Wheel of Fortune Live - 9/19/2022 show

I know i rarely post on here, outside of certain sections...but can't help but want to share my experience with the new live tour. (and yes, this might be my longest post IN this forum)

Keep in mind it was late at night when it was over, so some memory loss is bound to occur.

We got at the venue at around 4pm (Eastern), so to kill time, i pulled up one of the Hour Long Woolery eps i posted on YT earlier this year.  We WERE hit with a blow when we got there though, as we had an email saying part of the VIP experience (the lounge and photobooth) couldn't make it to where we were (thus, i'm jealous of MarioGS now).

We were let in at 5pm, and got registered just about as soon as we went in, including getting the VIP hat and bag and eventually met a fellow fan who started talking about the show and how he was "nerding out". We had a long conversation about Wheel (and other shows) while waiting, though we also eventually got colored paper wristbands to wear for the sake of one of the audience games)

The merch stand had little enamel pins (of the logo), shirts with different designs (including the puzzleboard saying "i'd like to buy a vowel", an umbrella with the previous (pre s39) wheel configuration (including Free Play), and a light up tumbler. I bought most of what i just listed there while waiting in the lobby.

when the main crowd came (those without VIP tickets), i noticed a guy who coulda passed as a look-alike of Kirk Fogg (of Legends Of The Hidden Temple fame) who sit near us in the audience. However, i decided against checking on that suspicion as i didn't want to be embarrassed if i was wrong.

Come time for the show: most of what MarioGS's illustration from the thread about the rules played as shown, but we had the Mystery wedge instead of Express in the last Championship round (one wedge, ala Filipino 2008, btw) as well as two trips (instead of just one) and 3 values of 4 digits (the standard for the live show 1500, a 2500, and a 3500). Scores did get big with some good letters called ON the 3500 wedge, btw, and thus we also had some painful Bankrupts.

Of note, compared to Mario's illustraion: no small-prize Gift Tags and the aformentioned Mystery wedge (placed on the purple 500 where the trip went in the first 3 games, as well as on IRL WOF in Culver City)

also, for layout nuts, the 2500 was on the space that once housed Free Spin in the last years of its life (after the single layout format became a thing) and 3500 on the green 500 that had the Wild Card and one of the Half car Tags before on the actual show)

Funny story about one of the puzzles, one Before and After puzzle was missolved by the player splitting the puzzle into its two halves, repeating the connecting word. Mark L Walberg then went on about how they couldn't let the solve count due to how the rules were about saying it as you saw it on the puzzleboard.  The strange thing is, he was technically correct outside that mistake, and yet the next player SPUN despite that being true (thankfully, no penalties were hit there)

Before i go much further, here's some pics (and some bad cellphone quality video) of me and my friend who bought the tickets

imgur.com/a/uyp5EI8
imgur.com/vRgQJ0H
imgur.com/b006fyj
imgur.com/HNSE6nD
imgur.com/SCprU8M
imgur.com/pseUkB9
(if i need to resize or anything, let me know or do so yourself)

and for the video of my VIP pre-show spin, it landed on the 10k Oreo wedge that acted like the real show's million while my travel partner's spin was the New York Trip that was won in the first of the sets of maingame rounds

another story about puzzles involve the host and a contestant named Emmy

Mark joked that it was the closest he's been to an Emmy (joking about a lack of Emmy awards in his career), then later on... a puzzle of "EMMY AWARD NOMINATIONS" showed up (funnily enough, no call back to the previous moment with contestant Emmy) and the two parts were with different contestant sets

As for the red/yellow/blue wristbands I mentioned before? Before the last segment of the show, with the Champion's game and the bonus round, Kalpana Pot (our puzzleboard lady for the night) chose 3 people from the audience (one Red, one Yellow, and one Blue)

Then, on the giant screen above the stage (where those in the balcony/the back of the auditorium audience could see the main gameplay) showed 12 number "wedges", labeled 1-12

each color had 4 wedges hidden, kinda like how some of the games in lottery-based game shows worked, and the first to have all 4 of their color won

the Red player got to go first, but picked a Blue wedge.. then control went to Blue

If you picked YOUR color, you kept your turn. Otherwise, the color revealed got to pick (in the case of the blue player's second pick, Red).

Red then finds the rest of the Red wedges, winning those with the Red wristband (myself included) with a small keychain with the wheel design on it

Other audience-participation games basically was trivia about the show, including knowing who Maggie Sajak was, the original name of the show (Shopper's Bazaar), how many unique dresses Vanna's wore, and how much the syndicated WOF has given away in its lifetime.  The prizes there were just tshirts (one of the ones from the Merch stand i mentioned earlier, with the Live logo)

going back to puzzles, i did get one without ANY letters showing and others early on

and now, partially revealed puzzles that i can remember off the top of my head (including some i mentioned or hinted to before)

the last one in that bunch was the Bonus Round puzzle, which didn't get solved for $1750

speaking of cash prizes, those who made it to the main gameplay won $100 and the winner of those 3 main games got bumped up to $250, with the Champions Game winner getting another $250 (thus $500 total going to the Bonus Round)

and the Trips WERE awarded just like the tv show, with no extra hoops (unlike Mario's thread about the live show's rules)

if i remember anything else, i'll add to the thread, but i hope you enjoy all this rambling about my time seeing the show

also, if staff can help with image embedding, that'd help