and I think Burton filled in once because Rich had laryngitis.
He did -- December 22, 2006.
Likewise, Wheel did on-air auditions after Charlie's death (although I doubt the 3 weeks Johnny Gilbert did were true "auditions" so much as a last-minute replacement).
Johnny's first and third weeks were definitely that, as I think Pat noted it at least once; the second was more "Hey, Charlie died, could you dub over these five episodes for us?"
in addition to everything being done in post, a lot of shows knock out their seasons over the summer or in a month or two, so it's not like Joey Fatone* has to worry about whether Chris Kirkpatrick can fill in for him this coming Tuesday, with Lance Bass announcing on Thursday.
*/Gotta admit, that was a left-field choice for Family Feud
Not really. Fatone's work for
Feud has amounted to
one opening spiel, which got chopped down in post after the show left Orlando. Say what you want about Burton, but at least he was there in the studio.
If an announcer isn't available, just dub him in post.
It's quite possible that an announcer
has missed tapings, but the sub wasn't acknowledged on-camera and the show acted as if the regular announcer was always there. I once read that
Jeopardy! does that if Johnny Gilbert is unavailable.
I think part of the problem is that some announcers sound pre-recorded, such as Rolonda Watts on
Temptation and all the Season 28 subs on
Wheel, when in at least some cases they were actually in the studio.
