The Season 44 premiere kicked off and a new voice was heard at the beginning, middle, and end of the episode. And it was a voice that was clearly not Thornton’s. Here’s What ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Fans Are Saying About New Announcer
‘Wheel of Fortune’ Fans Are Saying This About New Announcer
The new season of Wheel of Fortune brought a lot of changes, from the “Fortune Frenzy” round to a new announcer. Jim Thornton, who had been part of the game show since 2011, was fired after he reportedly accessed a disturbing website on a passenger plane.
The Season 44 premiere kicked off on Monday, September 14, and a new voice was heard at the beginning, middle, and end of the episode. “Ladies and gentlemen, here are the stars of our show, Ryan Seacrest and Vanna White,” the announcer said at the beginning. And it was a voice that was clearly not Thornton’s.
Then, throughout the episode, the unknown announcer talked about the trip to Greece during the prize puzzle. At the end of the show, the voice said that the contestant won $71,000. A new announcer has not yet been officially announced, and Thornton was scrapped from all of the previous episodes he had already filmed. The mystery person was not a known voice like Jeopardy!‘s Johnny Gilbert or The Price Is Right‘s George Gray.
For that reason, fans think the show may be using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) voice, or maybe a show crew member or a last-minute replacement with an announcer voice. Either way, some viewers ween’t impressed.
“New announcer isn’t great,” a Reddit user said. “Obviously they needed to make a change with short notice, but this guy sounds pretty robotic and not fun to listen to at all. Hopefully he’s just temporary. There’s a ton of voice talent available, so I’m surprised they didn’t find someone more talented.”
“It is AI!” one fan said.
“AI for now anyway,” another wrote.
“There are a lot of great announcers out there that, surely, would’ve stepped in. This almost had to be AI. There was nobody credited as announcing during the credit roll. It messed up a word when announcing the prize money. It sounded awful. Zero excuse for this,” a third added.
“Pretty sure it’s AI,” a fan said.
“Wait… Did they seriously use AI? Can anyone confirm? If so that’s pretty tone deaf,” one fan wondered.
“I think it sounded AI because it wasn’t a live voice in the studio. I’m hoping they improve this scenario with time. Ultimately, this is a very small and unimportant detail to the game itself as long as we can hear and understand what’s being said. The bar doesn’t need to be high,” a fan wrote.
Some fans speculated that it could be Wheel of Fortune‘s stage manager Jimmy McGuire. If that is the case, fans said to “cut him some slack” because he’s new to the position and it was a rushed decision.
Thornton was first suspended from the show at the beginning of September when the news broke. After details surrounding what allegedly happened came out, he was fired and taken out of the show completely. His voice was removed from Season 44 episodes that had already recorded and replaced with the mystery new voice. As to who or what it belongs to, only time will tell. Stay tune to find out Thornton’s long-term replacement.
Wheel of Fortune, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock
