The great pros and cons of Season 33

Pretty average season...

My pros and cons:

PROS:
--Great seeing HEADLINE used again.

--Crossword Puzzle category.

--Johnny Wujek's designs on Vanna looked great.

--Tie game resulting in a tiebreaker Toss-Up.

--Reducing the times the prize on the wheel is announced, resulting in more game time.


CONS:
--The horrible downgrades to the wheel especially the $600, $700, $600, $650 cluster.

--No 1/2 CAR tags in round 1.

--All the $33,000.

Cosigned on pretty much all of the above pros, but especially Crossword. Came in right at the end and, while the idea of "playing a crossword puzzle on TV" isn't a new idea in the genre or even Wheel itself, frankly I think it's a breath of fresh air.

Now...if Crossword makes Before & After get shoved to the "rarely if ever used" column, I'd be a happy man.

PROS (aside from those already mentioned):
* We had (appropriately) 33 members be contestants on the show this season, whether they were here beforehand or found us after their show taped/aired.
* Among said players was Robert (MarioGS), which was awesome on its own but turned into something just plain amazing...especially the first-hand I-asked-Pat-and-John Lauderdale-directly-if-they've-heard-of-BAV proof that Wheel knows about this place.

CONS (aside from those already mentioned):
* While I love Crossword, it does feel like a budget-saver: not only does it use less of the puzzle board by design (which means there will likely be less money on offer), but I feel like Wheel's gonna use it at least once a week next season regardless of how social media feels about this addition.
* Lack of road shows. Granted, the idea of Wheel doing pre-taped footage at various cities and saluting said cities at home base dates back to at least 1980, but it's very different these days when the Culver City audiences tend to fall on the "lower" side of quality.
* ...Ah, screw it, it bears repeating: for at least the second year in a row, the Bare F-ing Minimum's number of appearances IS TOO DAMN HIGH.

Good
-Both the $100,000 wins
-Sheri's BIG win
-Seven six-rounders, two seven-rounders, and a Tiebreaker
-All the boardies on Wheel (especially Mario)!
-The Great American Cities weeks
-Teen Best Friends Week (which I'll never be on now)
-The Crossword puzzles (have it once or twice a week next season)
-The featured prizes usually announced after someone wins it
-The impressive solves and buzzer-beaters in the Bonus Round (especially HEALTHY HABITS)

Bad
-The $100,000 loss
-No remote (well, at least the Great American Cities weeks made up for it)
-Three shutouts (one on my birthday! BOO!) and four shutouts averted (that's just bad)
-64 out of 195 Bonus Puzzles solved (is that a record low?)
-The late (after-the-buzzer) Bonus Round solves
-The fake $1,000,000 win rumors
-SO CLOSE to a perfect Bonus Round week on America's Game III (but the Friday maingame was rather dull)
-Of course, the minimum (but that'll happen again next season, I bet)

Probably in S34 they will include that yellow $600 also in R3 if they don't change the layout (I don't think that they will do it, but maybe we will get surprised). I think that they didn't do it before because they decided to do it fast and they didn't have time (or they were too lazy) to fix that segment. Perhaps with the summer break... (although hey, if they don't change the $900 wedge... much better).