The station scored a major coup in early 2004 just before Ken Jennings started his record "Jeopardy!" winning streak, when the perceived costs and demographics of syndication of that show, along with Sony Pictures Television/King World companion show "Wheel of Fortune", led to WTMJ-TV deciding not to renew rights to either series. Channel 4 had aired the syndication version of "Wheel of Fortune" since its premiere in 1983, and had aired "Jeopardy!" since its 1984 premiere. WDJT snapped up the rights for both game shows beginning in September 2005, and decided to schedule them in their traditional block scheduling setup between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00p.m. before primetime; the station had dropped its 6p.m. newscast several years before to carry the first two seasons of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" at 6p.m., which later moved to WISN-TV. "Jeopardy!" then gained ratings being led in by the "CBS Evening News" rather than low-tier programming such as "American Journal" in its former 3:00 p.m. berth on WTMJ. With both programs united in the pre-prime time slot, they have continued to do well on WDJT, easily outrating their competition of 6p.m. local news on the other three Milwaukee stations, along with entertainment newsmagazine programming at 6:30 p.m. WTMJ has since struggled with either lower-tier entertainment newsmagazines or local newscasts in the 6:30 p.m. timeslot.