Wheel of Fortune History Wiki
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Given the number of years Wheel of Fortune has been on and the scope of this Wiki, it is no surprise that there are some frequently-asked questions about various elements. This page will attempt to answer some of them.

If you have any questions for this page, feel free to ask on the talk page.

You may also want to see Misconceptions and Myths, which addresses and responds to various rumors that have come up over the years.

General/Miscellaneous[]

Was the show always called Wheel of Fortune?[]

The show was originally called Shopper's Bazaar when it was first developed in 1973. The more familiar title appears to have been introduced in early August 1974, as a Variety blurb from July 31 uses the original name.

Does the 1973 pilot still exist?[]

While creator Merv Griffin and Lin Bolen (then NBC's Vice President of Daytime Programming) did not like it, admitting its shortcomings during the show's E! True Hollywood Story, Shopper's Bazaar nonetheless exists and can be found online. Interestingly, Wheel is aware of this fact.

The most likely reasons why it has never aired on television are its length (30+ minutes without commercials) and music rights, as instrumental versions of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and "Spinning Wheel" were used as the main and commercial outro themes, respectively.

When was the "Wheel! Of! Fortune!" chant introduced?[]

August 8, 1983, the same day "Changing Keys" became the main theme. The nighttime show, which began taping in early July 1983, had the chant from its first episode.

How many versions have there been?[]

In the United States, four: the original daytime series (1975-91), the current nighttime run (which debuted in 1983), Wheel 2000 (1997-98), and Celebrity Wheel of Fortune (which debuted in 2021). There was also Wheel of Fortune - Live!, a traveling show during the late 1990s.

The show has been exported to quite a few countries since 1975, including adaptations of Wheel 2000. Info on them can be found here.

So why did the daytime version end?[]

The daytime show's demise can be traced back to several factors, all following Pat's departure:

  • His replacement by Rolf Benirschke, a former football player who had rarely been on television and never hosted a game show until doing an audition for Merv's Winfall (which led to one for Wheel). While a genial person, Rolf was visibly nervous early on and unfamiliar with some of the game's rules; this was not helped by a pre-emption which caused his first four shows to air the same week as Pat's last day.
  • The Price Is Right continuing to climb the Nielsen ratings and, despite being head-to-head with the show's first half, Wheel managing to remain consistent in the audience figures it had prior to Pat's departure. While it is likely that some of the Wheel audience tuned out after Pat left, this was clearly not enough to move the show out of its #2 slot, though Price's increases caused it to become a progressively more distant #2.
  • Due to the ratings, NBC and Merv were unable to come up with a license fee agreement. NBC cancelled the show, kicking them out from its Burbank studios after the June 30, 1989 episode despite the studio contract being scheduled to expire in 1990. CBS quickly picked up Wheel for a July 17 return, giving it an audiovisual makeover, a new host (Bob Goen), and switching the format to a scaled-down version of the play-for-cash style the nighttime show had been using since October 1987.
  • At about this point, the game show genre as a whole (more specifically, in regard to the broadcast networks) began a downslide that would not fully manifest until 1994. Wheel's ratings began falling upon the move to CBS, continuing to fall after returning to the NBC schedule on January 14, 1991.
  • Following the return to NBC, the show held at least two play-by-phone contests in an attempt to boost ratings (Cashpot in February-March and Summer Vacation Bonanza in June-July), as well as two play-by-phone games not known to have been plugged on-air (Phone Wheel of Fortune in March and Wheel of Fortune by Phone around mid-July). None worked, and may have been seen as a last-ditch grab for ratings.
  • The show was drawing older demographics than most advertisers were looking for at the time (generally those aged 18-49), resulting in fewer sponsors (or at least a smaller diversity of them) as 1991 progressed.

Daytime Wheel took its last bow on September 20, 1991 after three weeks of repeats.

What about Wheel 2000?[]

While the child-oriented version followed in its adult predecessors' footsteps by consistently being #1 among CBS' children's programming, it finished (after its last first-run episode on February 7, 1998) in 46th place overall with approximately 350,000 viewers. This was still better than the average for the entire lineup CBS was offering that season, which continually ran a distant fourth with a 0.5 (about 190,000 viewers).

On January 8, with five episodes left to air, CBS announced that it would be overhauling its weekend schedule, replacing everything with new cartoons by Nelvana (Anatole, Mythic Warriors, Birdz, and Flying Rhino Junior High). Birdz ran for just one season of 13 episodes, while the others got two seasons and 26 episodes.

The demise of Wheel 2000 has actually left at least one notable effect on the adult version: while Jep! (a child-oriented version of Jeopardy!) also ran for one season but paved the way for regular Kids' Weeks, the adult Wheel has not used children as contestants since the mid-1990s My Favorite Teacher weeks; this was particularly obvious in a 2011 Family Week sponsored and promoted by Wendy's, as the fast-food chain had done so solely through their Kids' Meals.

During the New York City tapings of March 2013, two children in the audience asked Vanna White and current announcer Jim Thornton if there would be a Kids Week; the response from Jim was that Wheel would consider it.

How many daytime episodes were made?[]

Not counting the three pilots, 4,215. This number was given by Peter Tomarken during GSN's first day in 1994, just before the nighttime Wheel debut was shown.

Wheel 2000 had 22 episodes and two pilots.

When did the daytime and nighttime versions tape?[]

The daytime Wheel began taping in December 1974, and the original NBC run most likely wrapped in mid-June 1989. The CBS version taped from July 14, 1989 through about December 1990, with the return to NBC being taped from about January-August 1991.

Nighttime Wheel began taping on July 6, 1983, over a month before "Changing Keys" became the main theme on the daytime show, although it is believed the latter changed its cues at the same point taping-wise. This version taped at Television City from about August 1989 through May 1995.

(The reason why the taping period for the daytime show at Television City is uncertain is due to the official Television City website, which has a list of what shows taped in which studios going back to September 1953. For whatever reason, the list does not count the daytime and nighttime versions of Wheel separately, a trait also present with The Price Is Right, Card Sharks, and Family Feud among others.)

Where did the show tape?[]

Wheel has had three permanent taping locations:

  • NBC Studios (Studio 4), Burbank, California: January 6, 1975 - June 30, 1989
  • CBS Television City (Studio 33), Los Angeles, California: July 17, 1989 - June 23, 1995
  • Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, California: September 4, 1995 - present

Does the nighttime Wheel air on network television?[]

The nighttime version has always been syndicated, which means that it airs on stations that pay the syndicator (currently CBS Media Ventures, formerly CBS Television Distribution, which, in turn, replaced original syndicator King World) a fee to "subscribe" to an official feed of the show, which in turn provides the stations with the episodes and promos for each week of the season. This also applies to Jeopardy!, which did not have a concurrent network run when it was revived in 1984.

Until the 2020s, Wheel and Jeopardy! had not aired in first-run on network television for many years. Celebrity Wheel of Fortune began airing on ABC in the first quarter of 2021.

Does Wheel always air before Jeopardy!?[]

No. Since the two shows are syndicated, they don't have a "set" time slot, and as such many affiliates do air Jeopardy! first. In most markets based in the Central and Mountain Time Zones, Jeopardy! airs several hours before Wheel in the morning or afternoon, instead of the two being paired in an hour block. In many cases, the two are also carried on separate stations, though they are never scheduled to air at the same time. In the Central Time Zone, Wheel airs almost-exclusively at 6:30 PM, except for the Lake Charles, Louisiana area, where FOX affiliate KVHP airs the show at 6:00 PM instead.

Also, unlike Wheel, a secondary feed of Jeopardy!, consisting entirely of repeats from the previous season, is carried by some markets under the title Daytime Jeopardy! (this title is not used on air).

What is the earliest time that Wheel airs?[]

In the United States, Wheel's earliest airings are typically at 7:00 PM Eastern time on various affiliates based in the East Coast (as well as the aforementioned KVHP at 6:00 PM Central).

On Thursdays during NFL season and on days with World Series games, FOX affiliate WLUK-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin airs Wheel at 5:30 PM Central Time, an hour earlier than usual, due to the pregame shows. During Season 37, WXIX-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio also moved the show an hour early on these days, to 6:00 PM Eastern (with Jeopardy! moving from 7:30 to Wheel's usual 7:00 time slot). However, this is no longer the case, due to WXIX since adding a 6:00 PM newscast.

In North America overall, Wheel's earliest airing is on CJON (branded on-air as "NTV"), a station based in Newfoundland, Canada, at 5:00 PM local time, or 3:30 PM Eastern time — three and a half hours before the earliest U.S. airings. This station is also carried on various digital and satellite TV providers across Canada.

On rare occasion, a local station may choose to air Wheel in an earlier time slot if its regular time slot is planned to be pre-empted, although it is more common for Wheel to air overnight, not at all, or sometime the following day or weekend. The earliest known local airing of Wheel was on September 10, 2020 (the Season 37 finale), when NBC affiliate WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts aired it on its CW+-affiliated digital subchannel at 4:30 AM Eastern Time that morning, fourteen and a half hours earlier than usual, due to the NFL season's kickoff game pre-empting the show's regular time slot.

Jeopardy!'s earliest known airing is at 11:00 AM Central time in some Texas markets.

Are the episodes that air on Saturdays new?[]

Nationally, with only one known exception, no. The episodes shown on Saturdays (or Sundays) are always repeats from the previous season (or on rare occasion, from the current season). For ratings purposes, these episodes are given the title "Wheel of Fortune Weekend", and are officially referred to as "Saturday Reruns" on their slates, even if the affiliate opts to air it on a Sunday or early Monday morning. These repeats usually have no relation to the episodes aired during the previous weekdays, and, with rare exception, are not second repeats of episodes that were included in that season's summer rerun period. Originally, new SPIN ID drawings were edited into these shows, though this practice stopped in Season 31.

The only exception was on November 12, 2016, in which a new episode, originally scheduled for Friday the 11th, was scheduled (although many affiliates ended up not airing it due to overrun from College Football). This was due to the second through fifth shows of that week (Veterans Week) being delayed by one day due to Election Day coverage pre-empting Wheel in most of the United States on Tuesday, November 8. Any stations that did air Wheel that day showed the repeat that was originally scheduled for Saturday the 12th.

While the aforementioned episode is the only national first-run Saturday airing of Wheel to date, sometimes local stations will independently use a similar tactic for airing episodes if there is a pre-emption, with the Friday episode airing on Saturday and the weekend repeat airing on Sunday or not at all. Stations will also sometimes replace the weekend repeat with a first-run weekday episode that was pre-empted earlier that week. Until 2005, ABC affiliates in the West Coast would air a week's episodes from Tuesday through Saturday on weeks with Monday Night Football, with some showing the weekend repeat in late-night time slots on Mondays. This was mentioned in a clause in various Wheel sweepstakes rules at the time, and was also acknowledged on the show by Pat at least once.

Unlike weekday airings of Wheel, stations are allowed to air weekend repeats outside of the usual evening time slot if need be, sometimes airing them earlier, later, or on Sundays instead, usually when other programming pre-empts the Saturday time slot. During College Football season, the weekend run often gets pre-empted, mostly on ABC and CBS affiliates, due to games running over their network time slots and causing Wheel, often scheduled afterwards, to get pre-empted in part or in full due to either the game itself, or by a delayed local newscast or postgame show being forced to take over the rest of the time slot. Several affiliates do not air the weekend run of Wheel at all until after College Football season ends, or they temporarily schedule it in an alternate time slot, usually overnight or on Sunday afternoons. Consequently, the new episode that aired November 12, 2016 was not seen in several markets.

A small number of affiliates opt to regularly schedule Wheel's weekend repeats on Sundays instead of Saturdays and/or on different stations than the weekday shows. As of 2021, there are still two markets that do not carry Wheel's weekend feed at all: Springfield, Massachusetts (WWLP) and Harrisonburg, Virginia (WHSV-TV). Despite WWLP not carrying Wheel on weekends, they do carry Jeopardy!. WSHV does not air either game show on weekends. There are also some markets that carry Wheel of Fortune Weekend, but not Jeopardy! Weekend.

Have vowels always cost $250?[]

On the nighttime show including the primetime Celebrity show (and Wheel 2000, which used points), yes.

For the daytime show, it was dropped to $200 on July 17, 1989 (when it switched to the play-for-cash format) and again to $100 sometime between April 3 and July 5, 1990.

Has the show always run for 30 minutes?[]

No. Wheel has had two stints as an hour-long program:

  • From November 3-7, 1975, and again from December 1 of that year through January 16, 1976. The former was for NBC's Daytime Gigantic Game Gala, while the latter was likely in response to the ratings of the one-week stint. Rather than have three contestants play for an hour, the show used a tournament-style format:
    • Three contestants (including the returning champion, if applicable) played a three-round game during the first half-hour with $500, $1,000, and $1,500 as the top values ($1,000/$2,000/$2,500 during the week of November 3). Immediately afterward, a second set of contestants played a three-round game much like the first.
    • The winners of each game then played a one-round "Head-To-Head All-Cash Showdown" for the championship with $2,000 as top value ($2,500 during the week of November 3) and the puzzle chosen in front of the puzzle board (reading WHEEL OF FORTUNE, per recollections) from one of three bowls marked by category. This round also included a featured prize, present as a "bonus marker" on the Wheel as a token or wedge. If a contestant picked it up and hit Bankrupt, it was placed back on the Wheel.
  • Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, which debuted in 2021. Aside from having three players for the full hour, the Toss-Ups, and two Bonus Rounds instead of a Head-To-Head round, the format is remarkably similar to that of the original one (even limiting Final Spins to the second game).

Five winners from the original hour period and four from the preceding half-hour shows were invited back for a special tournament called "NBC's All Star Dream Machine Championship", held the week of January 19, 1976. On the June 7, 1976 episode, Chuck specifically asks an offstage staff member what the single-round record winnings are "for a half-hour show", suggesting that the show kept the stats for the 30- and 60-minute formats separate from each other.

Several ideas used in the original hour format came back later: $2,000 returned as the top value for Rounds 3+ in 1979, the "bonus prize on the Wheel" concept was revived as the Prize wedge for the nighttime show in 1983 (and returned to the daytime show in 1989), and the $2,500 space returned for the nighttime version in 1987. The idea of players picking one of three categories for a specific round returned on Wheel 2000 for all puzzles of the front game, then again on the parent show starting in 2017 for the Bonus Round.

Today, however, the 1975-76 hour-long shows are a rather obscure footnote in the show's history.

What was the Big Month of Cash?[]

A special event from October 5-30, 1987 on the nighttime version, in which the shopping element was temporarily dropped four weeks into Season 5 in favor of playing for cash, including a $25,000 cash prize being offered in the Bonus Round. It also saw the debut of a new game structure: where the top Wheel values had previously been a minimum of three rounds with $1,000/$1,000/$5,000 as the top values in each, the game was now a four-round minimum with top values of $1,000/$2,500/$3,500/$5,000.

The change was deemed such a success that the show opted to continue it "by popular demand" on November 2, renaming it the Big Bonanza of Cash. The "Big Bonanza" title and spiel were dropped sometime between February 12 and March 23, 1988, subtly noting that cash was here to stay.

Why are relatively few daytime episodes out there?[]

Until the 1970s, television was generally seen as one-time programming, usually by networks but also by individual companies: if a show was not viable for repeats either on a network, in syndication, or in other countries, the tapes were usually wiped and reused. Kinescopes did not come into general use until about the late 1940s, while videotape did not come into professional use until about 1956; further, early videotapes were bulky and expensive, hence the process of wiping.

The wiping process affected well over a thousand shows, including Wheel; the last network to quit was NBC, in 1980. According to a King World representative in 2006, it was policy at Merv Griffin Productions/Enterprises to wipe and reuse the tapes, a policy that was eventually stopped sometime in 1985.

Aside from this, Game Show Network has never held the rights to air the daytime version, only airing three episodes (one each from 1976, 1982, and 1989) as part of a marathon after Merv's death in 2007, and even then there has been some suspicion among fans that GSN's copies came from the Paley Center for Media.

A list of daytime episodes that we know to exist can be viewed here, which also includes a list of what post-1985 episodes are known to circulate among collectors. Additions and corrections are of course appreciated.

Which version is referenced in Billy Joel's 1989 historical song We Didn't Start the Fire?[]

While the show's placement between "Russians in Afghanistan" and "Sally Ride" covers the 1979-83 timeframe, the lack of any 1980-82 events would appear to suggest the nighttime show (despite it debuting about three months after Ride's space trip in June 1983).

Did the 5,000th show that aired on December 21, 1989 count both versions?[]

Yes. During the final segment, Vanna and Bob namedropped Merv and their predecessors (Chuck Woolery, Susan Stafford, Summer Bartholomew, Pat Sajak, Rolf Benirschke, and Alex Trebek) for their contributions to this number and, by extension, Wheel's 15 years on the air. While Edd Byrnes was not mentioned, this was likely because his contributions to the franchise were limited to the 1974 pilots, neither of which aired.

During these namedrops, a short clip was shown from the celebration party with Merv, Bob, Pat, and Charlie O'Donnell visible.

The daytime version did not reach 5,000 episodes, and the syndicated version alone did not reach this milestone until 2009.

When did the show first do special or themed weeks?[]

The earliest known instance of special shows is the week of March 10-14, 1975, which served as a qualifying week for NBC's "Shamrock Sweepstakes" event: the biggest winner on each of NBC's then-current games that week joined their respective show's host on the March 17 episode of Celebrity Sweepstakes for a chance at $100,000 by answering a difficult multi-part question. More information can be found on Wheel of Fortune timeline (network) under "March 1975".

The first known explicitly-themed week is NBC's All Star Dream Machine Championship, held January 19-23, 1976.

The earliest known recurring themed week is Brides Week, known to have been done on January 24-28, 1977; February 6-10, 1978; and June 8-12, 1981. During these weeks, the contestants were brides-to-be, with the shopping area containing numerous wedding-related items (including gowns that on at least the 1977 week were modeled by Summer Bartholomew). The 1977 week is also known to have had grooms-to-be playing on the Wednesday episode.

When were the first road shows taped and aired?[]

The first example of what are generally considered "road shows" are the nighttime weeks of November 14 and 21, 1988, which were taped on October 26-27 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Before this, Wheel taped a week of shows at the Ohio State Fair in 1983 in advance of the syndicated version's debut. While these aired on at least four stations in the state during the week of August 29, they appear to have been "mock" games created for locals to play and by all indication are not considered part of the official episode count. Presumably as a result, they were also not aired by GSN when the network had the rights to Season 1.

What was the 1950s Wheel of Fortune?[]

A Peter Arnell series hosted by Todd Russell with Hal Simms as announcer, which aired on CBS from October 3, 1952 to December 24, 1953. The theme was Kay Starr's 1952 rendition of "Wheel of Fortune".

Unlike contemporary games Queen For a Day and Strike It Rich, which simultaneously helped and exploited the poor and downtrodden for ratings to the dismay of both contemporary and modern critics, Wheel invited good Samaritans to share their stories to America (including Duane Dewey, the first person to receive a Medal of Honor from President Dwight D. Eisenhower) and spin a vertical carnival-style Wheel...although exactly how the game was played is unclear, as nothing is known to exist outside of three publicity shots. One of the set pieces was a Jackpot Wheel with various cash values (at least $300, $400, $500, $600, $800, $900, and $1,000) and question amounts (at least "1 out of 2", "2 out of 3", "3 out of 3", "2 out of 4", "3 out of 4", and "4 out of 4"); the "out of" signs likely corresponded to the values and question difficulty: easier questions and/or less right answers for $300 and $400, harder and/or more for $900 and $1,000.

While Merv's format was not based on Arnell's, much as the A&Q concept of Jeopardy! was not based on Gil Fates' 1941-42 CBS Television Quiz, the two Wheels nonetheless have marked similarities – the 1950s Wheel offered cash and prizes, had its logo in the center of the Wheel (as a permanent decoration rather than a graphic, with "Wheel" and "Fortune" curved in the same manner as Merv's logo), asked questions for money (not used by Merv's format until 1990), did hour-long episodes (a regular feature each Friday), won awards (an "Award of Merit" presented on-set by Robert C. Preble), spun off a nighttime version (July 7 to September 15), upped its top value ($2,500 by September 18), and even changed hosts (Mike Wallace took over sometime between May 25 and September 18). Further, the concept of a vertical Wheel was used for the Shopper's Bazaar pilot in 1973.

Wheel appears to have ended due to its competition, primarily NBC's educational series Ding Dong School, with the nighttime version falling against Break the Bank.

It should be noted that another series called The Wheel of Fortune, hosted by Jack O'Reilly, aired on Mutual Radio in at least mid-1955. This was not a game show, however, but rather a preview of new record releases.

Was the show inspired by a casino game called Wheel of Fortune?[]

While it is true that Merv's idea of the show came from a casino game, he based it off of Roulette, which involved a horizontal wheel similar to the show. The casino game that bears a similar name to the show is also often referred to as the Big 6 Wheel and is spun vertically (as in Shopper's Bazaar) and also has money on it, except the money used are dollar bills ($1, $2, $5, $10, and $20); and like Roulette, players must bet on which bill they think the wheel will stop on by placing chips on the appropriate bill on the table.

On Pioneers of Television: Game Shows (which aired on PBS in 2008), footage was shown of a Merv interview where he states that, when he needed to provide an interesting and unique way to award money, he looked back at one of his childhood memories: "the big spinning wheel game at the annual church picnic".

What books have been written about the show, or by those associated with it?[]

Note that this is likely an incomplete list. A special thanks to The Game Show Home Game Home Page (via Internet Archive) for much of the below information.

  • Wheel of Fortune (David R. Sams and Robert L. Shook, 1987; published by St. Martin's): A paperback with bios of Pat Sajak and Vanna White, plus the then-current (as of August 1, 1987) rules, some trivia, and some behind-the-scenes photos.
  • The Official Wheel of Fortune Puzzle Book (1987, published by Bantam): Mostly contains puzzles, but also has an intro by Merv Griffin and some text by then-current producer Nancy Jones.
  • How to Beat the Wheel of Fortune (William J. Ryan, 1988; seemingly self-published): Not much is known about this paperback, although it presumably contains hints and strategies per the title.
  • Winning on the Wheel (1995, published by BK Enterprises): A large spiral-bound book originally sold online, containing over 500 puzzles along with the expected tips.

The below are autobiographies written by those associated with Wheel which contain some recollection of their experiences with the show:

  • Vanna Speaks (Vanna White, 1987; published by Warner): Was a modest hit, although it was the subject of quite a few jokes at the time. Also released on audiocassette as part of Warner Audio's "Books on Tape" line, read by Vanna.
    • During the publicity period of Vanna Speaks, Marianne Robin-Tani wrote an unauthorized paperback biography of Vanna, simply called Vanna White (1987; published by St. Martin's).
  • Kookie No More (Edd Byrnes, 1996): Details Byrnes' troubled childhood and how he rose above it, going on to fame starting in 1958 before spiraling downward into a two-decade bout with alcoholism and substance abuse. One portion recounts his experience with Wheel, admitting that he was drunk during the 1974 pilots because he was "scared to death" about doing the show, even though he was recommended for the role by NBC.
  • Alive & Kicking (Rolf Benirschke, 1996 {updated 1999}): Details Rolf's time in the NFL and his early bouts with Ulcerative Colitis, which he was diagnosed with in 1978. Chapter 20 discusses his Wheel tenure, including how he was chosen, and that "Looking back [at my time on Wheel], I have no regrets."
  • Stop the Wheel, I Want to Get Off! (Susan Stafford, 2010; seemingly self-published): As the title suggests, has a good amount dedicated to her Wheel tenure, but also documents her subsequent humanitarian work.

Does Vanna get to keep all the dresses she wears?[]

Generally, no. As she has noted several times over the years, she typically buys dresses she likes after wearing them.

Is Pat's hair real, or a toupee/hairpiece?[]

It is real. Pat has joked at least once about this question, noting that when he's asked he responds with "If I was going to wear a hairpiece it'd be a better one than this."

For April Fool's Day 2008, Pat tricked Vanna into thinking he did wear a hairpiece. As revealed on a later episode, he achieved the illusion by wearing a real hairpiece over a bald wig.

Is this Wiki affiliated with Wheel?[]

This Wiki is made by fans, for everyone. We are not affiliated with the show, for better or worse.

Is the show aware of this Wiki?[]

While Wheel has not yet made a definitive statement on the matter (and will likely never do so), some of the classic clips shown during the intro in Season 30 were events mentioned on this Wiki, although that in and of itself isn't really conclusive since many of the same events are also mentioned on the TV Tropes pages for Wheel (although this Wiki and those pages do share at least four regular editors).

The largest indicator that the show is aware of us is the retro Bonus Round on February 20, 2013 (THE HIMALAYAS, 1989). It was quickly discovered by fans that the footage was from Rolf Benirschke's first episode on January 10, something that would not have been known (let alone considered out-of-the-ordinary, as Rolf is not visible in the footage) by the general public, partly since Wheel is not known to have acknowledged his tenure since late 1989 and the episodes have never been in reruns.

It is known that the show is aware of our sister site, the Buy A Vowel Boards (which has a link to this Wiki at the top of each page), as forum moderator MarioGS (contestant Robert Santoli) asked both Pat Sajak and John Lauderdale about it during the taping of his episode (aired March 25, 2016), and contestants at tapings are often asked by a legal representative if they are already members, to ensure that multiple members, if present, are not placed on the same episode.

Where can I watch episodes?[]

All episodes of the currently-airing season of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune can be viewed on Hulu starting the day after they first air. Episodes from previous seasons are removed after a new season premieres. For the syndicated version, Netflix features rotating packages of 25 select episodes that change every six months. Currently, the oldest episodes that Netflix has offered were from Season 34. A list of episodes that are or have been featured on Netflix can be viewed here.

We also have a collection of video links here (although we do not host any videos ourselves), though we cannot guarantee that all of the links will work as Sony sometimes blocks or removes videos from sites (particularly YouTube). Due to a lack of official means to watch many of these episodes, the only sources are the collectors' trading circuit and videos uploaded by contestants or their relatives; as a result, the audiovisual quality varies.

Contestant-Related Questions[]

What did the host mean by "Just before the show we drew numbers to see who would start our game"?[]

Just before each episode, the contestants for said show would draw numbers from a container – a "1" put that player at the leftmost (red) position, "2" for yellow, and "3" for blue. This applied to all contestants, regardless of whether they were civilians or celebrities. Currently, contestants use markers 1-3 and a narrow bottle from a kelly pool setup to determine positioning.

Since the introduction of Toss-Ups, play order is determined by the outcome of Toss-Ups. This said, the players do still draw numbers to determine which arrow they go to, with the addition of drawing numbers to determine which episode of that taping day their group (itself presorted by the show) they will be on: generally, 1-6 for most Culver City tapings or 1-5 for road shows and some Culver City tapings.

Pat once joked about this in a September 1982 show: as he gave the "drew numbers" spiel, he held up a cue card with a "4" drawn on the back and said "This is the number I drew, and that made me a loser."

I was a contestant on Wheel before. Can I be on the show again?[]

Short answer: No. The "Contestant FAQs" page on the show's website states that "Our rule is that you can be on the show only once in a lifetime. There are a lot of people who want to spin the Wheel!"

Long answer: Being on the American Wheel at any point in its history – including Wheel 2000 and the unaired 2012 Lottery Experience Games (it is not certain if this also applies to the 1973-74 pilots or the 1983 Ohio State Fair shows) – renders you ineligible for the rest of your life. The "Show FAQs" page on the show's website goes into a bit of detail about this, specifically mentioning Wheel 2000 and the daytime show, name-checking Chuck Woolery, Bob Goen, and Pat Sajak; the names are followed by "or other hosts", which covers at least Rolf Benirschke and Alex Trebek.

This rule was introduced sometime between late August 1983 and the end of 1998, likely when the Friday Finals were dropped at the beginning of Season 16. A contestant named Janet played on October 8, 1980 and a 1983 nighttime episode, while a player named Paul was told after his appearance on #S-52 (taped August 28, 1983) that he could try out for Wheel again the following year. According to a 1998 recollection, a contestant was removed from the contestant prep room for having been on the show in the 1970s.

Have any contestants been brought back?[]

Unlike sister show Jeopardy!, Wheel has never held a tournament of champions or similar concept, with only three known exceptions:

  • The week of January 19, 1976, the daytime version held "NBC's All Star Dream Machine Championship", where the show's top nine winners to that point played against each other. All three contestants on the Monday-Wednesday episodes were drawn randomly, with each day's highest winner competing in a two-day match held on Thursday and Friday. The winner of the Friday episode won a Mercedes-Benz; according to multiple sources, the top winner was Judy Bongarzone, whose total winnings (counting both her original episodes and the championship) were $64,461.
  • The week of February 20, 1995 was "Some of the Greats!" (taped on-location at Walt Disney World), where eleven past champions were brought back for a special charity game. The contestants for this appear to have been deliberately chosen for their memorable behavior more so than their winnings. This can be evidenced by the fact that five of the eleven chosen contestants did not retire undefeated; further, one of the chosen contestants was Raymond Taylor, whose eccentric mannerisms would later be compiled into a YouTube video (and who would later be banned from Sony Pictures Studios for trespassing). This tournament is also unique in that returning championship was in place with no limit, which resulted in the unique circumstance of 1992 contestant Kelly Vaught playing for the entire week (although he lost the Friday episode).
  • The week of May 8, 2023 was Fan Favorites, which brought back fan favorite contestants from previous episodes, although not in a tournament format.
  • While ads ran at the beginning of Season 39 hinting at a tournament, this was scrapped early in the season. This was most likely due to Mike Richards' departure from the role of producer only one week into the season.

However, a few contestants have been brought back due to an error on their previous game, either due to the producers spotting an error or the contestants appealing a ruling. Known instances include:

  • Jan Barker: was brought back on March 3, 1989 due to being buzzed out prematurely in the Speed-Up on September 5, 1988
  • Colin Mount: was brought back on September 8, 1988 for unknown reasons
  • Michelle LaTour: was brought back on an episode in early 1989 (Eunice/Polly/Michelle) also for unknown reasons
  • Pely Clark: was brought back on April 20, 2001 after her call of P was misheard as B (thus causing her to lose her turn) on December 26, 2000
  • Jeff Abell: was brought back on December 3, 2001 after a questionable ruling on him attempting to solve the Speed-Up puzzle HELENA MONTANA on May 22, 2001
  • Corine Reynolds: was brought back on March 29, 2002 after the judges forgot to inform contestants that only vowels remained in the Speed-Up DRY ERASE BOARD on October 8, 2001
  • Tammie Bazen: was brought back on November 1, 2002 after a questionable ruling when one of her opponents solved the Speed-up CRYSTAL CANDLEHOLDERS on September 20, 2001
  • Fred Lipscomb: was brought back on October 14, 2003 after injuring himself on the Wheel on his original episode on April 1, 2002
  • John Merrill and Heather Barber: were brought back on December 31, 2003 and April 2, 2004, respectively, after a questionable ruling when John solved the Round 1 puzzle QUESTION AND ANSWER PERIOD on May 21, 2003
  • Hannah Lee: was brought back on February 28, 2008 after a questionable ruling when one of her opponents solved the $2,000 Toss-Up GREAT BLUE HERON on October 5, 2004
  • Immani Brown-Turner: was brought back on November 30, 2018 after it was determined that her buzzer malfunctioned during the $3,000 Toss-Up on December 23, 2016
  • Tony Harrison: was brought back on April 6, 2020 after appealing to the show that his original bonus puzzle ON THE HIGHWAY was in the wrong category on December 1, 2017
  • Doug Tepper: was brought back on June 1, 2021 due to an opponent's letter call being accepted despite coming after the buzzer on October 6, 2017
  • Darcy DuGal: was brought back on April 28, 2023 due to a questionable ruling in the Speed-Up Round on October 4, 2021

I/a friend/a relative was on Wheel. Can you find my/their episode(s)?[]

Hopefully! Share as much info as you know about the episodes in question (especially if you know the episode number, recording date, airdate, player names, and {if applicable} the week theme), either on this Wiki or our sister site the Buy A Vowel boards (free registration required), and we'll do our best. If you have any paperwork related to your appearance, that can help as well.

At best, it'll already be online; at worst, especially if it's the daytime show pre-1985, it may be gone. Stranger things have happened, though.

I/a friend/a relative was on Wheel. Can I/we share our story with you?[]

Of course! We're always interested in hearing stories of players' experiences on Wheel, both on the show itself and in the auditions. The aforementioned Buy A Vowel boards have a Spinning Stories section dedicated to this, and has quite a few former, upcoming, and hopeful contestants among its member base.

I/a friend/a relative was on daytime Wheel and have the episode(s), but they aren't listed here as being known to exist/circulate. Can I/we send a copy to you?[]

Sure! As with the above, contact us through this Wiki or by posting on the Buy A Vowel boards, and we'll work something out. Note that we're interested regardless of quality, length, or even whether it has audio (or is audio-only), though in no circumstances will we trade money for footage.

Even if an episode is listed on the aforementioned page, if you have more than what we know to be available to the public, we'd love to hear from you.

I/a friend/a relative used to work on Wheel. Can I/we share our stories with you?[]

By all means! Like with contestants, we're always interested in memories of staff associated with Wheel. As with the above, contact us through this Wiki or by posting on the Buy A Vowel boards.

Graphics[]

What is the font used for the show's logo?[]

The font appears to be based on "Chesty" (also known as "Bust"), though some characters differ slightly in appearance in comparison to it. Other characters and words that do not appear in the logo have been displayed in the font on rare occasions (such as "WHEEL AROUND THE WORLD" during said week in Season 28), though the font does not appear to be available to the general public.

As a side note, the font used for the Shopper's Bazaar logo (as well as the puzzle board letters and credit roll of the 1973 pilot) is Hopkins, while the unique mid-show bumper logo used in daytime from at least 1983-87 (as well as at least one ticket in July 1989) used an unknown font.

What is the font used on the Wheel?[]

According to a March 2008 Chicago Tribune article regarding various facts about the Wheel itself, the current font is a customized version of Clarendon bold/black.

Originally (or at least, beginning in 1974), the Wheel font was "Fortune", also known as "Chesterfield" and "Volta". As the series continued, the appearance of certain parts of the Wheel changed slightly: most noticeably, the 7's were modified to have a flat bottom instead of a rounded one at some point between October 1978 and March 2, 1979; later on, more numbers started changing such as the 8's and 0's.

This modified font remained until January 2003, when all numbers (but not letters since Bankrupt kept the same appearance) were modified once again: only the 7, 8, and $ look identical to their counterparts in the previous font, while the 1 (only seen on the back of the $10,000 Wedge in Seasons 24-25), 3, 4, 6, and 9 are identical to Clarendon, which is the font used for the current Lose A Turn and the front and the $10,000 sides of the Mystery Wedges.

What is the font used for the category strips?[]

  • The first known variant, art cards shown sporadically during at least the first half of 1976, used Helvetica Bold.
  • The second style was an unknown, computerized monospaced font, used from at least July 1977 to January 1985.
  • In January 1985, the displays were replaced by a succession of Helvetica chyrons until early 1993. For the first several weeks of use, they varied in appearance, particularly in the weight of the font, and the presence or absence of drop shadows or outlines. For a few weeks around January-February 1993, the strips once again became slightly less bold in appearance.
  • Around February 1993, the strips changed to Gill Sans, although from April 1994 to February 1995, road shows used the same variant of Helvetica seen around January-February 1993. The episodes taped in Norfolk, Virginia in May 1995 used Gill Sans.
  • In Season 13, the strips changed to Clearface. This changed to Triplex for the first three months of Season 14, followed by Franklin Gothic Medium Condensed from December 16, 1996 through the end of Season 17.
  • The strips were switched to Arial for Season 18, then Kabel Bold for Season 19. Seasons 20-22 used Alternate Gothic, which changed at the start of Season 23 to Trade Gothic (the Bonus Round strips retained the former font until October 24, 2005). Seasons 24-25 used Cosmos.
  • Since September 2008, the category strips have been in Gotham. However, after the category Fictional Character was renamed to just Character in January 2013, its category strip was in Arial instead. This remained until September 2015.
  • At the start of Season 39, the category strips were overhauled with the font reverted to Helvetica.

Winners[]

How many times was the nighttime Jackpot won?[]

At least 120 have been counted so far among circulating episodes and other confirmations: the first on September 26, 1996 (also the only known instance of it being won for the $5,000 starting amount) and the last on June 10, 2013.

The highest known Jackpot win was $17,450 on September 9, 2002. The highest unclaimed Jackpot is believed to be $23,250 on September 19, 1997.

How many times has the ½ Car been won?[]

108, the first on September 28, 2011 and the last on June 4, 2019.

  • Season 29: 9/28/11, 10/4/11, 10/5/11, 10/24/11, 11/15/11, 11/30/11, 12/20/11, 1/9/12, 1/25/12, 2/6/12, 2/8/12, 2/10/12, 3/5/12, 3/26/12, 4/9/12, 4/18/12, 4/25/12, 6/6/12.
  • Season 30: 9/25/12, 10/10/12, 10/15/12, 12/4/12, 12/13/12, 12/25/12, 1/1/13, 1/3/13, 1/11/13, 1/15/13, 1/17/13, 1/21/13, 2/5/13, 4/10/13, 4/11/13, 4/24/13, 5/3/13, 5/10/13, 5/21/13, 6/7/13, 6/14/13.
  • Season 31: 10/2/13, 10/9/13, 10/16/13, 10/29/13, 11/29/13, 12/6/13, 12/31/13, 2/13/14, 2/24/14, 3/5/14, 3/17/14, 3/21/14.
  • Season 32: 10/20/14, 10/27/14, 10/28/14, 11/27/14, 12/15/14, 12/17/14, 12/29/14, 1/5/15, 1/21/15, 1/30/15, 3/13/15, 3/17/15, 3/26/15, 3/30/15, 4/6/15, 4/10/15, 4/13/15, 4/14/15, 4/20/15, 4/24/15, 5/11/15, 5/12/15, 5/14/15, 5/18/15, 5/22/15, 6/2/15.
  • Season 33: 9/25/15, 11/6/15, 12/7/15, 1/12/16, 2/25/16, 4/8/16, 4/11/16, 4/13/16, 4/26/16, 5/3/16, 5/18/16.
  • Season 34: 9/13/16, 9/14/16, 10/18/16, 10/27/16, 12/15/16, 3/7/17, 3/24/17, 3/28/17.
  • Season 35: 9/28/17, 12/21/17, 1/30/18, 3/27/18, 4/19/18, 6/1/18.
  • Season 36: 11/27/18, 12/20/18, 1/24/19, 3/15/19, 4/30/19, 5/21/19, 6/4/19.

Interestingly, there have been nine instances of a contestant winning the ½ Car but not the game, and six instances of a contestant winning the car with three tags. There have also been eight instances of a contestant winning the ½ Car in the main game and a car in the Bonus Round.

What is the biggest one-round record to date?[]

$54,000, set on February 18, 2005 and tied on two occasions (October 24, 2005 and February 7, 2007). All three were in the Speed-Up round.

The largest known win for a regular round is $44,300, set on the March 31, 1987 nighttime show. The puzzle was AN AMERICAN SUCCESS STORY.

That said, $54,000 is not the most money that could have been won. That record is $62,400, also for a regular round, accumulated during Round 3 on December 5, 1985 (nighttime); the contestant called a wrong letter, and control did not return to her. According to at least one recollection, another contestant missed out on claiming over $60,000 by accidentally omitting a word when attempting to solve the puzzle sometime in the same season. Yet another contestant on April 3, 2002 accumulated $45,900 in a Speed-Up but did not claim it.

What is the main-game record to date?[]

The highest known cumulative main-game total depends on whether or not consolation prizes are counted. If not, then it is $92,900, set on February 7, 2007. If they are counted, then it is $93,892, set on December 26, 2014.

The highest main-game total by a single contestant is $91,892, from the same show on December 26, 2014.

The highest known total for players going into a Friday Finals match is $78,265 on December 20, 1996.

What is the highest total for a contestant who did not win?[]

The highest known total for a second-place contestant is $35,000, on October 12, 2009. Interestingly, all of this was earned through Toss-Ups and the Speed-Up.

The highest known third-place total is $20,200, on September 27, 2023.

What is the lowest winning score?[]

The lowest confirmed winning score is $600, on September 28, 1984 (nighttime). On two known daytime episodes (March 30, 1987 and July 21, 1989), the winning contestant had only $1,000. Interestingly, the contestant on March 30, 1987 had swept the game, possibly making this the lowest combined winnings in a single episode. In none of the above episodes was the Bonus Round won.

Following the retirement of shopping on nighttime, the lowest confirmed winning score overall is $1,350 by Celebrity Week player Ian Ziering on November 3, 1997; though he received a $10,000 minimum for his charity. Not counting celebrity-only games, the lowest known total for a player who won the Bonus Round is $2,450 on November 10, 1994; September 4, 1995 and November 10, 1998. The lowest known total for a player who did not win the Bonus Round is $1,600 on April 8, 1999. In another episode (taped in December 1987), there were two contestants who tied with only $1,900 each.

The lowest known total for players going into a Friday Finals match is $5,000 on September 5, 1997 and February 6, 1998 (both consisting of teams of two).

According to one recollection, there was a daytime contestant who won with just $575 (on a 1980s NBC episode).

On a side note, the lowest possible winning score in the show's history was $100 due to not only being the original house minimum, but the fact that Bankrupt took away all money put "on account" and the last round of the game guaranteed at least $100 in prizes would be won. The lowest possible winning score today is $7,000, the current minimum value of Prize Puzzle prizes.

How many $100,000 winners are there to date?[]

62, the first being on December 19, 2001. So far, it has been won 53 times in the Syndicated Version and 8 times in the Primetime Version.

Syndicated Version[]

  • Season 19: 12/19/01.
  • Season 20: 12/4/02, 4/24/03, 5/21/03.
  • Season 21: None.
  • Season 22: 2/3/05.
  • Season 23: 11/14/05, 11/21/05, 1/24/06, 2/6/06, 2/28/06, 5/15/06.
  • Season 24: 12/5/06, 2/13/07, 5/30/07.
  • Season 25: 12/21/07, 3/24/08.
  • Season 26: 10/24/08, 11/17/08, 3/23/09, 4/14/09.
  • Season 27: 3/18/10, 3/23/10.
  • Season 28: 10/7/10, 12/16/10, 5/17/11.
  • Season 29: 4/26/12, 4/30/12.
  • Season 30: 10/17/12, 11/21/12, 12/28/12, 4/2/13, 6/11/13.
  • Season 31: 6/4/14.
  • Season 32: 2/23/15.
  • Season 33: 4/28/16, 5/25/16.
  • Season 34: 12/1/16.
  • Season 35: 3/21/18.
  • Season 36: 11/16/18.
  • Season 37: None.
  • Season 38: 10/12/20, 1/4/21, 3/5/21, 3/18/21, 5/17/21.
  • Season 39: 1/25/22, 2/7/22, 2/8/22, 2/9/22, 5/4/22, 5/9/22, 5/26/22.
  • Season 40: 1/19/23, 5/29/23.
  • Season 41: 11/17/23.

Celebrity Wheel of Fortune[]

  • Season 1: 1/7/21 (second game), 1/28/21 (first game), 2/18/21 (second game).
  • Season 2: 9/26/21 (second game), 10/10/21 (first game).
  • Season 3: 10/9/22 (both games), 10/23/22 (second game).

Note that this only counts those who won the $100,000 cash prize in the Bonus Round, rather than exceeding $100,000 otherwise.

Interestingly, two puzzles have each led to a pair of $100,000 wins: BRAINS AND BRAWN on January 24, 2006 and December 16, 2010, BACK IN A FLASH on May 15, 2006 and April 26, 2012.

The $100,000 win on December 28, 2012 resulted in a final score of $147,000, which was the highest non-millionaire record until April 2021 (see below), although it still stands today as the highest all-cash record on the syndicated version.

Also see List of Bonus Round grand prize winners.

How many $1,000,000 winners are there to date?[]

Four — three on the regular syndicated series, and one on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.

  • Michelle Loewenstein on October 14, 2008 (total of $1,026,080)
  • Autumn Erhard on May 30, 2013 (originally scheduled for the 31st; total of $1,030,340),
  • Sarah Manchester on September 17, 2014 (total of $1,017,490)
  • Melissa Joan Hart on the first game of Season 2, Episode 4 of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, aired October 17, 2021 (total of $1,027,800 for that game; $1,039,800 for the full show).

As an aside, the largest non-millionaire record is $398,690, set on April 27, 2021 through a $375,000 home win.

Staff[]

Who was the first host?[]

This depends on whether the 1974 pilots are included. If one goes by the name Wheel of Fortune, then Edd Byrnes was the first host. If only aired episodes count, then Chuck Woolery was the first host; Chuck also hosted the 1973 pilot.

Based on questions asked to audience members by Thornton, Wheel takes the stance that Chuck was the first host.

Who was the first hostess?[]

Susan Stafford, who had been a syndicated radio host beginning around 1971. According to Thornton, who sometimes asks this question to audience members during tapings, nobody at the show's current base of Culver City has ever been able to give the correct answer – a fact he brings up during road shows, where he does get the right answer.

Who was the first announcer?[]

Mike Lawrence if one includes the Shopper's Bazaar pilot; Charlie O'Donnell otherwise.

If Chuck, Susan, and Charlie were so great, why did they leave?[]

Charlie left in mid-1980 after then-NBC head Fred Silverman announced the show was to be cancelled on August 1. He signed a commitment to the upcoming Toni Tennille Show shortly before the cancellation was overturned and, under the belief that "a handshake is my word", opted to stay with it.

Chuck left due to a salary dispute with Merv, wanting a pay raise from $5,000 per week to $10,000 per week, in line with what other emcees made and because Wheel was drawing a 44 share at the time. Merv offered $7,500 per week, and NBC offered to pay the remaining $2,500 per week before Merv threatened to move the show to CBS. NBC withdrew the offer, and Chuck's last episode aired December 25, 1981.

Susan departed because she wanted to do humanitarian work. She took a trip to India in Summer 1982 and, after seeing the plight many people were in, felt that turning letters for the past seven years was not really a way for a grown woman to live her life; many have noted that Susan seems visibly distracted in the available footage from the September-October timeframe. While her last regular episode aired October 22, Stafford returned to fill in for her successor for the daytime week of June 16, 1986.

Has anyone announced the show besides Charlie O'Donnell, Jack Clark, or Jim Thornton?[]

In order of appearance:

  • Don Morrow filled in as announcer in August 1980 between O'Donnell's departure and Jack's hiring.
  • Charlie filled in for Jack in 1985 due to scheduling conflicts caused by Jack announcing on The $25,000 Pyramid, a show that he soon left to prevent the conflict.
  • Beginning on May 9, 1988, Charlie began filling in for Jack on nighttime, while both he and Johnny Gilbert filled in on daytime; this was due to Jack becoming too ill to continue announcing. In addition, Pat and Vanna read most of the fee plugs for reruns in Summer 1988 and at least one repeat of the weekend feed during Season 6, although at least one rerun from mid-1988 has a very weak-sounding Jack doing the fee plugs.
  • M. G. Kelly announced both versions from roughly September 5, 1988 to February 17, 1989, barring the two nighttime weeks taped at Radio City Music Hall (aired November 14-25, 1988), which were announced by Don Pardo. This was also Pardo's only game show announcing role since the end of Jackpot in 1975.
  • Gilbert filled in for Charlie on the weeks of November 27 and December 4, 1995. This period is notable for an exchange between him and Pat on the 29th: at the top of the show, Pat joked that Wheel "isn't like Jeopardy!, where if you finish in second place with $10,000, you get a lounge chair!", to which Johnny replied "But it's a $10,000 lounge chair."
  • Gilbert also did part of the intro on April 1, 1997.
  • Following Charlie's death on November 1, 2010, the show underwent a rotation of guest announcers consisting of Gilbert, Rich Fields, Jim Thornton, Lora Cain (the only guest with no game show announcing experience), Joe Cipriano, and John Cramer.

How did Pat Sajak and Vanna White get the roles?[]

Pat, then a weatherman at KNBC, was noticed by Merv for his quirky and odd sense of humor. However, then-head of NBC Fred Silverman rejected the decision, claiming Sajak was "too local"; Merv opted to cease tapings until Pat was hired, which only happened after Silverman left the network.

Vanna was selected from hundreds of applicants to do on-air auditions to replace Susan, and was chosen due to her chemistry with Pat. According to Vanna, the only reason Merv would give her is that she turned the letters better than anyone else.

So what happened to Susan?[]

She devoted her life to charity work and medicine, earning a B.A. in Nutrition and an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, plus a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Pacific Western University. Her official website has a full list of her accomplishments.

Susan also had a longtime relationship with Dan Enright of Barry-Enright Productions, along with being the company's Vice President of Public Relations; following Enright's death in May 1992, Chris Sohl (the company's Vice President of Business Affairs since 1988) became the head of the company and promoted Susan to Executive Vice President, which in turn was followed around January 1993 by the company becoming Stafford-Enright Productions.

Unfortunately, her association with Wheel was quickly forgotten after Vannamania took off: a 1987 Chicago Tribune interview with her began by outright assuming the reader did not know who she was, while Susan herself became a bit annoyed and bothered that most people would say "You mean you were Vanna White before Vanna White?" upon telling them what she used to do.

Susan's Wheel-related obscurity was only further proven during a 1991 episode of the Nostalgia Channel game show Let's Go Back (created and hosted by Scott Sternberg, who later made Wheel 2000), when a question asking for the person Vanna replaced was met with silence yet, when asked who Pat replaced, a contestant immediately gave the correct answer; after Sternberg said Susan's name, the same contestant could be heard saying "forgot that".

The 1995 book Popular Culture, Educational Discourse, and Mathematics evidently did not see anything prior to Vanna's hiring, as it stated that Wheel "broke ground" by declaring Vanna a "hostess" and giving her equal billing with Pat, despite Susan having the former during her tenure and the latter at least three times (once with Chuck in 1978, again with him in 1981, and once with Pat in 1986).

Wheel itself has very rarely acknowledged Susan's contributions, and she was not credited on the Byrnes footage that aired on the ceremonial 3,000th nighttime episode in 1998.

Who have been the producers and executive producers?[]

  • Producers: In the 1973 pilot, this and the directing were handled by Bill Carruthers. For the 1974 pilots, the role was given to John Rhinehart, with Nancy Jones being promoted to co-producer when the show debuted.
    • In April 1976, Rhinehart announced his departure from Wheel, and was promoted to being NBC's West Coast Daytime Program Development Director the next month. As a result, Nancy became the sole producer.
    • In 1995, Nancy was dismissed over concerns by Sony that Wheel had become "tired and dated" under her watch. Shortly before that, Harry Friedman was contacted by an old friend, Sony Pictures Entertainment's then-CEO Alan Levine; soon afterward (but not directly as a result of being contacted by Levine), Friedman became the show's producer for the last tapings of Season 12.
    • By June 2, 1997, Karen Griffith and Steve Schwartz became co-producers, remaining at those positions with multiple title upgrades (ultimately to supervising producers) over the years until Karen retired shortly into Season 39, with Amanda Stern promoted to serve alongside Steve beginning that season.
  • Executive Producers: Originally Merv, until Friedman was promoted to co-executive producer in September 1999. Merv retired the next year, leaving Harry as the sole executive producer. He retired at the end of Season 37, with Mike Richards taking over for Season 38. Richards would be dismissed from this role on August 31, 2021, shortly before Season 39 began airing (although some weeks of Season 39 and the entire second season of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune had already taped prior), with Michael Davies being assigned to oversee both Wheel and Jeopardy! until a permanent replacement could be found; despite this, Davies was not present at Wheel tapings nor did he receive screen credit on the show.
    Starting in Season 40, Bellamie Blackstone took over the executive producer role, with Steve Schwartz (who spent most of Season 39 performing the same in-studio duties previously associated with Richards, Friedman, and Jones) promoted to serve alongside her as co-executive producer.

Are there social media accounts for the show and/or its personnel?[]

Both Pat and Vanna have verified Twitter accounts at @patsajak and @TheVannaWhite.

Bob Goen also has an inactive Twitter and Facebook account, and Woolery had a Twitter account which was taken down in July 2020. There are also official Facebook and Twitter accounts for the show itself (@wheeloffortune), as well as a separate Twitter account for Celebrity Wheel of Fortune (@celebritywof). Bellamie Blackstone also has a Twitter account, @bellamietweets. Starting in Season 39, Pat's daughter Maggie has served as the show's social media correspondent.

Why was Pat absent from all home adaptions of Wheel prior to 2010?[]

Shortly before the release of the Wii and DS versions, Pat stated on his now-defunct website that despite his celebrity status, he wanted his family to be as normal as possible. He felt his children were not old enough to understand why his image was on a product.

This said, Pat did appear in his own games for the PC prior to this point, most notably Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters (released January 9, 2007). Furthermore, he made a small cameo in Wheel of Fortune 2003, released in 2002 by Infogrames for the PC, via the Season 19 intro which was used in the game.

I attended a Season 28 taping with Charlie announcing, but it aired after he died and someone else was announcing. What happened?[]

Following Charlie's death on November 1 and the tribute that aired on the 5th, it was decided that the eight weeks that had yet to air with him announcing (November 8, 22, and 29; December 20 and 27; January 3; February 7; and March 28) would be dubbed over by various guest announcers. While the official reason was that it was "a tough decision, but it would have been too sad to hear Charlie's voice so close to his death.", his voice was retained on repeats of the first two months of Season 28 and all weekend repeats of Season 27.

Any references by Pat to Charlie were also dubbed over, and when Pat threw to the substitute the camera would fade to a wide shot where his mouth was not as visible. This also resulted in the last two appearances of Rock On!, where the category had been said by Charlie, being replaced with Pat just saying the name of the category. Also during this time, most of the SPIN IDs were read by Vanna. During the post-Season 28 summer reruns of episodes predating Charlie's death, the new SPIN IDs were read by one unknown female voice, and the Mystery Round sponsor by another; these voices are believed to have been Kelly Miyahara and Sara Whitcomb Foss of the Jeopardy! Clue Crew, although the closed captioning alternatingly mis-credited these announcements to Charlie, Jim, or Vanna, or simply as "Woman".

The dubbing was generally considered by fans to be unnecessary, redundant, and primarily disrespectful, saying that a short tribute graphic/explanation would have sufficed and that viewers (including those who had attended the taping sessions) were being cheated. By comparison, the midseason deaths of Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy were handled by The Price Is Right through airing the rest of Johnny's work and keeping both men's work intact for later repeats (though dubbing on Price would be far less feasible due to the much higher level of host/announcer interaction).

Why did most of the Summer 2011 repeats have Jim announcing episodes someone else had done during the season?[]

According to Wheel, which had announced Jim's hiring just after Season 28 ended, they had dubbed over the other substitutes to "establish" their new announcer. It has been speculated that this was actually the show either unwilling to pay royalties to the other substitutes and/or thinking their work so inferior to Jim's that their episodes were not worth rerunning unless he was dubbed over them, primarily due to how few episodes most of the substitutes got compared to Jim.

On some of these occasions, Jim was dubbed over someone who had been dubbed over Charlie, resulting in three people doing the exact same work: one which was taped prior to his death, one which was the result of not willing to air the first, and one which was likely the result of not willing to rerun the second.

On February 27, 2013, the retro clip in the opening was a set of outtakes from the intro of March 14, 2011 involving Tillman the skateboarding bulldog. While these clips aired during Season 28, Cramer (that week's guest announcer) was dubbed over by Jim despite no episodes from that week being rerun in Summer 2011 or as weekend repeats in the 2011-12 season. The fact that this was done long after "establishing" Thornton indicates that the official reason for the Summer dubbing was in fact false.

Who won the "Vanna for a Day" contest in 2011?[]

Katie Cantrell, whose role as "Vanna for a Day" essentially amounted to being treated like Vanna for a day. Her role on the show amounted to a single episode (March 24, 2011), and even then not the entire show – Katie only did Rounds 2 and 3 plus a car pose after Round 4.

Sets and Sounds[]

Does the studio audience chant the show's title during the intro?[]

With a few rare exceptions, such as certain road shows (most recognizably the Radio City Music Hall stint in November 1988), the chant is actually a recording that has been in use since August 8, 1983. However, the producers sometimes have the audience perform the chant before taping anyway, even though it does not make it into the aired episode.

A similar pre-recorded chant was used on Wheel 2000, likely made during its first pilot.

How big are the Wheel's wedges?[]

Per Adam Nedeff, who worked at the show as a prize coordinator, each wedge is about 12 inches across the top, five inches at the base, and 28 inches long. These figures are not exact, however, as the wedges are curved to fit the Wheel's shape.

The show has also done wedges in other sizes, most notably the mini $1,000 wedge given out in special cases such as VIP packages.

I've seen the word "Goody" used in relation to the show. What is it?[]

The official name for Prize wedges since at least the mid-2000s, although it and the alternate spelling "Goodie" had been used in various international versions for many years beforehand.

This said, the show itself is not known to have used this term and one other ("Wedge Ledges", the official name for the contestant arrows) on the air. For this reason, as well as the sake of clarity, this Wiki avoids using either.

How many touch screens does the puzzle board have?[]

52: 12 on the top and bottom rows, 14 in each of the two middle rows.

Why did the puzzle board switch from using trilons to using touch screens?[]

During Harry Friedman’s first taping as producer, he immediately noticed that it took about an hour to tape a 30-minute show due to the manual, trilon-based puzzle board that had been in use since 1974 and expanded in 1981. After each puzzle was solved, the puzzle board had to be rolled offstage, with a privacy screen thrown over it while the crew unloaded the last puzzle and loaded the individual letter slides for the next puzzle, and then roll the puzzle board back onstage for the next round, a process that could (according to Friedman) take as much as 15 minutes, and thus, required taping to stop in order to allow this task to be completed.

Accordingly, as his first order of business, Friedman began asking around what needed to be done to make the puzzle board electronic. The solution ultimately appeared on February 24, 1997 in the form of a newly-built four-row puzzle board that features the touch screens mentioned above. Not only did the new puzzle board eliminate the lengthy stopdowns between puzzles and improve the pace of each taping, it also would pave the way for further enhancements in gameplay, including Puzzlers from Seasons 16-17 and the introduction of Toss-Ups starting in Season 18.

See also Puzzle board.

How big were the old puzzle boards?[]

The original 1974 board used 39 trilons, spread across three rows. On December 21, 1981, this was expanded to 48 trilons across four rows (11 on the top and bottom, 13 in each of the middle two); four more trilons were added to the corners by March 29, 1982, bringing the total to 52. However, these extra four were blocked by the frame of the puzzle board and could not be used.

The road-show board, used from 1988-97 (plus a brief stint at home base for the first few weeks of Season 13), always had 48 trilons due to lacking the extra four in the corners.

What happened to the four-line trilon boards?[]

The home-base board was reportedly offered to the Smithsonian, but rejected due to its large size. On Pat's now-defunct website, he stated that the board was "gone". Both the studio and road-show boards no longer exist, except for a single trilon with a W slide (displayed backwards) in Sony Studios' Wheel Hall of Fame.

At least some of the other letter slides were sold in auctions, autographed by Vanna and/or Pat; two of these slides (an N and a zero) were shown to Vanna in a 2013 interview she did for the WWLP show Mass Appeal, as the interviewer's grandmother had purchased them.

When was the curtain introduced?[]

Sometime between January 6 and November 3, 1975. The original curtain had vertical strings of lights, which were removed sometime between June 7, 1976 and January 24, 1977.

Interestingly, the background of the Season 30 logo had what appears to be vertical strings of lights.

So what was at center stage before the curtain?[]

A set of panel doors similar to those of Let's Make a Deal, inside a border that resembled the puzzle board (using a 10×5 grid of transparent squares). The doors opened after each round to reveal the prize platform for that round and, once Charlie finished describing the purchased prizes, the doors closed and "hookers" (stagehands with large hooks) pulled the platform out of the way to set up for the next round.

The Milton Bradley games released in 1975 use photos which indicate that, rather than the curtain immediately replacing the doors, Wheel temporarily went back to the original 1974 method of pulling away the puzzle board for shopping rounds.

When was the "logo on overhead Wheel shot" opening introduced?[]

The first Byrnes pilot in 1974, remaining through at least May 20, 1976. It was dropped by June 7 of that year, but returned on August 8, 1983 (with the transparent wedges becoming white in January 1985).

After this, the shot remained until sometime between July 21 and August 22, 1989.

Why is the center of the Wheel green?[]

Originally, this was used for chroma-key zooms during the intro (a practice dropped sometime between May 20 and June 7, 1976) and close. For at least the 1974 pilots and 1975 premiere, the center also changed color for each spin.

The center of the Wheel has likely remained green for the sake of familiarity, though the shade of green has changed over time: from 1974-86, it was dark green. When the Wheel's color scheme was overhauled in 1986, the center became lime green (like the Prize wedges at the time). The current shade, teal, has been used since Season 14.

When was the chroma-key closing shot used?[]

The first Byrnes pilot in 1974. It was dropped sometime between March 15 and April 6, 1978, but returned sometime between January 2 and March 20, 1980.

It appears to have been used less and less frequently as the 1980s progressed. Its last known use on the nighttime version is the first Big Month of Cash episode (October 5, 1987), while its last known daytime appearance is the first show of Teen Week on December 21.

Why did some road-show bonus puzzles use the top two lines?[]

Most likely to increase visibility in larger venues. This practice was done from about 1990-95; by the Seattle shows in late 1995, two-line bonus puzzles once again used the middle two rows.

What were the different main theme songs?[]

Wheel has used quite a few themes over the years. For a more detailed rundown, see Music. Not counting incidental music, the theme songs have been the following:

  • September 1973 (Shopper's Bazaar Pilot): An instrumental version of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.
  • August 28, 1974 (Edd Byrnes Pilots): "Give It One", by Maynard Ferguson and Alan Downey, from Ferguson's 1972 album M.F. Horn Two.
  • January 6, 1975 - August 5, 1983: "Big Wheels", by Alan Thicke. This theme was released on Varèse Sarabande's 2000 compilation Best of TV Quiz and Game Show Themes.
  • On August 8, 1983, the show's theme became "Changing Keys", composed by Merv Griffin and Mort Lindsey. It was re-orchestrated in 1984, 1989, 1992, 1995, and 1998.
  • From 1995-2008, "Maximum Drive" by Network Music Ensemble was used for most road shows, with the cue getting various remixes over time.
  • On September 4, 2000, the show's theme changed to "Happy Wheels", composed by Steve Kaplan. This theme two versions, one of which sampled "Changing Keys".
  • An untitled theme composed by John Hoke debuted on January 2, 2017.
  • A new remix of "Changing Keys" by Bleeding Fingers Music was introduced at the start of Season 39.

Was the 1989 "Changing Keys" really used until 1994?[]

Yes, although its use was sporadic following Season 9. In Seasons 10-11, the 1989 closing theme was used interchangeably with the 1992 version for the credits, while the Music Stars Week of May 2-6, 1994 used the 1989 opening theme for the only time since the end of Season 9.

Why does the theme to Merv Griffin's Crosswords sound so familiar?[]

The Crosswords theme was a remixed version of "Buzzword", another piece of music composed by Merv. While debuting on Wheel as part of the 1989 music package and remaining on the show well into the next decade, it had originally been the main theme of Merv's unsold 1986 game show Buzzword.

When were the current sound effects introduced?[]

On July 17, 1989, as part of the show's audiovisual makeover that coincided with its move from NBC to CBS, a new set of sound effects debuted on the first daytime episode with Bob Goen as host. These included the current "puzzle reveal" chimes, "wrong letter" buzzer (taken from Bumper Stumpers), Bankrupt slide whistle, "only vowels remain" beeps, Final Spin chimes, and the Bonus Round timer beeps and double-buzz (later also carried over to On the Cover in 2004).

Why does the Wheel no longer spin automatically during the opening and closing?[]

The Wheel's automated spinning was discontinued in early 1997 by Harry Friedman at the request of Pat, who later stated on his now-defunct website that he believed it was "a bad idea" for Wheel "to demonstrate that we had the ability to automatically spin the Wheel."

This said, the automated spinning initially only stopped for the intro after January 6; the automation was not stopped for the credits until after March 7.

On "America's Game" weeks, the set changes every episode. Why is that?[]

"America's Game" weeks are compilation weeks, consisting of "sixth episodes" taped from the various themed weeks at Wheel's home base of Culver City, California. Tapings at Culver City usually consist of six episodes: five with a specific theme name (such as Endless Summer) and one called America's Game.

This practice has led to other oddities other than the set changing rapidly, such as a single Teen Best Friends or Family Week episode airing in the middle of a week, or the sixth show airing before the other five of that taping day.

On a side note, "America's Game" is itself a theme, usually with at least one puzzle (generally the $1,000 Toss-Up) themed to America. Despite this, sometimes other puzzles will be themed towards the original taping (such as the sixth show of Teacher's Week often having multiple teacher-themed puzzles).

How much does the Wheel of Fortune wheel weigh?[]

It is held by a stainless steel shaft with roller bearings. Altogether, the wheel weighs approximately 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg). The wheel, including its light extensions, is 16.5 ft (5.0 m) in diameter.

Puzzles and Categories[]

What was the first letter ever revealed?[]

S, on the 1973 pilot. It was also the first letter given.

What was the first letter Vanna ever turned?[]

T.

When did the "plural" categories debut?[]

At least Things and People debuted in 1975, as no pluralized categories are used in the First Edition game but are in the Second. The very small presence of Things and People, amounting to about four of the 168 puzzles (with Things only appearing once), suggests that the concept was very new.

The absence of Fictional Characters, Events, and Places suggests that they were not yet in use, and there is no proof they were used prior to September 1984; September 16, 1994; and December 6, 1984 respectively. Likewise, the only confirmed instance of Phrases is sometime in Season 17 (although it is still on the official category list). Titles was apparently used sometime not long before Season 21, as its appearance in a January 2004 episode was preceded by Pat saying it was not that category's first appearance. Occupations does not appear to have been used before February 10, 2004, or Landmarks before April 29, 2014.

That said, there are many gaps in the available episodes, which leaves the possibilities wide open.

Has the show always used punctuation in its puzzles?[]

13083528 909924609118761 732169267 n.mp4 snapshot 00.54 -2017.05.04 05.38

Punctuation was actually nonexistent through at least part of 1975, as confirmed by multiple personal recollections and both Milton Bradley games. The earliest known use of punctuation is the hyphen of HANKY-PANKY, sometime in 1977.

The first known puzzle to contain an apostrophe is THERE IS NOTHIN' LIKE A DAME on June 1, 1979. The first known instance of multiple punctuation marks is not until SLEIGHBELLS RING ARE YOU LIST'NIN' on December 24, 1980.

Other punctuation marks were gradually introduced since then:

  • Ampersands on July 18, 1989 (Goen's second episode), although they appear to have been exclusive to Same Name at first; the first known instance of an ampersand outside Same Name is the March 9, 1990 nighttime puzzle ROGER & ME. Despite this, Husband & Wife does not appear to have used them until much later.
  • Question marks on October 22, 1992 when Clue used a missing word in a puzzle and later became Fill In the Blank on November 18, 1992, although other puzzles have not used them until September 9, 1999.
  • Periods on June 7, 1995.
  • Slashes have only been used four times: November 9, 1995 (confirmed by Pat as such), October 10, 2001; April 25, 2002; and December 16, 2009.
  • Exclamation points are uncertain, and a bit complicated – while the show is not known to have used them until May 13, 2004, exclamation points had been used many times during that period through cameos on other shows:
    • The 1990 CBS special Happy Birthday Bugs! 50 Looney Years has Vanna standing in front of the puzzle board reading TH--THAT'S NOT ALL FOLKS!, indicating that Wheel had at least one exclamation point slide by this point.
    • Sometime in the mid-1990s, it was used again for a THANKS ALEX! message after a Jeopardy! category involving the puzzle board.
    • A late-1990s promo had HAPPY HALLOWEEN! displayed on the board
    • Another Jeopardy! category on October 4, 2001 also had an exclamation point appear.
  • Number signs with the debut of Fill In the Number (April 7, 1998), although they appear to have been exclusive to that category and dropped after it was retired on April 28, 2004.
  • Commas have appeared only once in gameplay, on September 29, 1998 (the Fill In the Number puzzle ##,### LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA BY JULES VERNE {20,000}). In a grammatical context, they are not used.
  • A dollar sign was used on the February 9, 1987 Newsweek cover with Vanna. One has also appeared once in gameplay on May 26, 2000 (the Fill In the Number puzzle DO NOT PASS GO DO NOT COLLECT $### {$200}).
  • Colons by December 28, 2004.
  • While no puzzle has used an asterisk, they are used on the board in-studio: starting in Season 35 with the rule change to allow contestants to pick one of three categories, said categories are displayed on the board and preceded by asterisks. However, the board is never seen on-camera during this.

Has anyone ever solved with no letters showing?[]

The only confirmed instance to date is, interestingly enough, a bonus puzzle: BABY BOY on an sometime in Season 10 (1992-93).

In addition, several contestants have solved Toss-Up puzzles the instant the first letter was revealed, likely knowing the puzzle beforehand (it is not possible to ring in before the first letter is revealed). Also, several contestants have obviously known the answer before spinning, the first known example being a contestant on a 1976 episode who clearly knew the answer to the Round 3 puzzle DICK CLARK before any letters were revealed, as he called C and K first.

The 1987 book Wheel of Fortune by David R. Sams and Robert L. Shook mentions that as of August 1, 1987, there had been only three instances of a puzzle being solved with one letter (specifically citing an undated instance where I BEFORE E EXCEPT AFTER C was solved with only the T's revealed); the other two are likely CLEVELAND OHIO and BUFFALO NEW YORK early in the nighttime run, both solved with only the N revealed, although according to one recollection, another contestant sometime in 1985 solved TUTTI-FRUTTI ICE CREAM with only the T's revealed. The book makes no mention of a puzzle being solved with no letters, although it is possible that one happened between then and BABY BOY.

Have there ever been any puzzles without A, E, I, O, or U?[]

At least three: the bonus puzzle MYTH on May 15, 1998, the bonus puzzle HYMN on December 8, 1998, and the bonus puzzle MYTHS on April 9, 2004.

What is the most known instances of a single letter in a puzzle?[]

The record for the most of a single consonant appears to be SUMMERTIME SUMMERTIME SUM SUM SUMMERTIME on October 11, 2013, with eleven M's. The record for the most of a single vowel has appeared on two episodes of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune: one on October 31, 2021 in the second game's Round 2 puzzle BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE with twelve E's and one on October 2, 2022 in the first game's Round 2 puzzle BABY SHARK DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO with twelve O's.

What was the shortest puzzle ever used?[]

The shortest known main-game puzzles are OZ DOG (in the category Clue, with the answer being Toto) on January 13, 1993; SCRAM (in the category Slang; used as a Speed-Up) on March 24, 1995; and ATTIC (in the category Place) on June 1, 1999, all at only five letters each.

The shortest Bonus Round answer, and shortest puzzle overall, is AX sometime in Season 11.

The shortest Toss-Ups are JAWS on April 2, 2021 and PINK on the second game of Season 4, Episode 1 of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, aired September 27, 2023.

What is the longest puzzle ever used?[]

The answer varies, depending on whether one counts just letters, or total number of spaces used:

  • Counting by overall number of spaces, the longest is SHE JUST WON A SEVENTH U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIP (Who Is It?, the answer being Michelle Kwan) on March 21, 2003, using 47 of the 52 monitors (45 letters plus two periods).
  • Counting only letters, the longest are BRITISH FILM SUPERSPY FOND OF GADGETS AND DRY MARTINIS (Who Is It?, the answer being James Bond) on January 13, 2005; and HERSHEY BAR GRAHAM CRACKER GOOEY ROASTED MARSHMALLOW (also the only appearance of What Are We Making?, the answer being S'mores) on October 23, 2007, both at 46 letters.

Counting by overall number of spaces, the longest known puzzle on the three-line trilon board is SLEIGHBELLS RING ARE YOU LIST'NIN' (Quotation) on December 24, 1980, using 30 of the 39 spaces on that board (28 letters plus two apostrophes).

Counting only letters, the longest known puzzle on the three-line trilon board is BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (Title) on July 5, 1977, at 29 letters.

The longest known puzzle on the four-line trilon board is SNEEZY DOC BASHFUL HAPPY GRUMPY SLEEPY AND DOPEY (Fictional Characters) on December 27, 1989 (nighttime), using 41 of the 48 spaces on that board (both in terms of overall number of spaces and letters).

The longest Bonus Round answer is PHILANTHROPIC ORGANIZATION on March 26, 2019, at 25 letters.

The longest Puzzler puzzles are THE SUNSHINE BOYS on March 17, 2000 and CALLING THE SHOTS on May 23, 2000, both at 15 letters.

The longest Preview Puzzle is IN MINT CONDITION on December 31, 1999, also at 15 letters.

The longest Toss-Ups in terms of overall spaces are FILL-IN-THE-BLANK QUESTION on the first game of Season 3, Episode 13 of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, aired January 4, 2023 and OUT-OF-OFFICE NOTIFICATION on January 31, 2024, both using 25 of the 52 spaces on the board (the former has 22 letters plus three hyphens while the latter has 23 letters and two hyphens).

The longest Toss-Ups counting only letters are TENNIS RACKET AND WRISTBANDS on March 4, 2020, INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION on October 24, 2022 and THROWING DARTS AT A DARTBOARD on October 27, 2022, all at 25 letters.

The longest known puzzle on Wheel 2000 is LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (V.I.P.'s), using 18 of the presumed (as unused spots were not represented) 40 spaces.

As an aside, the longest puzzle on the 1973 Shopper's Bazaar pilot (which used a different style of three-line board) was GREENWICH VILLAGE (Place) in Round 3, using 16 of the 45 spaces.

Which categories have been used the least?[]

Besides the aforementioned What Are We Making?, Composer/Song was used only once in March 1996.

The April Fool's Day 1997 game also used a joke category of "Really Long Title" in Round 3, and three episodes from the first Retro Week in December 1999 created unique categories by prefacing the Round 1 category name with "60's", "70's", or "80's".

There is only one confirmed instance to date of Phrases being used, as well.

The official category list given to contestants also includes a category called "Where Are We Going?" which has not been used on the show to date.

What is the most that has been lost to a wrong letter?[]

As mentioned above, $62,400 by contestant Terri on December 5, 1985 (nighttime). She had racked up that much money in Round 3 with most of the Quotation puzzle THE THRILL OF VICTORY AND THE AGONY OF DEFEAT filled in. The wrong letter in this case was an S.

Terri also lost out on $10,000 during the Speed-Up round.

What is the record for most amount of wrong letters called in one round?[]

The record appears to be 18 (including an incorrect vowel), set during the Round 3 puzzle OXIDIZED (Megaword) on March 15, 1995. Interestingly, no repeated letters were called.

What is the most that has been lost through a wrong answer?[]

The highest known loss is $33,450 by contestant Becki on September 19, 2007. She had racked up that much in the Mystery Round (Round 3 at the time) with most of the Place puzzle GLEAMING WHITE SAND BEACH filled in. She opted to solve, but added -ES to the end. As it was also the Prize Puzzle, she lost a $6,296 Caribbean trip as well.

Sometime during Season 3, a contestant is believed to have lost out on over $60,000 by forgetting the seventh word of the puzzle STAR LIGHT STAR BRIGHT FIRST STAR I SEE TONIGHT.

What is the most amount of puzzles ever used in a single episode?[]

On any half-hour versions: 12, set on March 9, 2020, (five Toss-Ups, six main-game rounds, and the Bonus Round) and tied on April 8, 2020, October 2, 2020, March 30, 2021, and February 22, 2022.

Previously, 11, set on March 19, 2002, (seven main-game rounds, three Toss-Ups, and the Bonus Round) and tied on June 2, 2004, September 22, 2005, October 9, 2015 and December 23, 2015. The seven main-game rounds also appears to be the record for that particular part of the game, with one recollection of a seven-round game near the end of Season 7 and another of ones "around" Seasons 8 and 13. It is also believed that a Goen episode had seven rounds in the rather non-conventional fashion of six rounds and a tiebreaker.

The record during the shopping era appears to be six, set in October 1978 (on a special all-cash episode of an Armed Forces Week) and tied on April 1, 1983 (five main-game rounds and the Bonus Round). Note that this does not count the hour-long episodes, which always had seven puzzles per episode (three in the first game, three in the second game, and the Head-To-Head round).

On Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, 20, on September 25, 2022 (#PT-302; the first aired episode of Season 3); as this version is formatted as a two-game show similarly to the hour-long episodes on the daytime series, with each half hour having the Toss-Ups, three main game rounds with the first game ending after Round 3 without a Speed-Up, and a Bonus Round, the second game on the aforementioned episode was played to five rounds.

What is the least amount of puzzles ever used in a single episode?[]

Three, set on the first two taped episodes of Wheel 2000 (two main-game rounds and the Bonus Round).

When the show debuted in 1975, games had a minimum of three puzzles. This increased to four when the Bonus Round was permanently introduced in December 1981, five after shopping was dropped, six once the Puzzler was introduced in 1998, and seven when the Preview Puzzle debuted in 1999. The Toss-Ups replaced the Puzzler and Preview Puzzle, initially retaining the seven-puzzle minimum until increasing it to eight at the beginning of Season 19.

Has a puzzle ever been misspelled?[]

On several occasions, a puzzle has been misspelled, contained improper grammar or punctuation, or otherwise had an element that makes its answer inaccurate. The first known example is BLUE BIRD OF HAPPINESS during the All-Star Championship in January 1976. Such errors are noted throughout the timeline where applicable; for further information, see Errata.

Has the Prize Puzzle ever been Before & After or Same Name?[]

Yes, at least five times:

  • On December 16, 2003, the puzzle I SPEAK CHINESE CHECKERS (Before & After) awarded a cruise to China.
  • On May 18, 2004, the puzzle BICYCLE BUILT FOR TWO LEFT FEET (Before & After) awarded both a Jeep mountain bike and a trip to Monterey, California.
  • On September 9, 2004, the puzzle LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL WITH BUTTER (Before & After) awarded a trip to New Orleans, relating to the "let the good times roll" portion of the answer (although Pat jokingly tied it into the "roll with butter" portion).
  • On November 1, 2004, the puzzle IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER (Before & After) awarded a trip to Las Vegas.
  • On November 15, 2004, the puzzle BICYCLE & CHEESE WHEEL (Same Name) awarded a trip to Amsterdam.

Gameplay Elements[]

How are contestants chosen?[]

As with most game shows, contestants are typically selected through casting calls. Throughout most of the show's history, members of the show's crew would hold events across the country and invite people to be selected to play a mock version of the game in addition to a written test.

Starting around 1999, the show's casting calls began to involve the Wheelmobile, a custom-designed Winnebago. Wheelmobile events were held throughout the year at public or semi-public venues such as arenas, theaters, shopping malls, etc. At these events, aspiring contestants filled out a form and dropped it in a bin. After the forms were filled out, the traveling host (originally Nick DeMarco, who was replaced by Marty Lublin in 2002; David Sidoni handled this role when casting for the Phoenix episodes in Season 21) would randomly draw five names at a time and invite those people onstage. Morgan Matthews was typically the co-host, although Tracey Wilson, Heidi Jackson, and Whitney Kirk sometimes held this role instead.

After the interviews, the five contestants onstage played a Speed-Up round. Auditions used a three-line board where one side of each square is a dry-erase surface, on which the hostess wrote a letter if it is in the puzzle. As with the real game, a category strip and Used Letter Board were present. After a puzzle was solved, five more names were drawn (plus extra names if previously-called contestants failed to come onstage), and the cycle repeated for an hour. Wheelmobile events typically lasted for six one-hour segments over the course of two days. Everyone who appeared onstage received a Wheel-themed prize, selected before the interview segment by the host spinning a small wheel.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the show moved strictly to online auditions held through forms on the show's website (typically involving the contestant also submitting a video), although online auditions have been known to exist as early as 2001. For the first few months of the pandemic, only contestants from Southern California were eligible. Despite the lifting of pandemic restrictions by 2022, the show has yet to reinstate the Wheelmobile.

Contestants who show the most potential through online auditions then pass to the final round of audition. When the Wheelmobile was a part of the show's audition process, those who showed the most potential in the in-person auditions were selected to pass to the final stage as well. (If not enough candidates qualified, the staff would sometimes draw names randomly among those who did not appear onstage and invite them to the final audition as well.) These final-level auditions consist of mock games hosted by a different traveling crew; unlike the Wheelmobile games, these feature a vertical Wheel, of which each contestant is given two or three spins before "hitting" Bankrupt or Lose a Turn, and a projected board rendered on a computer. After everyone has gotten a chance to play, the contestants then take a written test, consisting of 16 puzzles (four each in four different categories, alternated between two sets). Once the tests are reviewed, some of the contestants are eliminated; those who remain play another set of mock games, including interviews.

What were the limits for returning champions?[]

Originally, players could stay on for a maximum of five games. This was decreased to the more familiar three-day limit sometime between June 7, 1976 and July 5, 1977, which also applied to the nighttime show from Seasons 7-13. For Seasons 14-15, returning champs were removed in favor of having the Friday Finals format each week (in which an extra prize or prize package was awarded to the finalist who won the Bonus Round), after which the show returned to the one-and-done format that had been in place for Seasons 1-6 (along with Wheel 2000).

The winnings limit was initially $100,000 in Season 7, increasing to $125,000 sometime between February 1990 and December 1992. Once the $100,000 top prize debuted in October 2001, the limit became $200,000, which was never reached (the closest anyone got was $142,550, won by Jack Wagner and contestant Christine Denos on February 28, 2006) before the limit was removed in 2008 with the Million-Dollar Wedge.

How many $100,000 losses are there to date?[]

118, the first being on January 14, 2002. Two puzzles have led to a pair of $100,000 losses: PUNCH BOWL on October 7, 2002 and March 15, 2010, and QUALITY TIME on February 18, 2005 and September 21, 2010.

How many $1,000,000 losses are there to date?[]

Eight - six on the syndicated series, two on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune: Whitney Shields on April 2, 2015, Frank Harary and Laurel Haim on November 15, 2017, Eva Klentos on December 21, 2017, Kaia Lacy on January 11, 2019, Kristen Andrews on January 16, 2019, Jason Mraz, on the second game of Season 2, Episode 7 of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, aired November 14, 2021, Alane Dolensky on September 27, 2022 and Joel Madden on the first game of Season 3, Episode 4 of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, aired October 23, 2022.

How does the Million-Dollar Wedge work?[]

The Million-Dollar Wedge offers a chance at $1,000,000 in the Bonus Round. In order to win said prize, the contestant must do the following:

  • Call a correct letter after landing on the wedge.
  • Solve the current round's puzzle without hitting Bankrupt to claim it.
  • Avoid hitting Bankrupt for the rest of the game.
  • Have the highest total at the end of the game to go to the Bonus Round.
  • Land on the one envelope with the $1,000,000 prize (replacing the normal top prize of $100,000) in the 24-envelope Bonus Wheel.
  • Solve the Bonus Round puzzle.

What is the most that has been lost to Bankrupt on a single hit?[]

The most lost in spendable cash is likely $30,600 on April 20, 2010, an episode which had $46,900 overall ($45,900 plus the Gift Tag) lost to Bankrupt.

The most ever lost by a single contestant appears to be $35,000 (the $10,000 Mystery Wedge and $25,000 from the Big Money Wedge), on April 23, 2008.

What is the most that has been lost to Bankrupt in one show?[]

$49,175, on January 8, 2015. This included a single contestant losing $44,275, which included the value of the ½ Car as she was holding both tags at the time. The $49,175 total also includes the Gift Tag and a third ½ Car tag.

What is the record for most penalty wedge hits in one show?[]

Likely 13, on September 26, 2008 (Teen Best Friends) – 11 Bankrupt hits and two Lose a Turn hits. The yellow contestants hit Bankrupt five times while the other two teams hit it three times each and Lose a Turn once each. 11 is also likely a record for most Bankrupt hits in one show.

What was the lowest-value prize offered during the shopping era?[]

The lowest we've seen is a $13 handmade ceramic spoon jar plus bud vase, offered (and purchased) during the Portland Week episode of September 22, 1981. Jack Clark's description notes that it was purchased at "Portland's colorful outdoor Saturday market".

Given the numerous gaps in the available episodes and the sheer number of prizes that didn't have one of the show's pricetags attached, it's very possible that there was something even lower.

During the shopping era, did the show charge more for prizes than they sold for at retail?[]

No. The show used the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP for short, and also known as "list price" or "sticker price") for all items, whether it be a $17 vase or a $17,000 car.

This was addressed on-air at least once, during a May 1981 episode: after a contestant asked this following the description of a $259 magazine rack she had bought, host Chuck Woolery noted that it was a good question and stated that "They are retail prices that are quoted to us, and that's what we charge." Chuck's comments afterward suggest that this was a common question at the time.

Why did some games in the 1990s have only three rounds?[]

Three-round games were sometimes done to accommodate for home viewer sweepstakes, thus meaning that the Round 2 template and $2,500 (then the top dollar for Round 2) were not used. They were also done occasionally on road shows in the mid-1990s due to time constraints, although the Cash and Splash Sweepstakes instead opted for putting both $2,500 and $3,500 on the Wheel for Round 2, which used the Round 3 template.

Notably, the three-round structure led to a unique instance on the Season 15 premiere (September 1, 1997) where, due in part to an extended intro, Round 3 began as a Speed-Up. As a result, the Round 3 template (with $3,500 and only one Bankrupt) was retained, and the Jackpot was not used.

Does the Wheel have to make a complete revolution?[]

No, although if a spin seems unusually "light" Pat will usually stop the Wheel and ask the contestant to spin again.

However, the Bonus Wheel does have to make at least one complete revolution; if it does not, the original spin is edited out, and the contestant re-spins. This led to an incident on September 28, 2006 where a contestant's spin was determined not to have made a complete revolution until after the bonus puzzle was revealed; as a result, the original puzzle was discarded, and she re-spun to play a different puzzle.

Does the studio audience see the other side of a Mystery Wedge during the player's choice?[]

No. Only the home audience sees the Bankrupt or $10,000/car/prize, depending on the wedge (and the era of the wedge). While this would appear to be done to prevent audience influence toward the contestant's decision, the studio audience is encouraged to tell the player to flip it over.

What happens if the Final Spin lands on anything other than a dollar amount?[]

Originally, another Final Spin would be done until the Wheel landed on a dollar amount. Since at least 1997, invalid Final Spins are edited from the broadcast.

What happened if someone used the Double Play and hit a prize or token?[]

Landing on a Prize wedge, Surprise, or Free Spin results in Pat giving the token back to the contestant. The sole exception to this was the $10,000 Wedge, which doubled its value (and which was successfully done on February 8, 1996).

How many people have tried to solve on Free Play?[]

Two: November 24, 2010 and May 10, 2012. The first was correct, while the second was not.

What gets edited out of shows, if anything?[]

Most frequently, the overhead shots of the Wheel may be trimmed to show only the Wheel coming to a stop.

From about the late 1990s onward, cycles are often edited out of rounds if all three players consecutively make moves that do not affect their score or the answer (i.e., cycles consisting entirely of wrong consonants, Lose A Turn, and/or Bankrupts that do not take anything away), in order to allow as much time for gameplay as possible. In the fandom, this is referred to as a "null" cycle. This is known to have been done since at least the introduction of the electronic puzzle board in 1997, although it appears that it did not become semi-regular until late 1998. Such edits are usually harder to discern, outside of paying close attention to the Wheel's position and/or a reference made by Pat to a turn that was edited out (e.g., informing a player that a letter was already called, despite the first call being edited out). On rare occasions, turns are edited out that do affect gameplay. By Season 28, "null" cycles began to be edited from Speed-Ups as well; these are often masked by a brief jump-cut to Pat, and such edits sometimes result in the Speed-Up music skipping or playing over itself.

Starting in late 1997, Final Spins landing on anything other than a dollar amount are edited out and the Wheel spun again.

On occasion, an edit may occur if a contestant solves the Speed-Up or Bonus Round on the buzzer, usually so that the tape can be reviewed. Generally, the answer is accepted only if the contestant started directly on or before the buzzer, and proceeded continuously without stopping. At least once, a Speed-Up was thrown out due to such a call being required on the first turn, only for the review to show that the contestant did not beat the buzzer.

Several episodes have had a puzzle edited out due to either a technical error (such as the wrong letter lighting up, or a part of the set malfunctioning), a scoring error, the host accidentally accepting a wrong answer, or an audience member shouting out the answer. According to several sources, the contestants are awarded a cash bonus of $100 (not counted toward their final score) if a round is discarded for any reason other than audience interference.

Starting in Season 35, individual wrong letters on Free Play may also be edited out, even if not part of a "null" cycle.

Finally, several episodes dating back to at least 2002 have had spins from other rounds or even other episodes dubbed in, due to the overhead Wheel shot not catching the actual spin.

When and why did the Bonus Round start offering RSTLNE?[]

RSTLNE was first offered on both versions (daytime and nighttime) on October 3, 1988. The rule change was made because, under the original rules of asking the contestant for five consonants and a vowel, nearly every contestant would choose those letters. To compensate, the time limit was reduced from 15 to 10 seconds, and the puzzles made slightly harder.

Have any bonus puzzles used at least one each of RSTLNE?[]

Plenty of times prior to the aforementioned 1988 rule change, but there are only a few known examples from afterward:

  • TRADING PLACES (April 1, 1997)
  • QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE (February 1, 2010)
  • BOUNTIFUL HARVEST (November 6, 2013)
  • OVERWHELMING SUPPORT (November 15, 2013)
  • QUIRKY PERSONALITY (December 18, 2013)
  • DOWNRIGHT HYSTERICAL (December 15, 2015)
  • BROWSING THE AISLES (January 21, 2016)
  • LIGHTING FIXTURES (March 8, 2016)
  • VERY INSIGHTFUL (April 19, 2016)
  • UPBEAT PERSONALITY (September 19, 2016)
  • OVERCOMING OBSTACLES (May 29, 2017)
  • COUGARS IN THE WILD (October 23, 2018)
  • FLIPPING THROUGH PAGES (January 11, 2019)
  • HEAVY LAUNDRY BASKET (March 24, 2021)
  • APPLYING FOR THE POSITION (April 22, 2021)
  • JAUGARS IN THE WILD (November 12, 2021)
  • LAUNDRY BASKET (December 17, 2021)
  • THIS IS MY FINAL OFFER (February 14, 2022)
  • PLEASE QUIT GOOFING AROUND (March 4, 2022)
  • IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE (April 15, 2022)
  • ANOTHER SHAMELESS PLUG (December 13, 2022 in CWof's second game)
  • PRETZELS AND MUSTARD (January 4, 2023 in CWof's first game)
  • BAFFLING MYSTERY (January 25, 2023)
  • FUN OUTDOOR FESTIVAL (April 12, 2023)
  • BROWSING THE AISLES (January 9, 2024)

Has RSTLNE ever revealed every consonant or vowel in a puzzle?[]

This has happened at least twice, with the puzzle ONION on January 31, 1989 and TIARA on October 13, 1994. It also occurred with the puzzle EINSTEIN on an episode of Wheel 2000.

Similarly, there have been at least nine bonus puzzles where E was the only vowel:

  • BEEF JERKY (late 1988)
  • PET PEEVE (January 19, 1993)
  • WHY ME (February 5, 1993)
  • GEM (February 25, 1993)
  • WEEKEND (December 8, 1995)
  • EGYPT (January 10, 1997)
  • PEBBLE (May 13, 1997)
  • HYPHEN (March 9, 1999)
  • CHEWY JERKY (March 21, 2018)

Have any bonus puzzles not used RSTLNE?[]

While sporadic, a few did not contain RSTLNE. The first known instance was GUM on a Bob Goen-hosted daytime episode in 1991, and the last instance is I DO on March 26, 1996.

What happens if a contestant accidentally calls one of RSTLNE in the Bonus Round?[]

The player is informed that said letter is "part of the original package" and prompted for another letter. There is no penalty for repeating a previously-given letter, although we do not advise doing it deliberately.

The only known exception to this was on Wheel 2000, where any repeat calls were silently counted against the contestant.

Does Y ever have to be bought?[]

No. Y is always a consonant in Wheel's context, meaning that contestants must spin to call it even if the puzzle uses Y as a vowel. Pat is known to have addressed this in a Bonus Round sometime in Season 6. He also addressed it on October 23, 1995 when a contestant accidentally asked to buy a Y in one round, as well as on the January 9, 2022 episode of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune when Marcia Cross tried calling a Y for her vowel in the Bonus Round.

What happens if a Toss-Up is not solved?[]

If the $1,000 Toss-Up is not solved, then the red contestant is interviewed first; if the $2,000 Toss-Up is not solved, then the red contestant starts Round 1 (regardless of whether s/he won the first Toss-Up). When the $3,000 Toss-Up went unsolved, this meant that the contestant who started Round 1 would also start Round 4.

Since the introduction of the Triple Toss-Up in Season 37, the game continues as usual should either of the first two Triple Toss-Ups go unsolved. If the third goes unsolved, the same procedure for the $3,000 Toss-Up still applies.

Has there ever been a Toss-Up where no one even rang in?[]

This has happened thrice. On March 31, 2014, the original $1,000 Toss-Up REST AREA was edited out and replaced with a new one due to no one ringing in. The third Triple Toss-Up MUDPUPPY on March 11, 2022 and RARE BOOK on April 26, 2023 also went to the last letter without anyone ringing in, but unlike in 2014 this one was not edited out or replaced.

What is the record for the most amount of Bankrupt/Lose A Turn hits in one round?[]

The record for Bankrupt is believed to be six, achieved on at least March 27, 1979 (Round 2), October 11, 1994 (Round 3), October 26, 1994 (Round 3), December 30, 2008 (Round 3), October 4, 2011 (Round 2), November 28, 2013 (Round 3), March 18, 2015 (Round 2), November 25, 2015 (Round 1), and April 10, 2018 (Round 2). It was also hit six times in Round 3 of the third Second Chance Lottery Promotion taped after Season 34.

The record for Lose A Turn appears to be five, achieved on December 30, 1992 and January 29, 1997.

Has there ever been a "perfect" main game?[]

For the sake of clarity, a "perfect" main game is one where no Bankrupts or Lose A Turns are hit, no wrong letters are called, nobody gets buzzed out, nobody missolves, and all three Toss-Ups are won. During the era of "bonus" categories and questions, this required giving the right answers to those as well.

This is not known to have happened at all, although the closest known example is December 13, 1982 (itself notable for being Vanna's first permanent episode): nobody hit Bankrupt or Lose A Turn and no mistakes were made, although a contestant did get buzzed out in the Speed-Up.

The closest occurrence of a contestant playing a perfect game happened in the first week of Season 26, where a player swept the game and won the Bonus Round. The only time he would have lost his turn was when he hit a Bankrupt on the Million-Dollar Wedge in Round 1, but he had obtained the Free Spin earlier in the round and immediately used it.

What is the smallest amount by which a contestant has won or lost?[]

The smallest known margin of victory is $3, which occurred on June 3, 2014. Prior to that, many contestants dating back to at least 1989 have won by margins of $50. A win by $30 almost occurred on October 2, 2012, after a contestant tried to solve in the Speed-Up without calling a letter first.

In the first Byrnes pilot, a scoring error occurred in Round 4, and a contestant would have won by $40.

What happens if the game ends in a tie?[]

Originally on the daytime version, it was believed that ties resulted in the tied contestants returning the next day as co-champions, as was the case on non-tournament episodes of Jeopardy! prior to 2014. Likely around the introduction of the Bonus Round, and definitely by November 1986, a tie game simply meant that no Bonus Round was played and all three contestants returned the next day. The continuation game did not count towards a champion's three-day limit, and according to at least one recollection, this once resulted in a contestant playing for five days due to two consecutive ties. Known tie games include November 13, 1986, the aforementioned 1987 episodes, and twice in 1989 during Rolf Benirschke's tenure as host. Benirschke's first tie quickly became infamous, as it resulted in him looking at the camera and admitting that he did not know what to do.

Tie games on the nighttime show were originally broken by a Speed-Up round between the tied contestants. If a Speed-Up had already occurred, the tiebreaker had its own Final Spin (referred to as a "Final Final Spin" by Pat). Known tie games include a show taped in December 1987; October 5, 1993; and February 17, 1998. The former had the tiebreaker in its own segment, resulting in the Bonus Round moving to the final segment and Pat signing off immediately afterward, while the latter had the tiebreaker immediately after Round 5 with the rest of the game paced as normal. The nighttime procedure was also used for daytime weeks with the Friday Finals format, and at least twice had to be done at the beginning of Friday shows to break a tie at third place. According to one recollection, at least one tie occurred on daytime during the Goen era, using the same rules (while also resulting in an extremely rare occurrence of a seven-round game). It is also believed that at least one tie on Wheel 2000 was handled in the same fashion.

Since the introduction of Toss-Ups, ties are broken by an additional Toss-Up. This has only happened four times: March 13, 2003, March 2, 2006, May 25, 2016, and one of the unaired Second Chance Lottery Promotion episodes. While the tiebreaker round had no cash value on the former two episodes, it was valued at $1,000 on the 2016 episode and the Second Chance episode.

What happens if a contestant asks to buy a vowel, then calls a consonant instead?[]

If any rule exists for this, it has been applied inconsistently:

  • On at least four occasions (March or April 1989; October 23, 1995; May 18, 2001; and January 18, 2006), a contestant/team that asked to buy a consonant had $250 deducted and lost their turn.
  • On November 7, 2000, a contestant asked to buy a W, then a zero, before calling O. After a stopdown, it was determined to rule it as a bought O and hold the contestant to W on their next spin.
  • On May 30, 2011, a contestant who also asked to buy a T merely lost her turn; in addition, the T had already been revealed in the puzzle.
  • On May 15, 2012, a contestant who asked to buy an N corrected himself to say I; Pat ruled it as I, but the ruling ended up not mattering as the I was already revealed.
  • Starting from at least September 18, 2012, it appears that accidentally buying a consonant is now disregarded, judging from Pat's comment of "We'll take the first vowel we heard.", and corroborated by similar incidents on at least September 27 and December 19, 2013.

Why have some non-team episodes had more than three people onstage?[]

Contestants who are not physically able to spin the Wheel themselves are allowed to have a friend or family member serve as a "designated spinner"; said spinner may only spin the Wheel for them, and may not otherwise assist in gameplay.

The only exception is during weeks with two-player teams. This happened on an episode from the Family Week of May 23, 2011, in which a mother and her wheelchair-bound son competed as a team. While the mother was the only one of the two to spin, her son did not call any letters, and his only contribution to gameplay was solving Round 1 with her. A second instance of a "designated spinner" during a team week occurred on November 17, 2017.

This does not apply to the Bonus Wheel, as that is smaller in size so the contestant is usually able to spin that themselves.

In what may be a unique occurrence, a wheelchair-bound contestant on an April 2018 episode had her husband serve as a "designated spinner". As she proceeded to the Bonus Round, she was able to spin the Bonus Wheel by herself, but her husband was still present to help push the chair.

During a week with teams, what happens if each member calls a different letter during a turn?[]

If one member of the team says one letter, and his/her teammate declares another letter at the same time, then Pat will ask them to decide which of the two letters they want to call.

Has a puzzle ever been thrown out?[]

Very rarely, a puzzle may be discarded. This is often due to an audience member shouting out an answer, a wrong letter being revealed (supposedly a frequent occurrence during Susan Stafford's tenure, as she often tended to turn the letters before they were lit), or the host accidentally ruling an incorrect answer as correct. The earliest known instance of a discarded puzzle was on the January 6, 1975 premiere episode (as indicated by a disclaimer read by Charlie O'Donnell during the closing credits of the episode).

According to the 1987 book Wheel of Fortune by David R. Sams and Robert L. Shook, puzzles that were discarded for any reason other than audience interference resulted in each contestant receiving a $200 gift certificate; the exception was Round 1, which was simply reshot without such a bonus. The book also states that if a wrong answer was accidentally ruled correct, the two opponents to the contestant who gave the answer received a $200 bonus. Prior to the gift certificates being introduced in 1975, winnings from discarded rounds were still awarded to the contestant anyway.

At least four episodes (all nighttime) have had visible indication of a puzzle being discarded:

  • Two of these had Speed-Up puzzles that were thrown out and replaced, where the original puzzle and its category were accidentally shown before the Final Spin, with the replacement puzzle and category ultimately being seen afterwards:
    • A September 1988 episode having the original, thrown-out puzzle's (Phrase) reveal accidentally left in before the Final Spin, while the actual puzzle played was a one-word People.
    • On October 7, 2021, where the original Round 4 was revealed as a four-word Phrase, with Pat announcing the original category both before and after the Final Spin, even though the actual puzzle played was a three-word Living Things.
  • Additionally, on October 6, 1989 and April 16, 1991, the blanks seen on the board in the opening shots clearly do not match up to the actual Round 1 that was played.

It is not known how "bonuses" for discarded puzzles were handled immediately after the retirement of shopping. According to a contestant who was on in March 2007, all three contestants received $100 cash bonuses after a round was discarded due to an incorrect answer accidentally being accepted.

A round in May 2013 that began as a Speed-Up was thrown out due to a contestant solving the puzzle so closely to the buzzer that his answer could not be determined by ear; as a result, there was a stopdown before his answer was determined to have come after the buzzer, necessitating the discarded puzzle. The Speed-Up was redone with a new puzzle and the same Final Spin value. Other times, if a contestant solved the Speed-Up on or after the buzzer, the rest of the round would proceed as normal until solved, and Pat would announce that the scores were tentative so that the contestant's answer could be checked. The aforementioned Speed-Up was likely discarded due to the answer having come on the first turn, instead of much later in the proceedings.

One of Rolf Benirschke's first daytime episodes is known to have had a Bonus Round thrown out due to him accidentally accepting an incorrect answer. Pat has accidentally accepted at least one wrong Bonus Round answer as correct (EXACTLY ALIVE on April 3, 2012, when the actual answer was EXACTLY ALIKE), in which case the Bonus Round was simply redone with a new puzzle following a ten-minute stopdown.

If an audience member shouted out the answer to a question asked by a "bonus" category, the bonus was simply discarded. This is known to have happened at least three times.

As mentioned above, Toss-Ups are thrown out if no one rings in, although this was not originally the case.

At least three episodes have had puzzles edited out for other reasons:

  • The November 2, 1992 episode (from the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco) edited out Round 2 because the answer was VANNA'S PREGNANT; since she had a miscarriage sometime after its recording on September 11, the round was replaced with a short spiel narrated by Charlie which gave some details on the taping, bookended by footage of Pat explaining what had occurred in the round. Vanna's A&E Biography episode showed behind-the-scenes footage of her revealing the puzzle after it was solved, then being surprised by Merv Griffin holding balloons in celebration.
  • November 16 and 17, 2005 (taped at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans shortly before Hurricane Katrina) respectively had Round 1 and the $1,000 Toss-Up edited out, as their answers were deemed insensitive to hurricane victims. On the original airings, these rounds were replaced with clips of Pat and Vanna asking viewers for donation to hurricane relief funds; Summer reruns of these episodes restored the Toss-Up from November 17 (THE LOUISIANA SUPERDOME), but replaced the "missing" Round 1 from November 16 with another clip of Pat and Vanna thanking those who donated.

What happens if only vowels remain in a puzzle, but no contestant has enough to buy one?[]

Each contestant is given one chance to solve the puzzle. Should all three fail to solve, the puzzle is thrown out.

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