Seacrest, in. The season premiere of ABC’s “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune,” which featured the arrival of new host Ryan Seacrest, attracted its largest audience in nearly two years, averaging 3.55 million viewers on Friday, Sept. 26.
That 3.55 million total viewers and 0.31 rating among adults 18-49 is according to Nielsen’s live+same day big data plus panel. It’s up 17% from last year’s season premiere (3.04 million), which repped the final season with Pat Sajak as host.
Seacrest took over for longtime host Pat Sajak (and joined co-host Vanna White) on the syndicated “Wheel of Fortune” in September 2024, but ABC still had a season left of Sajak still spinning the primetime “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” wheel, which is why Seacrest is only now taking over the ABC run as well.
This also reps a new time period for “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune,” now Friday nights at 8 p.m. ET. With Seacrest and White now at the helm. the show was the No. 1 program of the night in broadcast, and scored the show’s best audience with viewers since Dec. 13, 2023.
It was also the best Friday 8 p.m. performance for ABC with entertainment fare since an episode of “Jeopardy Masters” in May 2024. And head to head in the slot, “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” beat CBS’s “Big Brother” by 82% in total viewers (3.55 million vs. 1.95 million).
The premiere featured plenty of ABC synergy, which contestants from “Dancing with the Stars”: Derek Hough, Bruno Tonioli and Jenna Johnson. This Friday’s episode on Oct. 3 will feature Retta (“Parks and Recreation”), New Kid on the Block Joey McIntyre and actor Oliver Hudson (“Happy Gilmore 2”).
“Wheel” has been good to Seacrest; according to daytime series distributor CBS Media Ventures, the syndicated gamer — for the 2024-2025 TV season — was up year-to-year in both households and total viewers. “Wheel” averaged 7.93 million viewers last season, with a slight bump of 74,000 vs. the previous year. In households, the game show posted a 4.6 rating for this past season in households, up 1% from the previous year.
Sajak signed off from the daytime “Wheel” in June 2024 after more than 40 years as host. He was still seen last season in ABC’s primetime edition of “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune,” which repped his last turn on the show. Daytime “Wheel” just started its 43nd season in syndication. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com ’
