Wheel of Fortune Is Up 17% This Season, and Its Opening Has Changed
Wheel of Fortune is averaging 8.59 million viewers on regular television this season, up 17% from last year, according to Variety. "Regular television" here means live viewing on broadcast and cable, as the show is scheduled, rather than streaming on demand.
The show's household rating, which measures the share of TV-owning homes tuned in, is 4.8. That is up 16% from last year. Variety reported both figures in its November 2026 coverage of the show's 44th season.
Streaming is growing faster. Total streaming viewers are up 78%, and viewers aged 25 to 54 are up 29%. The show streams on Peacock, Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
The biggest change is at the start of each episode. Season 44 adds a new opening round called Fortune Frenzy. Contestants get 30 seconds to solve as many puzzles as they can. The show's official website says the start now looks different because a new kind of gameplay begins each episode.
Good Morning America's Will Reeve spoke with host Ryan Seacrest and Vanna White about the new opening. Vanna White has turned the show's letter board for decades, so the change touches the heart of the programme. Few other changes would be more noticeable to a long-time fan.
Sony Pictures Television, which makes the show, says Wheel of Fortune has reached nearly 37 million total viewers so far this season. The studio also describes it as the No. 1 entertainment program on TV. Sony made that claim in its own statement.
The season is still running, so these totals are partial and will keep changing. For now, the numbers show a show that is drawing more people than it did a year ago, in both live and streaming viewing, and that is trying something new at the top of each episode.
