than that here. Just a quick list:

For Season 34:

• Teachers' Week
• Shopping Spree
• Pacific Northwest
• Veterans' Week
• Home for the Holidays
• America's Game II
• Weekend Getaway
• California Coast
• Leave Winter Behind
• Big Money
• GAC San Diego - only Monday and Tuesday
• Teen Best Friends
• Hawaii
• GAC Chicago - only Monday
• GAC Boston

For Season 35:

• Teachers' Week
• Bed & Breakfast
• Fall Foliage
• Halloween
• Veterans' Week
• Hawaii
• Wheel Around the World
• Great American Cities
• Delicious Destinations
• America's Game III - only Monday
• California Coast
• Best Friends - only Monday and Tuesday
• Spa Getaway
• Shopping Spree
• Get Out of Town
• America's Game V

For Season 36:

• Teachers' Week
• Shopping Spree
• Spa Getaway - only Monday
• Great Outdoors - only Wednesday and Friday
• Veterans' Week - only Wednesday
• America's Game I
• GAC D.C. - only Thursday and Friday
• America's Game II
• Leave Winter Behind
• Sweethearts' Week
• Girlfriend Getaway
• Delicious Destinations
• Wheel Around the World
• Island Hopping
• Big Money
• R&R

For Season 37:

• Teachers' Week
• Spa Getaway
  
• Let's Eat - only Tuesday
• Great Northwest
• Bed & Breakfast
• Veterans' Week - only Monday
• America's Game II - only Tuesday
• Rail Tour
• GAC South Florida - only Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
• America's Game III
• College Week - all but Tuesday
• Surfin' Safari

All in all, 250 episodes. I was expecting only modern stuff, but I was kind of thinking it would be only stuff from Netflix, and maybe another batch. This is more than that (although the Netflix stuff, including the messed-up Crossword, the omitted R3, skipping Christian's episode, etc., still persists, as it's part of the collection).

So years-wise, the episodes range from 2016 through 2020, the year that saw the arrival of a virus that I should NOT mention at all on a thread that should be about game shows (or maybe it's just me trying to err on the side of caution as far as that goes).

^ The demand is there. Sony just refuses to cater on the Wheel side, and they won't tell us why. Music can't be that big an issue since the 2016 episodes are undubbed, which should allow them to go as far back as Season 25 at the very least.

the live channels are up

Jeopardy started with the 2012-13 (s29) TOC, while wheel goes to Same Big Money Week from 2017

Pluto has confirmed exactly what I've been fearing. Jeopardy! will have all the vintage episodes (though apparently nothing after Season 33, like now), while Wheel will only have episodes from "within the past five years". More episodes from these ranges will be added in a year.

www.vulture.com/2022/08/pluto-tv-streaming-jeopardy-wheel-of-fortune-24-7.html


In other words, Wheel is buried once again. Why is it so hard these days for Jeopardy! and Wheel to be treated equally? Wheel's oldest season will always be the same as Jeopardy!'s newest season.

maybe WOF doesn't want the general public to realize "hey, this show's now a shell of its former self"

You'd think they'd correct the omissions and mistakes that were in the Netflix package, but nope. (On the plus side, that does mean Pluto has the 1984 Jeopardy! pilot available.)

Aside from the above, the whole "produced in the past five years only" thing feels silly and arbitrary, not to mention being a stark contrast to the Jeopardy! and Barker-era Price Is Right channels. Yeah, I know it's Sony's property and their choice on what to make available, but good lord does it feel like a lousy one.

For those who like the selection, cool, enjoy it. For me, though, it's a hard pass.