Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune is a television game show originally devised by Merv Griffin which runs in local editions around the world. It involves three contestants competing against each other to solve a word puzzle similar to Hangman. The name of the show comes from the large wheel that determines the dollar amounts and prizes won (or lost) by the contestants.

Bonus Round

A final puzzle is put up and the contestant chooses several consonants and a vowel. Occurrences of these letters are revealed and the contestant has a small amount of time, but as many guesses as necessary, to solve the puzzle.

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Several versions of the Bonus Round ? including the long-familiar format introduced in 1981 ? have been used, and are detailed below.

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1975 "hour long WOF" version

The U.S. version tinkered with a bonus round format for six weeks in 1975, when the show was 1 hour long. The winner of the show would play a sort of bonus round, and have the choice of four different puzzles?easy, medium, hard, and difficult. When they chose the puzzle, they were asked to give four consonants and a vowel. Then they were given 15 seconds to guess the puzzle.

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If the puzzle was solved, they won a prize based on the puzzle's difficulty. For example, if the contestant chose an easy puzzle, he/she might win a $1,000 television-stereo console, while solving a difficult puzzle would win them a $13,000 Cadillac Eldorado. The prizes varied widely.

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1978 "Star Bonus" version

The "Star Bonus" round was played for a time in 1978, which would enable a second- or third-place contestant to possibly become champion by solving a Bonus Round-type puzzle.

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A special "Star Bonus" disc was placed on the wheel. If the contestant landed on the wedge, he/she was provisionally entitled to play the Bonus Round if he/she was the second- or third-place contestant that day. The contestant had to play for a prize that was more than the difference between him/her and the first-place contestant; just like the hour-long Bonus Round, the prize's value corresponded with the puzzle's difficulty.

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As before, the contestant was asked to pick four consonants and one vowel, then given 15 seconds to attempt to solve the puzzle.

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Critics of this format point to several flaws, most notably that merely landing on the space did not guarantee the Star Bonus would be played. It was possible for the day's eventual first-place contestant to land on the Star Bonus. Also, the Star Bonus prizes were available during shopping rounds, meaning a dominant player could buy that $13,000 Chevrolet Corvette and thus render an opponent's Star Bonus token useless (since no available prize would allow him/her to overtake the first-place player). Then, there was the possibility that the Star Bonus token would not be landed on at all; plus, some haphazard editing also irked viewers.

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1981-current "Bonus Round"

Pat Sajak's first show in 1981 was also when the current bonus round became a permanent feature, and adopted the long-familiar format.

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When it debuted in 1981, the contestant chose a prize (tagged with a special gold star, usually worth $1,500 or more). He/she then was presented a puzzle and told its category. He/she then was asked to choose five consonants and one vowel. The contestant was given 15 seconds to guess the puzzle's solution. If correct, he/she won the prize.

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A statistical analysis shows that R, S, T, L, N, and E are the best choices, and these were almost always selected by contestants. Starting in 1988, the contestant is automatically given the R, S, T, L, N and E, and then asked to pick three more consonants and one additional vowel. The contestant is then given 10 seconds to guess the solution.

Related Topics:
R - S - T - L - N - E

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Since then, the difficulty of the bonus puzzles has gone up, sometimes with only one or two instances of the automatic letters appearing in the puzzle.

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Changes to the 1981 bonus round

• 1987 syndication ? When the syndicated "Wheel" began its all-cash format, much larger bonus prizes were offered. Examples: a Ferrari, a vacation for six on a private island in Jamaica, a 5-acre plot in Maine, a motor home plus an invitation to tour Alaska with an RV club, a cabin cruiser, tickets to every major sporting event for the next year, a time-share vacation home at Lake Tahoe, and valuable annuities. One of the prizes was always $25,000 in cash. The cash quickly became far and away the most popular bonus prize, while cars were second. The NBC daytime show, meanwhile, used the 1981 Bonus Round format until the blind-draw method was introduced in 1989, no cash was offered and contestants just chose what prize to play for. On the CBS run, one bonus prize was always $5,000 in cash.
• 1989 ? Each of the week's prizes went into a blind draw, each hidden in an envelope and placed behind a letter in the word "WHEEL." Each prize could be won just once in a week. The extravagant prizes continued on the syndicated version, meaning someone could win such items as a Hummer, a speedboat or a log cabin as their bonus prize. This was not done on the CBS daytime version (and later on when it moved back to NBC for the final few months); contestants simply picked which one of the five prizes they wanted to play for. The CBS version's bonus prizes were decidedly more modest (e.g., a Caribbean cruise and a Geo Metro, which coincidentally were sometimes offered as Prize Round prizes on the syndicated version).

: By the mid-1990s, with contestants still preferring $25,000 (or at least one of the available cars), the cash was eventually made available every day, even if it was already won that week; the other prizes, like the cars, could only be won once per week. The off-beat prizes, such as the "Precious Gems Package" were eventually scrapped. For the last two months of this format during the 19th season, 3 contained cars, and the other two had the cash.

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• 2001 ? The Bonus Round was revamped and allowed the contestant a chance to play for $100,000. The contestant first spun a small, 24-section wheel to determine which prize he/she would be playing for. 11 of the wedges held $25,000. There were 4 wedges for each of the 3 cars available that week. The remaining envelope concealed the grand prize of $100,000.

: In 2002, the Bonus Wheel prizes were revised, with cash amounts of between $30,000 and $50,000 hidden in the mix (each in increments of $5,000). The prize distribution was thus:

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: * Six (6) envelopes containing one car.

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: * Six (6) envelopes containing the other car.

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: * Six (6) envelopes containing $25,000

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: * One (1) envelope each containing $30K, $35K, $40K, $45K, $50K, and $100,000.

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: Three solo contestants and two teams have won the $100,000 prize. Douglass Ross was the first to do so in December 2001, and was the only one to win it during the 2001-2002 season. It was won three times during the 2002-03 season, with two solo contestants and one team winning it. It was not won at all during the 2003-04 season.

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: The all-time winnings record on the show is $146,529, set by Peter and Deborah during "Sweethearts Week" in 1996. The one-day record is $121,831, set by Bonnie and Karen in a memorable episode during "Family Vacations Week" in December 2002, in which they solved all the puzzles on the show, including the bonus round puzzle, for a total of 9, which is currently an all-time record. The one-day record for a solo contestant is $119,100, by Byron Pope in April 2003. Nancy won $105,500 in 2003-04. In 2005 Best Friends Week two girls had won $100,000

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The Bonus Round in foreign countries

• In other foreign countries, the "R, S, T, L, N, E" is never given to the contestant, although Germany used this sort of format around the late 90s to the early 2000s.
• In Australia, the contestant earns two consonants and a vowel, but can earn an extra consononant for every $2,000 scored in the main game.
• Some other versions, like Glucksrad in Germany, still use the 15-second time limit for their bonus rounds.