Wheel Of Fortune is a game show that debuted on January 6, 1975 to great success, with Chuck Woolery as host. This success has only grown, with Pat Sejak hosting the current iteration of the show, and currently over sixty international adoptions to capitalize on the series' success. Iconic game show 'Wheel of Fortune' premiered in 1975, though it could have looked much different: the pilot was originally called 'Shopper's Bazaar' and featured a vertical wheel. Six-thousand episodes later, 'Wheel of Fortune' is the longest-running syndicated game show in the United States.
Wheel of Fortune has been on the air since 1975, making it one of the longest-running game shows on television, but even long-time fans might be surprised at just how the show is taped (via How Stuff Works).
According to Radio.com, the team manages to shoot an entire month's worth of shows in just four days (specifically every other Thursday and Friday) by taping six shows each day. In fact, one episode takes just thirty minutes to film, thanks to the digitization of the puzzle board. Before 1997, when the board was analog, it took almost an hour to tape, just because the board needed to be manually reset so often.
Yet, somehow, despite the rushed filming schedule, the show has time to replay certain rounds if they don't like the first take (via Buzzfeed). According to one former contestant, 'They basically film a whole week's worth of shows in a day, and sometimes repeat rounds if it didn't go 'right' the first time.' In fact, contestants are rigorously coached on how to act, how to call out letters, and even how to spin the wheel (via The Week). If this shocks you, there are a few more things you should probably know as Wheel of Fortune returns for its 38th season (via Today).
More secrets about Wheel of Fortune
While Wheel of Fortune uses some tricks to its advantage, like making the 6-foot diameter wheel look bigger with the angle of the camera, most everything else about the wheel is actually real, not rigged (via Awesome Jelly). Some fans used to believe there was a foot pedal under host Pat Sajak's desk allowing him to control the speed of the spin or where it landed, since they noticed the wheel never stopped on 'bankrupt' or 'lose a spin' during the final spin. The truth is, it does occasionally land on those spots, but it's edited out for the sake of time. The wheel itself is not rigged.
Of course, this isn't the only way that the show is streamlined to save time. For example, to avoid contestants repeating previous incorrect guesses, there's a screen facing them showing those letters, but that's not the only secret screen. The host has one facing him that shows how many of a correctly-guessed letter there are in the puzzle (via ABC News). Before the screens took over, it was the job of a 'finger boy' (i.e. member of production staff) to signal that number to Sajak with their fingers. With so many sneaky time-savers, it's no wonder they're able to shoot so many shows in so few days.
Wheel Of Fortune 1975 Theme
Since 1975, contestants on Wheel of Fortune have been buying vowels and solving puzzles to win a variety of prizes, from trips and cars to even $1 million in cash. But when it comes to the hangman-style word game, taking home the big bucks is a lot harder than it looks on TV.
It's so hard that only three people have won the $1 million prize since its debut in 2008 (via Closer Weekly). But even the luckiest wordsmiths can't escape the state and federal taxes that go along with their Wheel of Fortune winnings, no matter the sum. That means you might win $1 million on the show, but sadly that's not nearly how much you're taking home at the end of the day.
Sandwiched between two 'Bankrupt' wedges on the Wheel of Fortune wheel, contestants have a 1-in-72 chance at landing on the tiny green sliver that signifies the million-dollar mark, and even then, the large cash prize isn't guaranteed. Landing on the $1 million wedge only affords you an opportunity at the prize.
To win a million dollars on Wheel of Fortune you have to land on the million-dollar wedge twice
The first step in winning the million-dollar prize on Wheel of Fortune is landing on the prize sliver during regular gameplay. That's the easy part. You then have to win the game, and make it to the bonus round without ever hitting the bankrupt penalty wedge, which would immediately wipe out your million-dollar prize.
Here's where the show separates the lucky from the really lucky. As Time explains, once you get to the bonus round with the million-dollar wedge, one of the prize envelopes which contains $100,000 is replaced with the $1 million prize. The contestant then has to spin for a prize envelope, essentially requiring the individual to land on the $1 million wedge again. The envelope's contents are kept secret until the end, with the contestant either solving the puzzle or running out of time.
History Of Wheel Of Fortune
That's a whole lot of spinning combined with a whole lot of luck. Which is probably why only three people have walked home with the rare prize. In some states, based on the percentage of income tax and the possibility of being put into a different taxable income bracket based solely on your winnings, a $1 million winner could end up giving half of the prize money right to the IRS (via NerdWallet). Still, going home a half million dollars richer wouldn't be a total hardship!