“Wheel of Fortune” is adding a “rapid fire” new game called “Fortune Frenzy” for season 44, co-hosts Ryan Seacrest and Vanna White revealed on Tuesday — just days after former announcer Jim Thornton was fired following an alleged pedophilia chatroom scandal.
The famed on-air duo revealed Tuesday on “Good Morning America” that the new game — which will happen at the beginning of the show — offers contestants a chance to pocket a cool $1,000 for various puzzles they’re able to solve on-air.
“A lot of people say, ‘How do you get more games into the show?’” Seacrest told Will Reeve of the “exciting” change.
“That’s not a long show, so we’re squeezing more gameplay in at the top of the show with a rapid fire game that we just started to add, which I love.”
The rapid-fire nature of the game may also work to “shake off the nerves of the contestants at the top [of the show] because they’re so excited,” Seacrest, 51, explained.
He added, “The adrenaline is pumping and rushing, and they’ve got to focus right into playing the game, and I noticed that with some of the first episodes.”
White, 69, agreed with Seacrest. “Yes, there’s nothing else to think about but ‘solve that puzzle.’ It’s gotta be quick, so they have nothing else on their mind but solving,” she remarked.
Season 44 is set to debut on Monday, Sept. 14. A rep for the show did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment on Tuesday.
The news comes after ex-“Wheel of Fortune” announcer Thornton, 61, was axed from the game show Friday, several months after a fellow plane passenger took photos of him appearing to engage in an alleged online pedophilia chatroom and alerted a flight attendant.
“Jim Thornton’s employment with ‘Wheel of Fortune’ has been terminated, effective immediately,” a Sony Pictures Television Studios spokesperson told Page Six Friday.
News broke on Sept. 1 that Thornton had been suspended from his job on the game show following the alleged incident, which took place on May 14 on an American Airlines flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Los Angeles.
“We have recently been made aware of allegations concerning Jim Thornton,” a Sony Pictures Television Studios representative previously told Page Six at the time, adding, “He has been suspended from ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ and we are recasting while we conduct a thorough investigation.”
A rep for the airline told Page Six the flight “was met by law enforcement upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport following concerns reported by a customer onboard.”
Lawyer Allison Hart, who represents the former announcer, wrote in a statement that her famous client “did not engage in any illegal conduct, was not arrested and has not been charged with any crime.”
“When questioned about the complaint made by a fellow passenger on the flight, law enforcement spoke to [Thornton] for five minutes or less, immediately determined that no wrongdoing had occurred and told my client he was free to go,” she claimed.
On Sept. 2, TMZ subsequently reported that “Wheel of Fortune” was rushing to edit Thornton from the upcoming season — which an insider called a “major undertaking.”
Hart elaborated on details of the alleged incident on Sept 3, claiming to Page Six that the TV personality had been “misdirected” to lifeline.chat — despite allegedly meaning to visit 988lifeline.org and its chat forum, chat.988lifeline.org.
The latter site is known for offering suicide prevention support to people experiencing mental health crises.
Hart said the now-former game show personality “did not know that the website lifeline.chat claims to offer mental health support to individuals with pedophilic thoughts,” and further insisted that he “left the page and has not visited since” when he realized the site’s true intent.
Hart — stressing that her client “did nothing wrong” — said the website lifeline.chat “is not unlawful” and has “no unlawful child pornography or other pedophilic content.”
Thornton “has never viewed, downloaded or consumed any child pornography whether on that commercial flight in May or at any other time,” she said, adding that her client “was never arrested or charged with a crime” and that cops “immediately confirmed that no crime had occurred” and told Thornton he was “free to go” after questioning.
Following Hart’s statements to Page Six, TMZ published photos taken by the nearby passenger, showing Thornton allegedly participating in the chatroom for nearly an hour per a timestamp in the screenshots.
In a pair of the snapshots, messages seemingly written by Thornton — clad in a “Wheel of Fortune” jacket — were shown in the chat bar and later sent to the forum under the username “NicholasB77,” according to pics.
User “NicholasB77” appeared to comment that the Golden Corral restaurant is a “nice hangout for kids” and that they saw “a couple of cute boys and a hot little girl” the day prior. The user wrote in a subsequent message, “All-you-can-eat Boyffet.”
Per additional photos published by TMZ on Friday, Thornton appeared to enter a question about “panic” into Google search on his smart phone after he told by a flight attendant to shut down his laptop.
The A.I. response — largely obscured by his hand and the angle of the photo — read, “No link to your room: Unless you explicitly told someone ‘I am hosting this specific chatroom on for right now,’ nobody … at your internet … and link your … identity to … room.”
Another line appeared to read, “Why You … to Panic.”
On Saturday, TMZ reported that the former “Wheel of Fortune” personality had shut down his Facebook page amid the scandal, while the show allegedly “scrubbed” him from their social media accounts.
Thornton — who has not addressed his termination publicly and has not been charged nor arrested in connection with the incident — shares one son with longtime wife Sue Thornton.
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