LogFAQs > #947452063

They never film on location anymore, they'll do theme weeks based on cities that they would've traveled to in the past but just film it in LA now (this has been the case for a few years now, it's not just because of Covid)

During said "salute to [city]" weeks they get rid of the fun "Pat and Vanna talk about whatever random thing's on their minds" endings for really crappy pre-recorded segments with them plugging some business or park or museum in the city of the week (usually eating at a restaurant)

Also in general their need to have every week have some kind of theme, which just feels forced a lot of the time. It used to just be the prizes offered and the first toss-up puzzle being related to the week's theme but recently more and more of the puzzles (aside from the bonus round and prize puzzle) seem to deliberately be chosen to invoke the theme. Probably the biggest offender is the annual "big money" week which despite the name offers the exact same amount of money as every other week.

On the same line as the themed puzzles, they frequently make the speed-up round puzzle stupidly meta ("declaring victory", "coming from behind", "winning lots of money", etc.)

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