Ryan Seacrest's first week as host of Wheel of Fortune pulled in a lot of curious viewers - who then seemed to stick around past his debut episode. Seacrest took over as host of the syndicated game show following Pat Sajak's retirement at the end of the 2023-24 season after four decades fronting the show.

Gamers definitely wanted to check out what Ryan Seacrest had to offer on Wheel of Fortune. The syndicated show averaged 8.31 million viewers during its premiere week ending September 15 — its largest premiere week audience in five years,

Its average household rating was 4.88. This 8.1 million is a 21-percent increase from the September 2023 Season 41’s premiere week, which had an episode average of 6.87 million viewers, per The Hollywood Reporter. The first four episodes of the second week averaged just under 8 million viewers per episode.