May 8, 2023 recap (for Christian)

Christian did good. Since it has been over 12 years since Caitlin was on, here are some of the changes that have happened between Seasons 28 and 40.
Jackpot and Free Play retired.
Express introduced.
$500 per consonant for tokens.
$500 now the minimum on the Wheel
Crossword introduced.
Triple-Toss-Up introduced.

Another thought that just crossed my mind, Caitlin is the only contestant this week whose original appearance didn’t have Jim Thornton as announcer.

I am stoked to see what this week brings. 🤩

Christian, you killed it once again. Things started off modestly, but I figured you’d give this episode a boost with your puzzle-solving skills. I hope you enjoy your latest winnings! 👏🏾

As for Caitlin and Blair, while I was hoping Caitlin would solve some more puzzles (fast), Blair finished strong and brought even more laughs than he did in 2017.

Aside from the first and last Toss-Ups, I no-lettered Round 4.

My rating: 7

Christian said in the Discord that he did not know the first word until after his picks.

Y is your friend.

What a fun week to look back on a month and a half later. We had heard rumblings about this week happening, but it seemed like it really only came together in the last couple weeks. It timed out well for me and jjman920 to attend thanks to another show that would be taping the next couple days. Got to the studio and saw a bunch of people we knew there. Some of whom have mentioned about their time here, wheellover65 and woffan9821 both had great write-ups here. Other alumni there included Anthony, Margaret and her daughter, Luke (Jessie's Pyramid opponent), and two 80's alums in David (who came with his class) and Janet. They were all good people and we got to hear about their experiences throughout the day. I could go over the 100 Miles of Road Trip thing beforehand, but that's covered thoroughly in that taping report. I don't have much to add other than it was really cute, Pat was such a good sport, and it was nice to get a little Wheel 2000's touch in there, even if only for that.

Jim introduces the Paul Gauguin cruise lady (or as I heard at first, Pogo Games Cruise) representative before the first show. Wasn't sure why they were there initially, but it became clear as even the first show happened. And yes, she did say they're pretty nice cruises. Also, just know that Milwaukee is the big city in Milwaukee.

I was interested to see what they were planning for this week, from the theming to if they would do anything special for the week. I know we were brainstorming a bunch of fun ideas for what they could do this week. It's not everything we could've dreamed off, but we appreciated what they did. It was cool that they went with a throwback intro for the week, got clips for a majority of the contestants, and even brought Sheldon out and plopped him around the set as the week went on. 

This was a great one to start off the week, Christian's always a ray of sunshine and Catilin was a great get given how famous her Prize Puzzle solve was. One of the other fun games we came up with was trying to figure out everything that's changed since she had last been here. spinthewheel did a good job compiling most of it, but also Bonus Round choices, the 1K a season minimum, and 1/2 Car came and went while she was away. Same Letter was pretty new when she was last on too.

Oddly enough, Christian did have a clip package for his appearance in studio, but I'm surprised that didn't make the cut.  There was a null cycle before the T in R4, two bankrupts and a dud S. I think Pat also made a comment after Christian's in line for host quip. 

The game was pretty much as you saw it though, it was good to see Caitlin still had it, even if the performance was shaky post-R1. Was also a little worried that it'd be ONCE UPON A TIME LINE instead of ZONE (the answer was still valid at that point!), but glad that he was correct there. And good on Blair for getting something in the end. I think we had a good energy as well and it seemed like a good amount of that shone through on the episode. Tomorrow seemed to shape up to be even better, thanks to one specific person.