Which show comes on first? Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune?

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Depending on what television market you live in, you may get one TV show before you get the other.



I live in Waterloo, Iowa, where the two shows air on KWWL, the local NBC station. While they weren't back to back, I remember Jeopardy airing in the afternoon and Wheel airing right before prime time. Tomorrow, Wednesday the 26th, the new episode of Jeopardy will air on KWWL at 4pm, followed by Inside Edition at 4:30, the KWWL News at 5, NBC Nightly News at 5:30, the KWWL News at 6, and eventually Wheel of Fortune at 6:30.

However, in my parents' home town and a place I often visited as a child, things were different. Clear Lake lies in the Mason City-Rochester-Austin-Albert Lea, IA/MN market, where the two shows air on KIMT, the local CBS station up there. I remember Wheel airing before Jeopardy, but looking at local listings up there tells me that things must've changed, now the new Jeopardy airs at 3:30 and the new Wheel at 6:30, with two and a half hours of local news and the CBS Evening News separating them.

I know this is weird nerd sh!t, but I needed to vent.

(Map credit by GraphGraph)

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Tbh, though, I definitely prefer having Wheel air first myself: it gets me into game-show mode for the clearly superior Chad that is Jeopardy!, whereas doing Wheel after already experiencing J!'s euphoria is just miserable.

The solution to this is to watch Jeopardy and then switch channels or turn off the TV; I have never understood the appeal of watching Wheel of Fortune to begin with.

In my subjective opinion, I actually like Wheel. I agree 100% that J! is more fun to watch, although Wheel is a nice, relaxed show. Maybe because I'm not picky when it comes to game shows, maybe it's because I have deeply sentimental memories of watching it with my grandma as a little Koop, but it still holds a deep place in my heart.

Will definitely admit that the show was a bit better when it didn't have all these weird inclusions (like the Express or Crossword) fit in, one of the best parts about J! is that the only thing that has really changed about its core format over the past half-century are its host and the dollar amounts on the board. Even the theme has stayed largely the same, it seems like Wheel definitely has an identity crisis in terms of its branding.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Tbh, though, I definitely prefer having Wheel air first myself: it gets me into game-show mode for the clearly superior Chad that is Jeopardy!, whereas doing Wheel after already experiencing J!'s euphoria is just miserable.

The solution to this is to watch Jeopardy and then switch channels or turn off the TV; I have never understood the appeal of watching Wheel of Fortune to begin with.

In my subjective opinion, I actually like Wheel. I agree 100% that J! is more fun to watch, although Wheel is a nice, relaxed show. Maybe because I'm not picky when it comes to game shows, maybe it's because I have deeply sentimental memories of watching it with my grandma as a little Koop, but it still holds a deep place in my heart.

Will definitely admit that the show was a bit better when it didn't have all these weird inclusions (like the Express or Crossword) fit in, one of the best parts about J! is that the only thing that has really changed about its core format over the past half-century are its host and the dollar amounts on the board. Even the theme has stayed largely the same, it seems like Wheel definitely has an identity crisis in terms of its branding.

Sans 2000-21

Did the Jeopardy theme change during the turn of the century? I remember the specific performance changed in 97, and again in 08 and (I think) 21, but I don't recall the theme tune itself changing.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Tbh, though, I definitely prefer having Wheel air first myself: it gets me into game-show mode for the clearly superior Chad that is Jeopardy!, whereas doing Wheel after already experiencing J!'s euphoria is just miserable.

The solution to this is to watch Jeopardy and then switch channels or turn off the TV; I have never understood the appeal of watching Wheel of Fortune to begin with.

In my subjective opinion, I actually like Wheel. I agree 100% that J! is more fun to watch, although Wheel is a nice, relaxed show. Maybe because I'm not picky when it comes to game shows, maybe it's because I have deeply sentimental memories of watching it with my grandma as a little Koop, but it still holds a deep place in my heart.

Will definitely admit that the show was a bit better when it didn't have all these weird inclusions (like the Express or Crossword) fit in, one of the best parts about J! is that the only thing that has really changed about its core format over the past half-century are its host and the dollar amounts on the board. Even the theme has stayed largely the same, it seems like Wheel definitely has an identity crisis in terms of its branding.

Sans 2000-21

Did the Jeopardy theme change during the turn of the century? I remember the specific performance changed in 97, and again in 08 and (I think) 21, but I don't recall the theme tune itself changing.

J!'s tune itself has never changed, although the instrumentation thereof certainly has (at the points in time that you pointed out), whereas Wheel's theme tune itself actually changed from 2000-21.

Yeah, that's what I implied, Wheel's theme was different from the original one, and I think they also have a new new theme that was done a few years ago, but idk

The point I was trying to make is that J! has had a constant and consistent identity while Wheel keeps having to reinvent itself.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

And another thing, what do the AK and HI markets air first?

From looking at TV Guides on Wednesday, February 2:

Anchorage - KYUR ABC 13, Jeopardy at 6, Wheel at 6:30
Fairbanks - KATN ABC 2, Jeopardy at 6, Wheel at 6:30
Juneau - KJUD ABC 8, Jeopardy at 6, Wheel at 6:30
Ketchikan - In the Anchorage market where J! is first, but local cable provider KPU apparently airs stations from the Seattle market, where KOMO CBS 4 airs Wheel at 7 and Jeopardy at 7:30.
Honolulu - Interestingly enough, Hawaii airs the two shows on different stations. Jeopardy airs its new episode on KGMB CBS 5 at 4:30, but Wheel is on KHON FOX 2 at 6:30.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Tacking on to all this, do you guys get only the new episode of J! or do you get it alongside a rerun? Here in Waterloo, KWWL airs a rerun of Jeopardy from a few months ago at 3pm, followed by an episode of 25 Words or Less at 3:30pm (which is a slot formerly occupied by the infinitely superior WWTBAM) and the day's new episode of Jeopardy at 4pm, obviously all CT. For example, next Monday (1/31) will feature S38E46 from November 15, 2021 at 3pm and the new S38E101 from January 31, 2022 at 4pm.