As the Wheel of Fortune rotates on and on, producers are always taking new ideas for a spin. In fact, it was 10 years ago today (June 6) that the syndicated game show got intersectional, so to speak, with Crossword Rounds.
As we reach the end of another Wheel season — the 43rd, if you can believe it — take a walk down memory lane below and see our selections for the wackiest and wildest change-ups in the show’s storied history.
1993: Red-Letter Puzzles add another layer of gameplay
For a little more than a year, starting in 1993, Wheel challenged players to unscramble the red letters displayed on a solved puzzle to win a bonus prize, per Fandom. You can see an example in the video below — or in this screenshot of the not-so-politically-correct “Caught With His Pants Down” solution.
1997: Alex Trebek takes the Wheel
Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak traded jobs in an epic 1997 April Fool’s prank. And as the Jeopardy! host emceed Wheel, Sajak and cohost Vanna White played for charity — White said she’d only spun the wheel once before! — while Sajak’s wife, Lesly, helmed the puzzle board.
1997: Wheel 2000, a children’s spinoff, debuts
Tween and teen contestants, a CGI “cyberhostess” named Lucy, and consonants earned through physical stunts — Wheel 2000 brought zany energy to the Wheel of Fortune format. Alas, the kid-centric spinoff only lasted one season.
2008: Meet the Million Dollar Bonus Round
Who wants to be a millionaire? In 2008, Wheel added a Million Dollar Bonus Round, multiplying the game show’s maximum prize by 10. “Raising the stakes so dramatically could make this our richest season ever,” then-EP Harry Friedman said in a press release.
2011: A wild 1/2 Car wedge appears
No, Wheel wasn’t giving away sawed-off sedans during the 2010s but rather offering players the chance to win a car by collecting two 1/2 Car wedges. (“If Hyundai only had to donate the car in the event that it gets paid out, they’re getting a ridiculous bargain here,” one Game Show Forum user wrote.)
2016: Crossword Rounds take the game to a new dimension
Let’s get vertical! Wheel introduced its first Crossword Round in 2016. In a statement at the time (via TheWrap), Friedman said he and Sajak had been considering the format for years, and that he pulled the trigger after seeing crossword puzzles’ success in the Spanish edition of Wheel of Fortune.
2020: Wheel gets a COVID-19 makeover
The game show followed social-distancing procedures after 2020’s COVID-19 outbreak, spacing out contestants by at least six feet and giving each a “white thing” — as Sajak put it — so they didn’t have to touch the wheel with their hands.
2022: Vanna White gets a laser-powered puzzle board
No more swiveling trilons. No more touch screens. For Season 40, Wheel’s puzzle board became a seamless LED surface with lidar — a technology used in Mars rovers and self-driving cars — tracking White’s hand gestures.
2024: Wheel’s new set accompanies its new host
Upon Ryan Seacrest’s hosting debut, production designer J.P. Connelly gave the set a total overhaul — with Art Deco and Art Nouveau touches — for the first time in decades. Connelly told BCS he followed creator Merv Griffin’s wishes for a Las Vegas-inspired design. (Viewers were, well, divided, to say the least.)
Wheel of Fortune, Weekdays, Check local listings