This post will be marked as a sticky at the request of Skipps and this will involve all the S36 episodes used for Saturday reruns. Skipps will update this when we get new info.
Red dates indicate a grand prize loss.
Green dates indicate a grand prize win.
Purple dates indicate a $10K MW win.
👥 dates indicate a team episode.
September 14: America’s Game I on the set of “Great Outdoors” that originally aired November 7 where Vanna wore a shirt and pants.
The big problem in this episode was the PP/Express Round w/ four duds and four BANKRUPTS on the puzzle PLAZAS, CAFES AND BARS (that was completely filled in). Also, Coreen Schempf foolishly thought John Lauderdale was the STAGE DESIGNER instead of the STAGE MANAGER (that was solved by Sonya Serge). Eventual winner Vincent Santos missed out on a maZDa CX-3 after failing to solve the PLACE puzzle of VIDEO ARCADE.
September 21: the first episode of Bed & Breakfast week that aired on January 21 where the GT was a $500 Pajamagram gift card and $500 cash.
This episode was a great one thanks to Aaron Feldon from NYC dominating and winning the game thanks to a successful Express run w/ $34,065 cash & Hawaii. Beverly Mitchell of Dayton, OH did a nice job winning $13,450. Aaron won the Volkswagen Tiguan after solving the PERSON puzzle of MUTUAL ACQUAINTANCE.
September 28: Day 1 of Weekend Getaways week that aired January 7
A nice show w/ Dan Eleuteri coming out on top w/ $27,680 cash & trip to Vegas. He won $36K in the BR for solving the EVENT puzzle of FAMILY PICNIC. Second-place finisher Julie Schimmenti won $12,600 cash & Grenada.
October 5: Day 1 of R & R week that aired May 20.
This episode was part of that ridiculously long 20-Bonus Round losing streak w/ Cassie Jacobs and Jackie Roudebush having a nice match. On the Speed-Up puzzle of LEMON LAYER CAKE that was solved by Jackie, she screwed up at first saying LEMON CREAM CAKE when the puzzle read…
_ E M O N
_ A _ E _ / _ A _ E
Cassie gave a more sensible but incorrect answer of LEMON WAFER CAKE. Poor Michael Garcia didn’t capitalize for $16K+ on that puzzle after having a rough night and left w/ the $1K gooseegg award. In the WAYD? BR, Jackie didn’t solve that tough puzzle of BUZZING AROUND TOWN and lost a Mustang convertible.
October 12: Day 5 of Shopping Spree Week
While Tim Mark of Englewood, FL dominated the front game, the ladies had a very tough time. Emmalena Tucker of Pine Bluff, AR said a critical dud of P on the puzzle ENDLESS STRETCHES OF SAND and lost over $15K in that round and would eventually get the $1K GOOSEEGG award. Tim lost his perfect maingame record to D.D. Pregeant on the Speed-Puzzle of GOLD HOOP EARRINGS when he said LONG HOOP EARRINGS. In the EVENT BR, Tim missed out on the Ford Flex after failing to solve VICTORY PARADE.
October 19: America’s Game IV on the Nashville set that aired the day after my 32nd birthday (April 9) where two males played.
While William Lenz and Ryan O’Connor had a nice match, Jenna Dulyanai didn’t have much luck and was a $1K gooseegg victim. But the one thing that really made most of us angry was Ryan’s gamble gone HORRIBLY WRONG in the Prize Puzzle round. He lost $24,295 cash & Nissan Versa to the MDW’s right side BANKRUPT. He did, however, became the big winner and went on to solve JOB APPLICANTS for $36K in the PEOPLE BR. Ryan, you better have some explaining to do regarding that incident.
👥October 26: Day 2 of “Girlfriend Getaways” (Adam recapped this whole week when I was away on my Bahamas trip)
This episode featured a deaf contestant named Lori. She and partner Lorraine (who doubled as her interpreter) won over $22K cash & Jamaica. R2 was the first instance of a Crossword Round being repeated verbatim as the words “WINDY, WARM, COLD, UNPREDICTABLE” were previously used in exactly the same configuration on 5/24/2017 (albeit w/ a different category). They lost $36K in the BR after failing to solve the PHRASE puzzle of JOT DOWN YOUR IDEAS.
November 2: Day 1 of Portugal Escape week that aired on March 25
Michael Tedone & Cortney Furey had a really nice match w/ Cortney coming out on top w/ $21,298 cash & Italy plus the WC to be used in the Bonus Round (after Michael WIPED OUT on the Express) while Kelli Martin could do nothing but fight the wheel & ended up taking home $1K IN BAD LUCK. Because she didn’t call the C Cortney couldn’t catch the $36K PACIFIC HALIBUT after she struck out with BASHFUL HALIBUT on the LIVING THING BR.
November 9: Fittingly, Day 3 of Veterans Week that aired on October 24
Thanks to her PR and complete puzzle fill-in on the Express Nikki Wade collected $19,903 cash & prizes from that round (the score display originally erroneously showed her score as $20,103) then brought that up to $21,403 after her quick solve in the Speed-Up. A null cycle was edited out of R4 (incorrect B, a LaT and a BANKRUPT that doesn’t take anything away) and the second-place contestant, Steve Earley had $19,100. But the real highlight of this episode was Nikki’s FUN TO WATCH Bonus Round where she scared us with three wrong guesses of FUN TO CATCH, FUN TO PATCH and FUN TO LATCH before finally getting this PHRASE puzzle right with two seconds left for $45K and brought home a final total of $66,403 cash & prizes.
November 16: Day 1 of Spa Getaway that originally aired on October 8
Some stations pre-empted the first Tossup due to the swearing-in ceremony of Kavanaugh. Despite a BANKRUPT on the MDW’s left side that forced him to give up $6,900 in R1 during a BANKRUPT-fest episode Rich Dressman as well as his opponents Niquan Davis & Mirella Naserian all did very well with Rich winning the match by a considerable margin with $29,090 cash & Barbados (the PP trip was $10,990). In the AROUND THE HOUSE Bonus Round he took a long pause before saying the last two words of PORCELAIN GRAVY BOAT…and he just beat the buzzer as decided by the judges for $45K & became the S36 leader at the time w/ $74,090 cash & trip! At the end, we saw a photo of Vanna and her daughter in Iceland.
November 23: Day 1 of Island Hopping that originally aired on April 29.
While the episode itself wasn’t bad, the problem with it though is that it kicked off that ridiculously long losing streak & took place during the AWFUL Island Hopping week where we were skunked, just like in the Season 30 edition, as well as a netting a SEASON-LOW weekly total of $165,174 unseating Gone Fishin’ week after a whopping 32 weeks, with this theme’s name really triggering a red flag. Bex Schaffer thankfully dominated this episode racking up $34,050 cash & trips while the wheel was just mean to Chris Holan & Nekea Bridgett-Ahme although neither were gooseegged. Bex, however, flubbed the top of this SHOW BIZ bonus puzzle after picking CGMI…
_ _ M _ I E
M _ _ I E
…w/ FAMILY and COMEDY while C was already eliminated not noticing where the I & E in the top line were. Whether she saw a ZOMBIE MOVIE or not, she lost the FIAT Spider.
November 30: Day 3 of the epic season-opening Teacher’s Week where we went 4-1 in the Bonus Round & collected a weekly total of $316,284 which would stand as the season-high weekly total for an outstanding 23 weeks until it was surpassed by GAC: Nashville & then Girlfriend Getaways the very next week.
This was not a pretty one. It started with Seth Golder TOTALLY BOMBING OUT on the first Tossup w/ “DO YOU HAVE YOUR HOMEWORK?” when there wasn’t even a ? mark in the puzzle. They say for the kids to BE ON YOUR BEST BEHAVIOR (as solved by Tina Johnson for her only $1K of the night) & not mock & jeer at Seth for botching the solve, but then he redeemed himself in the next Tossup w/ ROOFTOP GARDEN. From there, the episode in general was such a BANKRUPT-fest & included more ugly moments such as Tina’s CRITICAL DUD VOWEL of U in R1 to leave $14K cash & trip on the table which left eventual champ Auja Jones a $400 bonus after she SPINGLED for a $600 M. Next round, Seth had HIS OWN CRITICAL DUD of M after yet another tirade of BANKRUPTs. It then came down to Seth losing to Auja in a $2,750 PR from the Speed-Up Round because he didn’t call the multiple P’s. Despite that Auja picked THING she managed to get her hands on a BULKY PACKAGE w/ $36K inside, leaving w/ a final total of $49,108 cash & trip.
December 7: Day 2 of R & R week that aired May 21.
Our second R & R week rerun of this season. Just like we mentioned above for the Oct. 5 rerun this week took place during the 20-Bonus Round losing streak. The main highlight of this episode (& week) was Jerrica Stovall’s 1/2 CAR win after picking up three halves w/ the third half being retired because she won $5,900, the Nissan Versa, and an Emerald Waterways FRENCH CRUISE worth $12,590; that was a $34,285 Prize Puzzle/EXPRESS round for her! The lowlight? Anna Flynn painfully BANKRUPTING near $650 to give up $12,350 along w/ both her cardboard pieces in the previous round. And now for the ugly…
After Jerrica was shown this PHRASE puzzle…
_ _ _ T E
_ / _ _ T
…she called CHGA & uses her WC on D…
_ _ _ T E
A / _ _ T
…the WC was useless & only the obvious A was added, so she was QUITE A BIT off from winning the $36K & snapping that ridiculous skid after so much promise & anticipation w/ a silly guess of BATHE A CAT.
December 14: Day 1 of Winter Break that originally aired December 3 (most ABC affiliates will no longer be preempted by college football starting w/ this Saturday rerun, but Skipps is still being preempted but for a different reason).
Oh boy, this was REALLY UGLY, and it sure was so from the start, & the generic set being used on this winter theme week didn’t help either. R1 was just riddled w/ duds from all three of this week’s lead-off panelists Natalie Ruisi, Rachel Dennis & John Weigel, & two BANKRUPTs for the ladies. But what this episode was REALLY known for was the six consecutive lost turns in the PP/EXPRESS Round w/ one incorrect letter, two of those being LaTs & three of them being BANKRUPTs. We never recovered from that trainwreck as the Speed-Up round was also troublesome, recording six aired duds (only the latter three are edited out). All of this led to Natalie being our big winner w/ just $12,300 cash & cruise adding to a GT of a pitiful $24,650.
Given this debacle, we didn’t like her chances at this EVENTS puzzle (only the second known use of that category in the BR) for $36K towards going to some PROMS AND GALAS, & sure enough, she didn’t.
December 21: Day 2 of the not-so-Delicious Destinations week that originally aired April 2 (Skipps gets preempted for College Football once more).
On this excruciating week we had BACK-TO-BACK $100K LOSSES for the first time in the program’s entire history on top of our first skunking of 2019 & third of the season after having avoided a skunking w/ a few close calls for an impressive 28 weeks since the previous skunking back in September 2018 in Week 3 of the season. The maingame of this episode was pretty decent despite the first Tossup (WORLD FAMOUS CHEF) was misspelled (the first two words should be hyphenated) w/ all three of the lead-off panelists doing well especially a particularly enthusiastic & energetic Dean Wilson who made this episode worth watching. All went well until he was hit w/ this nasty AROUND THE HOUSE puzzle…
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ L T
HMPO only gave him the first letter and it wasn’t FUZZY like we thought…
P _ _ _ _
_ _ _ L T
…he wasn’t even close to putting together a PUFFY QUILT for $45K.
December 28: Day 3 of Bed & Breakfast week that originally aired January 23.
This episode was another delightful one to watch thanks to Possum’s (Shirley Hamilton, whom the closed captioning also referred to her as such instead of going by the name tag) character throughout the entire episode. R3 was inexplicably categorized as PHRASE instead of SONG LYRICS. She did turn out to be the big winner w/ $16,740 cash & Antigua from the maingame. Though, to be fair, she really should be thanking Daniel Choi for painfully BANKRUPTing close to $12K cash & prizes in R2 and calling a crucial dud of U in the next round.
Flash Forward to the BR where Possum had a FOOD & DRINK puzzle to work w/ after calling DMGI…
R _ _
_ E G G I E S
…and while I’m not a fan of RAW VEGGIES, she got it no problem for the $36K and a final cash/trip total of $52,740.
January 4: Day 4 of the second America’s Game week that originally aired on January 3 where the daily promo showed a clip from one of the Hawaii episodes in February 2001, two males played, the GT was $1K cash courtesy of Kripsy Krunchy Chicken and six rounds were played.
This was a great episode to watch thanks to the game going up to six rounds due to the quick solves (mainly in the tossups) from Andrew Livingstone and Eddie Kuczynski. The retro BR clip was one not previously used on this featured (1999, COUPON was not solved, CPMI was chosen). Andrew turned out to be the big winner w/ $17,100 while Eddie scored $8,200. Katie Palacios also scored nicely w/ $13,928 cash & Barbados (Although all of it came from R3.). Furthermore, Andrew made great picks in the BR and easily solved a WAYD? puzzle of DOUBLE-PARKING for a $38,688 Toyota Highlander and a final cash/car total of $55,788.
January 11: Day 2 of the dreadful Island Hopping week that originally aired April 30.
Let me get the bad stuff out of the way first. Paul Stoube COMPLETELY BOMBED the $2K tossup as CROSSWORD PUZZLE SOLVE when it was really SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING (FUN & GAMES). However the real nightmare that occurred this episode was R2. I’ll just bullet point it.
- The puzzle itself is a non-sequitir LIVING THINGS puzzle of MORNING GLORIES AND NIGHTINGALES.
- 5 BANKRUPTs were hit; one costed Paul over $12K cash & trip.
- Very late into the round w/ M & R left blank, Sylvia Myers BOMBED OUT w/ a C call. After that, Paul would then fill in the entire puzzle and read it off for $1,800.
The good stuff was Joanna Ziarko’s (whose father was on the show in the late 1980s and the daily promo showed a clip of him solving the Bonus Puzzle “DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS“) MAJOR PR in R3 as she scored $2,750 cash & skin care, the $15,795 Nissan Versa, AND a $9,020 COSTA RICA trip (Crocodile Bay) – that was a $27,565 round for her! To be fair, I really wanted Joanna to win considering that her dad was on this show back in S5 and that she also appeared on TPiR in 2016, and surely enough, she did.
However, being a one-round winner doesn’t mean good news in the BR, and it showed. After Joanna called HBPO on a WAYD? puzzle…
P _ _ _ N _
_ _ T H / _ _ S H
…the producers WEREN’T going to be PAYING WITH CASH ($45K to be exact) to her as she went a little bit overboard on the first word w/ PACKING. You still did a fine job for yourself, Joanna, and I hope you drop by anytime on this site.
January 18: Day 1 of European Vacation that originally aired November 26 where Pat and Vanna read parts of the Prize copy and six rounds were played.
This was quite the fast-paced one in the week of rare two-time contestant Immani Brown-Turner’s return (appeared first time in S34). Out of this six-round game we had THREE PRs w/ two of those by big winner Heather Hughes, bringing $31,700 cash & luggage & her exceptional puzzle solving skills to the FOOD & DRINK Bonus Round before adding another $36K to that from inside A BOWL OF YOGURT for a final total of $67,700 cash & luggage.
January 25: Day 4 of Winter Break that originally aired December 6 where Pat and Vanna read part of the PP copy. Unusually, Pat also read the value of the trip.
Not really much to say about this budget-saving episode. It was also accidentally identified as being from 2001. Small puzzles plus very few uses of any of the letters from the RSTLNE group made for a pitiful episode in terms of winnings, but it did give us a decent match between Jamie Howell (male) & Stephanie Siegel w/ Stephanie coming out on top w/ just $11,800 cash & trip while Rachel Davis was left w/ a $1K GOOSEEGG.
Unfortunately, Stephanie failed to improve on that low score as she didn’t spot these HAWKS IN FLIGHT (the first word eluded her), so she said goodbye to the Ford Escape after this LIVING THING BR.
Another thing to note about this episode is that it featured a 2010 puzzle as a Classic Bonus Puzzle (11/26/2010, BLACK TIGHTS was solved for $30K by Nick Lorenzen, HCDA was chosen), although Vanna mistakenly referred to it as 2001.
February 1: Day 3 of Big Money Week that aired on May 8.
On the week of the milestone 7000th episode, the second of four consecutive skunked weeks during the ridiculous losing skid, neither THING(S) nor PHRASE was used in the maingame and we had this entertaining match between big winner Mike Hornacek w/ $28,678 cash & Curacao including a successful EXPRESS train ride & Ebony Grissett-Delgado w/ $21,750 cash & debit card including a PR in the Mystery Round, & we had NO BANKRUPTS to top it off. But sadly we couldn’t say the same for Jean Novak as she only went home w/ the $1,000 house minimum from Round 1 plus a retired MDW.
You should NOT be too QUICK TO JUDGE that Mike was supposed to solve this final PHRASE board; the stingy RSTLNE help plus DMFO not adding much besides the obvious O just wasn’t enough for him to solve for $36K.
At the end, Kimberly Patrick of Guinness World Records told Pat that he’s the NEW WORLD RECORD HOLDER for the longest career as a game show host on the same show! 🤩
👥February 8: In preparation for Valentine’s Day, Day 4 of Sweethearts Week that originally aired on, well, Valentine’s Day where the GT was a $500 Pajamagram and $500 cash.
In a week full of competitive matches w/ four 5-round games contributing to a healthy weekly total of $288,889, we had two PRs during this 5-round Valentine’s Day match — one from six-month newlyweds & winning couple Carmelo & Emma Mannino in the Mystery Round, and one from the runner-up couple Travis & Bethany Goccia (married almost 13 yrs.) in Round 4.
The real highlight, however, was when Carmelo impressively mumbled his way to the right PLACE of COZY NOOK w/ just the first letters of each line to win himself & Emma the Jaguar E-PACE S worth $42,570! Final tally was $56,620 cash & prizes.
February 15: Day 4 of Escape to Portugal Week that originally aired on March 28.
For the first time since the addition of the SL Bonus, the same letter was called on the MW by Sabrina Chang. Unlike the money for the letters themselves, the $1K bonus was immediately added to the contestant’s scoreboard and is kept if the $10K is found. Frank Heffelfinger (magicman on BaV) totally ran away w/ the game, taking home $35,296 in cash & trips. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the PHRASE BR for the MINI Countryman.
Well, I WAS KIDDING. He does make the solve to take home $67,646 in cash & prizes and also paid a visit to us on our site! Another notable thing in this episode was Sabrina’s gutsy MW gamble after calling the same letter on said wedge, resulting in her taking home $11,900. Oh, and some of the BR’s music cues were timed incorrectly. The “cross” cue played until Vanna finished revealing RSTLNE, then the “RSTLNE” cue plays while Frank‘s letter choices of GHDA were chosen and revealed. The actual “contestant’s letters” cue only played briefly before the timer.
👥February 22: Day 4 of Hawaii Vacation (Wk. 2) that originally aired on April 25.
This was the week preceding the start of the ridiculous 20-BR losing skid. We can thank couple Brandon & Rachel White (married 7 yrs.) for helping us escape the prospect of a skunk threat that week, after having won $24,500 cash & the Walt Disney World trip before heading to the Bonus Round (Mickey & Minnie mouse were seen in the audience). For this PLACE puzzle, after saying HIDDEN COVE (that was from the last season and it wasn’t solved for $35K; MHDA was chosen), they found the $36K from a HIDDEN CAVE and left w/ $60,500 cash & WDW. We unfortunately had our second $36K minimum sweep of the season that week due to no cars being offered due to it being a Disney week.
February 29: Episode #7000 (several puzzles were themed to that) that originally aired on May 10.
On this special episode that unfortunately took place during that super-long losing skid, Melanie Hawley really cleaned up taking home $26,950 in cash & prizes ($16,950 from R1). Jim Thornton was shown on camera before R2 and the PP footage was outdated and shot in standard definition. Jason Leary made a really nice rebound from that FATAL Express crash towards the end, making a respectable sum of $20,100 ($17,100 from the Speedup which only had three unique consonants).
Despite the fact that there was SO MUCH HYPE for this episode, Melanie stumbled on the last word of this PHRASE puzzle w/ just that E showing and lost out on the Mercedes CLA. The bumper before the final segment had Vanna holding her phone and noticing that the 7000th episode was being hyped on social media; when Pat said that “we haven’t finished recording the episode”, Vanna said that “Jim can fill in for me”, followed by a shot of Jim applauding in front of the puzzle board which read “CELEBRATING 7000!”. In the final segment, Pat and Vanna were onstage with Jim, Harry Friedman, Lesly, and the entire cast and crew of the show, in front of a special sign made to honor the occasion and a cake to celebrate such a milestone. The sign was shaped like the upper half of the Wheel, with a puzzleboard inlaid and a silver “7000th episode” text. During this, the puzzle board read “7000 SHOWS!” on the top row.
March 7: Day 3 of Spa Getaway that originally aired on October 10.
Our second Spa Getaway rerun of this season, Devin Gonyer (female) cleaned it up earning $21,088 cash & prizes to boot before heading to Bonusland, having that shiny MDW at one point of the game acquiring it from a PR in R2 before unfortunately losing it to the BANKRUPT near big money along w/ the 1/2 CAR plate & $3,350 the very next round. Competitors Jamie Chapman & Dawn Lewis also did well for themselves w/ the latter finishing w/ $12,796 cash & JAM (worth $10,976) & the former closing his night out w/ $7,500. Pat also referenced a null cycle at the start of R4 by saying “There is, however, an S.” despite no previous wrong letters airing.
Devin was hit w/ this WAYD? puzzle…
_ _ _ S _ N _
_ N / _ _ R _ _ R
DGPO was good for…
_ _ _ S _ N G
_ N / _ P R O _ R
…only the last word and she struck out w/ CLOSING AN ______, so she wasn’t CAUSING AN UPROAR to win $36K.
March 14: Day 2 of Leave Winter Behind that originally aired on January 29.
The maingame felt short & budget-saving (longest puzzle was 22 letters long in R1 according to Adam), but if Jeff Kutsor was going to be WRITING A DAILY JOURNAL he’d note that he won $36K for a final total of $53,935 cash & trip from solving this WAYD? puzzle.
👥March 21: America’s Game IV on the Girlfriend Getaways set that aired on my 32nd birthday (April 8)
R1 was inexplicably categorized as TITLE instead of SONG TITLE. All three female duos did well on this night especially the blue team Vanessa Baldini & Ashley Petrillo, with their run including a PR in the PP/EXPRESS Round & then prevailing in a long & frustrating Speed-Up round, taking them up to $21,748 cash & St. Croix.
Vanessa of that team landed on the C. I’m one of the latter group of PEOPLE (and this was an instance of one under three-and-a-vowel rules to have at least one each of R, S, T, L, N and E)…
_ _ T _ _ R S / _ N _
_ L _ _ _ E R S
PMCO just added two O’s…
_ _ T _ O R S / _ N _
_ L O _ _ E R S
They only got the last word, so we the AUTHORS AND BLOGGERS of my site unfortunately reported that they lost $36K.
March 28: Day 1 of College Week Spring Break that first aired on March 18 where two males played.
The $1K Tossup was replaced due toan incorrect answer being accepted. As a result, thw replacement $1K Tossup (PRICELESS PAINTING) was not themed and there were two duplicate categories — both the $1K Tossup and $3K Tossup were THING, while R3 and the BR were PHRASE. After doing quite a bit of work on the board in R1 Mary Schultz called a dud on the $1K “WoF Free Play” app gift tag. Jake Douglas called up an R for the MDW but a bad L ended his turn just as quick. After Mike Nielsen, whom I overhead was re-airing on WoF Alums, did no better w/ M, it was back to Mary who BANKRUPTed near TD to give up $14,050 — darn. It just kept getting worse — both boys made it three in a row on the same BANKRUPT, so Jake had to give up that MDW. After Mary called one more dud, Jake then lit up the last consonant of a $500 C and bought two O’s before he tried to get us out of this round…
F O O D / F _ G H T
_ N / T H E
C _ F E T E R _ _
For any of you in school, please DON’T engage in a FOOD FIGHT IN THE CAFETERIA. But this guy got the preposition wrong w/ ON, so Mike capitalized and got on the board. R4 was a non-sequitur answer of EMBRACE THE CHASE, which itself was inexplicably categorized as PHRASE instead of RHYME TIME.
As for the Bonus Round, IT MIGHT BE HELPFUL to remember the category and talk it out when you’re playing the BR, and Jake was successful in doing that & salvaging the episode on this PHRASE puzzle for the Golf GTI SE worth $34,750; he left w/ $49,400 cash & prizes.
April 4: The awful Day 3 episode of R & R week that aired May 22.
Oh why must they keep re-airing bad moments like this? -___- In our third R & R rerun it all started w/ Drew Bedingfield calling P for PAINFUL DUD to leave $10,804 cash & MA on the table after doing most of the work on the board. That allowed Lynette Clay to FP the H…
G R O C E R Y / &
_ I S H
L I S T
…and get out a GROCERY & WISH LIST for the house minimum.
Fast forward to the PP/EXPRESS Round… after Lynette painfully BANKRUPTed near $3,500 to hand over $10,500. Victoria Grebloski decided to just solve…
I N _ E R N A _ I O N A _
_ R A _ E _ E R S
She would be one of the INTERNATIONAL TRAVELERS on the Emerald Waterways PORTUGAL CRUISE worth $13,290.
But as it turned out after an ugly Speed-Up Round, Victoria had just pulled a Margaret Niebling from March 6 of the prior season — winning the game w/ that exact same prize. Oy vey. -__-
She did not improve on that w/ this PHRASE puzzle after picking CHMA…
_ _ _ / _ _ N
T H E / _ A C _ _ _ T
Because she had no clue and she wasn’t gonna hear Jim say “YOU WON THE JACKPOT”, because she lost $36K.
April 11: Day 1 of Shopping Spree that originally aired October 1.
What we all liked about this episode was Sheena Neel’s INCREDIBLE GAME, which included $21,500 cash & trip from the PP/EXPRESS round to add to the $3K combined from solving both opening Tossups then sweeping ’em all to add another $3K to that by solving the third Tossup, and, oh boy — it was a $6K FS to start the week! There could’ve been a GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY for Sheena, because she solved for $36K more and was now the biggest winner to date of the season w/ $64,700 cash & trip even before going to Bonusland!
To Bonusland for this ON THE MAP puzzle were two South American countries…
_ _ L _ _ _ _
_ N _ / _ E R _
PDHA gave Sheena besides the obvious…
_ _ L _ _ _ A
A N D / P E R _
She pinpointed NEITHER one of BOLIVIA AND PERU for $36K.
And during the credits, Pat jokingly walked extremely close to the camera.
👥April 18: Day 2 of Sweethearts Week that originally aired on February 12th.
All three of this day’s couples did really well combining for a GT of $41,700 especially the red couple Andres & Nairobi Vives of 5 yrs., & despite the PP mattering for the Vives to win Andres had just gotten for this WAYW? puzzle $45K from a HOODED CARDIGAN, giving them a final total of $61,900 cash & trip! Oh, and a null cycle was not edited out of the Speed-Up portion of the maingame.
April 25: Day 2 of Portugal Week that originally aired March 26th.
R2 (HISTORIC FORTRESSES AND MONUMENTS) was categorized as LANDMARKS instead of PLACES. It was a good match between Trina Johnson & Jackson Keith, but then the chef unfortunately cooked up a likely recipe for disaster by choosing THING. -__-
Jackson was given this biggie which was a tie for the longest Bonus Puzzle under three-and-a-vowel rules…
_ _ _ L _ N T _ R _ _ _ _
_ R _ _ N _ _ _ T _ _ N
PCDA gave him at least the first word…
P _ _ L A N T _ R _ P _ C
_ R _ A N _ _ A T _ _ N
…but it still wasn’t enough for him to get the bottom word of PHILANTHROPIC ORGANIZATION, so he lost the MINI Countryman.
May 2: America’s Game IV on the Portugal set (which meant the Prize was a trip to Portugal provided by Collette, for which Pat and Vanna read most of the copy) that aired April 11th (my 1-year anniversary)
That’s the second rerun in a row to take place on the Portugal set and the Retro BR was not done. Poor Audrey McLean just couldn’t deal w/ the Wheel’s antics throughout my anniversary episode. She was in trouble right from the start as she LaT’d out instantaneously on her very first turn being the second to go in the opening round after eventual big winner India Davidson. In Audrey’s next turn she didn’t fare much better as after she inserted the SL Bonus of four $500 G’s & four E’s she then BOMBED OUT thinking the last remaining consonant of this SAME LETTER puzzle…
G O R G E O _ S
G R E E N
G _ R _ E N
…was L while she was on The Company Store gift tag.
Next round, after doing some work, the LaT nailed her again to leave $9,450 on the table, then she never got to spin the wheel again after India went on to solve the Prize Puzzle which offered a tour of the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore worth $10,998.
Audrey also struggled w/ her picks in the $1.7K Speed-Up & was rewarded $1K IN ROTTEN LUCK while Justin Beals had a good match w/ India after the show was off a slow start bringing home a second place all-cash total of $18,150 to India’s $22,348 cash & said tour. (JPGenius said he might’ve seen Justin on Family Feud April 9)
India was given just the vowel to start for this FOOD & DRINK puzzle…
_ _ _ E _
_ _ _
Even if HMDA were all up there, there was still NO guarantee she would solve it…
_ _ _ E D
H A M
She got that first word wrong w/ BONED, BAKED (my guess from the get-go), GLAZED, and CURED. She was very close on that fourth guess — these pieces of CUBED HAM would’ve been worth $36K.
In the end, Vanna promoted her line of yarn and charitable donations that she had given to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
May 9: Day 4 of the awful Island Hopping week that originally aired May 2 where two males played.
Adam Berger did fine on this night w/ $20,870 cash & Galley Bay Resort trip while fellow gentleman Dakota Kosmala made a run for it w/ a $12,050 Mystery/Crossword solve.
After contestant Adam solved the $3K Tossup, the money was not “cleared” and accidentally carried over to his score for R4, which he won without hitting BANKRUPT. The extra $3K was deducted from his total before he spun the Bonus Wheel.
For the first (& only) time all season we were finally going to do an OCCUPATION(S) Bonus Round puzzle! 😃
Not much from RSTLNE…
_ _ _ _ E / _ N _
_ _ _ L _ _ _
DMPA didn’t add much for Adam besides the obvious…
_ _ D _ E / A N D
_ A _ L _ _ _
The verdict was in from the JUDGE AND BAILIFF — he was NOT going to be driving away in the FIAT Spider.
May 16: Day 4 of the season-opening Teacher’s Week that originally aired September 13 where the Prize was a $10,200 trip to Spain.
Bryan Geary had some tough luck as in Round 1 he found the sole dud vowel of E, Round 2 he wasted his turn w/ an insta-BANKRUPT then got foiled again after we went for it on the MW near LaT however bounced back from that w/ $1,150 from the Round, then in Round 3 he crashed on the EXPRESS…
_ L _ _ N _ / T O
T H E / C A R _ B B E A N
… after calling P for phooey ($5,750 lost which wound up being the total bankrupt trash).
Aside from Bryan’s bad luck one notable of this episode was this $1,600 HEADLINE Speed-Up puzzle (the first known time ever in show history that category has been used in R4)…
F R _ N _ _ / _ _ N S
_ O R L D / _ _ _
Rebecca Kinney remembered “FRANCE WINS WORLD CUP” for $6,400 & came close to taking it from Jodi McNulty in a decent match between the two.
The hubby and her friend Lisa saw Jodi get the C envelope. This WAYW? biggie started as…
L _ _ _ T _ E _ _ _ T
_ L _ _ E R
GBCA was a pretty good combo (the C was probably a precaution)…
L _ G _ T _ E _ G _ T
B L A _ E R
She had just gotten $45K from a LIGHTWEIGHT BLAZER! That gave her a final total of $58,900 cash & trip.
May 23: Day 4 of America’s Game V that aired May 30 where the prize was $6K credit to Ticketmaster.
Matthew Elkin played a decent game, taking home $28,397 cash & Aruba (including $13K from a partial $6K Speedup, which was the highlight of this episode). The Retro BR was one not previously used on this feature (YO-YO was solved for $25K, CDGO was chosen) and was identified as being from 1992 instead of 1993. Beth Van DeWoestyne finished 2nd w/ $8,100 cash & spree. However, this happened in the BR on a rather short WAYD? puzzle which was only the third Bonus Puzzle since 2009 to be shorter than seven letters…
_ _ _ _ N _
MDGO only added the backloading letter…
_ _ _ _ N G
His guess of PAVING was painfully one letter off, so he was WAVING goodbye to…
…
…
…
…$100,000 — HE WAS THE SIXTH AND FINAL SUCH LOSER THAT SEASON.
May 30: Day 1 of the milestone Big Money week that originally aired on May 6th.
This was not the greatest of starts for the week of the milestone 7000th episode, & it didn’t help that it took place during the historic losing streak. All three of the contestants combined for a GT of a dismal $22,950 & a large BANKRUPT trash of $9,500 cash & SS mostly thanks to a R1 BANKRUPT near $2,500 to clear Coles Keeter of $7,800 cash & spree.
Pat did not announce the category of the $1K Tossup. The PP mattered again for somebody (because of a BANKRUPT) to win just like the Friday night before, so that was not good news for Coles for the EVENT MDBR. His spin of truth landed on…the S of SPIN. For some reason, I thought the super big one would be in that I of AMERICA’S. Anyway, here was the last letter of each word…
_ _ _ _ R
_ _ _ _ _ E
CGHO added a little more help…
_ _ _ O R
_ O _ _ G E
Nothing from him, so he didn’t win this much money towards going on a MAJOR VOYAGE…
…
…
…
….$36K. The million was in an I, but it was the one in WIN.
Before the closing chat, Pat and Vanna showed a clip of the closing chat from Viva Las Vegas Week in November 21, 2014 where they switched places.
June 6: Day 2 of Spa Getaway that originally aired October 9th.
This episode also reran a month earlier on March 31, 2020, the second of the many midseason rerun weeks this season.
This show kept us on the edge of our seats. First there was the $3,200 R1 PR by Shawn McEachlin to bring his total up to $6,200 so far. Then in R2, after Ashley Einspahr LaT’d out immediately after picking up the $10K MW, Melissa Rickey had a COURTESY & MATING CALL for $11,130 cash & prizes (the Vegas trip was worth $6,080). The Retro BR was one not previously used on this feature (EYEBROWS was surprisingly not solved, YPDO was chosen). After having filled up most of the THING PP/EXPRESS puzzle & collected both the 1/2 CAR plates, Melissa made the sole critical purchase of E to squander at least $18K cash & Fiesta — oh dear. One BANKRUPT near TD to give up $650 by Shawn later, Ashley recovered from her earlier LaT after FP’ing a couple P’s…
P O P _ _ A R
T O _ R I _ T
A T T R A C T I O N
…& she was off to the POPULAR TOURIST ATTRACTION of HAWAII at the Hilton WAIKOLOA VILLAGE.
R4… Melissa redeemed herself after that critical dud & she could’ve been GETTING ALL THE ATTENTION after solving for another $5,600 & ultimately becoming the big winner w/ $16,730 cash & prizes plus WC, but not before flubbing the PHRASE S-U puzzle w/ PRETTY PEONY, which didn’t fit the category (peony is a plant, BTW), which allowed Shawn to squeeze a tight second over Ashley winning way more than just a PRETTY PENNY & all three contestants made it to five-digits.
In the crowd were aunt Diana and Karen; Melissa’s envelope was the S of AMERICA’S. Three letters in the top of a LIVING THING puzzle to start…
_ R E _ _ _ _ N _
_ _ _ _ _
CDPI and H gave her…
_ R E _ H _ _ N D
P _ P P _
After initially saying some kind of POPPY, her final answer was…FREEHOUND PUPPY. She wouldn’t be giving a GREYHOUND PUPPY a ride in the MINI convertible.
June 13: Day 3 of Weekend Getaways that originally aired January 9th.
This was another decent 6-rounder (thanks to short puzzles in R4 (TEENY-WEENY) & R5 (FASHION SHOW); the former was a very rare instance of a puzzle w/ only one vowel). Heidi Houghton went by her nickname (Heidi Ho) & won $7,500. R3 was a rare case of LANDMARKS (EXTRAORDINARY MAYAN RUINS). Sam Nguyen solved it for a $6K trip to BELIZE at Ramon’s Village & $13,550 overall. Wendy Rutland won w/ $19,350, but didn’t solve a PERSON puzzle of FINANCIAL BACKER & lost $45K (she WIPED OUT w/ PDGO).
June 20: Day 2 of Teacher’s Week that originally aired September 11th.
Lisa Selle dominated the maingame, winning $21,700. However, she WIPED OUT in the BR w/ PDMO & this wasn’t part of the QUITE A FEW (PHRASE) solves w/ no help, leading to the first $36K loss in the show. Oh, and this game had the first appearance of CLASSIC TV (R2; answer was “CONJUNCTION JUNCTION, WHAT’S YOUR FUNCTION?” from “Schoolhouse Rock!”) since 1/9/13.
June 27: Day 4 of Big Money week that originally aired May 9th where the prize was $7K cash courtesy of CarGurus.
Brett Smith owned the maingame, taking home $24,650 while Melissa Bridges won the PP w/ $11,550 cash & St. Lucia trip. R4 (EARNING INTEREST) was categorized as PHRASE instead of WAYD?. However, the former in the BR wouldn’t be WAKING UP AT DAWN w/ a $36K gift (under WAYD?; GHCI gave him just the obvious) since he was wrong w/ BAKING.
July 4: Day 2 of College Week Spring Break that originally aired March 19th.
This was another ugly one in the subpar college week w/ BR wins on Monday & Friday & an awesome show on the latter date preventing total disaster & ultimately saving us from a season-low weekly total. This episode was a BANKRUPT-fest & was riddled w/ sloppy playing all around. Hannah Cairo was given the DESERVING $1K FLUNK-OUT award because she didn’t know a thing or two about REQUESTING MY TRANSCRIPTS even though she went to college, thinking B was the last remaining consonant of the puzzle below (REBUESTING?… Hannah, please explain.)…
R E _ _ E S T I N G / M Y
T R A N S C R I P T S
Second place finisher JJ Stewart wasn’t off the hook either. In the next round after Hannah’s epic fail, after he filled in an R for the 1/2 CAR near $900, a $1,200 N pair, & the last vowel of four I’s, he repeated the R while he was on the gift tag. SMH. Speaking of the ½ CAR, the ½ CAR tag between $650 and $900 was placed too high in R2, covering the dollar sign instead of the 5. This was fixed in R3.
After it was said & done, & the contestants combined for just a measly $21,655 plus a sizable BANKRUPT trash of $9,450 (excl. WC), winner Anika Malik was lost in the CROWDED WHARF (PLACE (my pick)) and so was $36K.
July 11: Day 5 of R & R week that originally aired May 24th.
The end-of-week show of our most reran week this season got off to a really bad start… Jennifer Salopek blew both of the opening Tossups, but here’s the $2K EVENT puzzle…
S _ _ _ _
P R _ V I _ W
She did so w/ SCREEN PREVIEW.
S _ E A _
P R E V I _ W
James Brennan had a brain fart…and Elisabethe Lucien said the answer without buzzing in, so we had our first & only TRIPLE STUMPER all season long. Despite that, we would get a SNEAK PREVIEW of the Round 1 puzzle.
Things didn’t get any better at the conclusion of an especially messy Mystery Round as since the $2K Tossup went unsolved we were $350 below the house minimum if both the opening tossups were to be solved (just $650 over the minimum for this scenario).
We could all thank that game-breaking $11,690 Emerald Waterways HUNGARY CRUISE plus the $3,450 from Jennifer’s R3 PR ($15,140 in total to bring her game total to $18,790 cash & cruise) for preventing complete disaster, as we had limited RSTLNE help in this 16-letter answer for a PLACE BR puzzle…
_ _ _ _ _ _ R _
_ _ _ E _ _ _ _
DGPO only added just a pair of this consonant…
_ _ _ _ _ _ R D
_ _ D E _ _ _ _
Sure enough, we had been SKUNKED for a record fourth straight week in a row. She wouldn’t be taking the $36K back to her BACKYARD HIDEAWAY.
And that was the end of the record 20-BR losing streak.
July 18: America’s Game V on the set of the awful “Island Hopping” that originally aired May 29th.
Where we had Brenda “Happi” Ness we also had Joy Utomi. There wasn’t much to this show except while Happi dominated & won $24,278 cash & Jamaica plus WC, her fellow panelists had an un-“Happi” time w/ the wheel & letters & only combined for $6K exclusively from the Tossups.
Happi made us “Happi” by choosing ON THE MAP for the BR. I knew this biggie already (the former was used in a bonus puzzle the previous season)…
_ _ _ _ _ N _ / _ N _
T _ E / _ _ _ _ T _ S
CDMA did some good, though her WC pick of H was a waste…
_ _ _ M _ N _ / A N D
T H E / D A _ _ T A S
But she didn’t locate the states of WYOMING AND THE DAKOTAS, so she lost the FIAT Spider and this taping day was a TOTAL WASHOUT (third of season).
July 25: Day 3 of the awful Delicious Destinations week that originally aired April 3 where the Gift Tag was $500 cash and a $500 gift certificate to See’s Candies.
This was a decent show overall in the midway portion of the week of the BACK-TO-BACK $100K LOSSES aside from a few things… after a little bit of work on R1 Megan Wilcox PAINFULLY BANKRUPTED near $650 to LOSE EVERYTHING — over $8,300 cash & N.O (the trip value was unknown but was said to be $6K+) as well as her extras. On to the Mystery Round, Rich Vehlow picked an H on the MW near LaT and obviously gambled…nothing there. Then we had this in the Bonus Round — after we saw her dad Bill, Kelly Skinner had landed on the second A of AMERICA’S. Lead-offs for a FOOD & DRINK puzzle (fitting for this theme week)…
_ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ S
_ N _ / _ L _ _ E S
PDMI added besides the obvious D…
_ _ M M _ / _ I _ S
_ N D / _ L I _ E S
She flubbed the last word at the buzzer w/ FLIES (Pat: And by the way, if that’s your specialty, I ain’t comin’ over for dinner.). The right foods for $36K were YUMMY FIGS AND OLIVES (and she said she hates the latter).
And apparently, on a side note, SOUPSPOONS in R4 should have been two words. Said round was also inexplicably categorized as AROUND THE HOUSE instead of IN THE KITCHEN. And in the end, Pat and Vanna did the closing chat on the steps in front of the Puzzle Board.
👥August 1: Day 1 of Girlfriend Getaways that originally aired a day before Adam’s bday.
Ladies and gentlemen… THE SATURDAY LOSING STREAK IS OVER!!!
Anyway, Sarah Denby & Jessica Finz played a nice game taking home $31,850 cash & Antigua ($12,700 from R5, which was a partial $6K speedup). They had this LIVING THINGS puzzle to work w/ in the BR…
_ _ L _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ L S
CDPI was reasonable enough…
_ I L D
D _ _ _ _ D I L S
…and they plucked some WILD DAFFODILS for $36K & left w/ $67,150 cash & trips!
August 8: The season-opening Teacher’s Week episode that originally aired September 10th.
I gotta say, this opener didn’t get off to the greatest of starts. We had this WAYD? puzzle for our very first $1K Tossup of Season 36…
_ N S _ _ R _ N G
_ O U _ G / _ _ N D S
Georgeanne Gedney goofed instantly w/ ANSWERING YOUNG…
_ N S _ _ R _ N G
Y O U _ G / _ I N D S
…while Mitch Hino knew that he was INSPIRING YOUNG MINDS.
Then, give us a handful of penalty hits in Round 1 & a PAINFUL BANKRUPT near TD to force Christina Hytinen to give up $10,550 cash & France in R2, & we get nothing above the minimum except for a MDW in play as of the end of R2, assuming both of the opening tossups were solved, as a result.
Don’t worry, it gets better from here. After GOING ABOARD on the EXPRESS Christina was gonna have some…
A M A Z I N G
A D V E N T U R E S
…at the Treasure Beach by Elegant Hotels in BARBADOS worth $8,766. That brought her up to $17,386 cash & trip.
The first Final Spin of the season was set at $1,700, so Georgeanne would have to kiss that MDW goodbye, securing the win for Christina.
They were offering a luxury car right off the bat and it was a 2019 Lincoln MKC. Christina might have found said vehicle under the P. Here’s one third of this 12-letter answer to an IN THE KITCHEN puzzle…
_ _ _ _ N _
_ _ S _ E S
Right away, somebody went for the dreaded PHGO combination (in that order, too) and that didn’t do her much good…
_ _ _ _ N G
_ _ S H E S
…but she would still be storing some BAKING DISHES in the back of the Lincoln MKC Reserve worth $45,490, giving her a final total of $62,856 cash & prizes.
And according to Pat, the new minimum was raised to $36K. I really wish they left it at $35K.
August 15: S37 rerun. Click HERE to see it.
August 22: Day 4 of Weekend Getaways that originally aired January 10th.
Well, just as we thought we were over S36 reruns we come right back to it the week after the first S37 Saturday rerun. Anyway, on the day before that HEARTBREAKING 11-SEC. $1 MILLION LOSS, the total winnings given away on this episode wasn’t so spectacular but Justin Welker just dominated. However, we got things a little up to speed w/ a FUN & GAMES puzzle. This is a popular game during Halloween…
_ _ _ _ _ N _ / _ _ R
_ _ _ L E S
MHPO gave him some more help, though D was no good…
_ O _ _ _ N _ / _ O R
_ P P L E S
He remembered BOBBING FOR APPLES, so he left w/ $51,150 cash & trip.
August 29: America’s Game I on the set of “Teacher’s Week” that originally aired November 5th & also previously ran on May 4th during the COVID-19 hiatus.
Although we had NO BANKRUPT TRASH & a high-scoring game the main game was quite a bit rocky. After Tammy Schmidt did most of the work on the Round 1 puzzle she called a CRITICAL DUD of Y to leave $5,200 cash & GT on the table. Round 2 didn’t fare any better as Tammy & Jim Gusick called a handful of duds & both of Cassie Arquette’s turns immediately ended on both the normal BANKRUPTs. Through all the duds, penalty hits & DQs from then on Jim proved victorious & everyone finished out w/ decent scores.
On to the IN THE KITCHEN Bonus Round, this long one started out as…
_ _ _ R _ _ _ _ E
E _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ E R
CHMO looked like good choices…
M _ C R O _ _ _ E
E _ _ / _ O _ C H E R
Jim took away the $36K from a MICROWAVE EGG POACHER and left w/ $51,714 cash & trip.
September 5: Day 5 of College Week Spring Break that originally aired March 22nd during March Madness.
I was preempted by March Madness in my area as I always am around that time of year on Thursdays & Fridays but I was able to post the recap w/ Bobby McBride’s assistance.
Although we had many BANKRUPTs (although only resulting in a moderately low BANKRUPT trash of $3,550 excl. WC) it was still a great night of cash & prizes given away where all three of the end-of-week students (incl. a festive Barton Christmas w/ members of the household named around the holiday) won five-digits of winnings & combined for an immense $55,237 grand total.
In the Bonus Round there were just two letters on top to start off for a WAYD? puzzle…
_ _ T _ N _
_ _ _ _ _
CGMA gave Bethany Patterson a decent shot…
A C T _ N G
G _ _ _ _
ACTING GREAT was a definite no-no, but she got the right answer at the last second, and we hoped she WASN’T ACTING GOOFY behind the wheel of the Golf GTI! Her final total in cash & car was $62,200!
Going back to Barton’s family, we have his grandma Merry Christmas, he has three dogs named Holly, Jingle Bell & Mistletoe, and cousins Candy and Noel.
September 12: Day 1 of the dreadful Delicious Destinations week that aired on April Fools’ Day (Adam recapped this episode).
Starting w/ this episode, the yellow $900 next to $700 would be present the whole game instead of just R3, which was NOT AN APRIL FOOLS’ JOKE.
On Pat Sajak’s Twitter, he told viewers to look for a major prank that happened this episode, which will be revealed in a moment.
Anyway, to kick off the week of the BACK-TO-BACK $100K LOSSES, R2 featured a Crossword Round that used only three rows and, in a very unusual move, said puzzle was on the second through fourth rows instead of the first through third rows. Also, both trips were worth over $10K and the PP offered a trip to the 2019 Maui Jim invitational. Caroline Mason had a great night w/ $20,474 cash + Maui Jim Maui Invitational as did Marcos Ochoa w/ $13,700 all-cash. And most importantly, we had NO BANKRUPT TRASH AND LAT HITS!
Fast forward to Bonusland… for an ESARHP (PHRASE) puzzle a letter popped up at the end of each line…
_ / _ _ _ E
_ _ _ / _ _ _ N
HDCA offered very limited help for Caroline…
_ / H _ _ E
_ _ _ / _ _ _ N
She was way off the target with I HIKE BOX DOWN. I HOPE YOU JOIN the admins at this site. As for the results, she lost grip on the $36K.
Pat Sajak announced that there was no April Fools pranks that day. Great job, Pat!
And this is the end of S36 Saturday Reruns with S38 premiering on 9/14/2020.
WHEEL of FORTUNE with Andy Nguyen 