The season premiere of ABC’s Celebrity Wheel of Fortune achieved the highest total viewership for the show since its 2023 season.
The episode aired on Friday night and marked the first primetime appearance of Ryan Seacrest alongside Vanna White as co-host.
The program became the top-rated show for the evening in its new timeslot, drawing significantly more viewers than the previous season premiere.
The episode included well-known applicants from ABC programming, while still providing the general game show format with a different hosting motif. The current ratings data offered evidence that this premiere was the highest-rated episode in almost two years.
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune achieves its highest viewership since the 2023 season
New hosting lineup and timeslot
Ryan Seacrest joined Vanna White as co-host in the primetime edition of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, taking over the role full-time for long-serving host Pat Sajak. Sajak's daytime hosting role ended in 2024, but he continued to appear as a host during the ABC series' primetime season until Seacrest occupied the hosting role.
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune has now moved to Friday nights at 8 p.m., along with launching a new season and hosting duo. Moving to the new time slot is part of ABC's nightly scheduling adjustment to fit the primetime series and provide competition against other network shows.
The first episode also introduced viewers to the new hosting relationship of Seacrest and White, with both sharing responsibilities in the primetime setting.
Ratings and viewership comparisons
The season premiere set a record for the television program, as it had the largest viewer audience the program had seen in nearly two years. Additionally, it was ABC's highest-viewing Friday night entertainment program in the timeslot within the last year.
The premiere episode’s 3.55 million total viewers represent the program’s largest audience since December 13, 2023. The episode was also ABC’s highest-performing Friday entertainment telecast at 8 p.m. since May 17, 2024, when Jeopardy Masters aired.
In a head-to-head comparison with CBS’s Big Brother in the same time slot, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune led by 82% in total viewers, with 3.55 million versus 1.95 million for the CBS program.
The episode’s performance positioned Celebrity Wheel of Fortune as the No. 1 program of the night among broadcast networks.
ABC’s total viewership for the night reached 3.02 million, contributing to the network’s overall ratings win in total viewers. The premiere featured contestants from ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, including Derek Hough, Bruno Tonioli, and Jenna Johnson Chmerkovskiy.
Upcoming episodes and featured contestants
Future episodes of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune will continue with celebrity participants from ABC programming. The upcoming episodes are scheduled in the same Friday night timeslot and will feature new celebrity contestants, keeping the format consistent with previous seasons.
The show’s production remains under Sony Pictures Television, which oversees both the primetime and syndicated editions of Wheel of Fortune.
The new host, updated airtime, and celebrity involvement all aided the performance of the season premiere. The ratings of the episode were better than last season’s premiere, which means the audience is engaged with the original primetime format of the series.
Future episodes will continue featuring celebrity participants with Seacrest and White as hosts. ABC confirmed that multiple celebrity participants will appear throughout the episodes for the season.
Each Celebrity Wheel of Fortune episode will follow the same game format as previous seasons to maintain a sense of familiarity with viewers while following the new host dynamic.
Stay tuned for more updates.