User:Sjones23/Wheel of Fortune audition process

Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. It premiered in 1975 on network television, with a syndicated version airing in 1983, and has since become a franchise. The program holds auditions for potential contestants. Tryouts take place in the Los Angeles area, and occasionally in other locations throughout the United States, in Canada, and at U.S. military installations abroad. Anyone who is at least 18 years old has the potential to become a contestant on Wheel of Fortune. There are also auditions for people who are undergraduate students or teenagers for specific weeks.

Contestant selection

With few exceptions, anyone at least 18 years old who attends a Wheelmobile event has the potential to become a contestant on Wheel of Fortune. Those ineligible include employees of Sony Pictures Television or its affiliates, CBS Television Distribution or any firm involved in offering prizes for the show. Contestants who have appeared on a different game show within the previous year, three other game shows within the past ten years or on any version of Wheel of Fortune itself are also ineligible. Eventually, seventy potential contestants are selected for a brief five-minute written test consisting of 16 puzzles and also to solve a smaller version of the puzzle. The staff alerts potential contestants by mail if they have been selected. Contestants were allowed to return to the show for up to three to five times until 1998. Before 1998 and from 1983-1989 in the syndicated version, contestants have been limited to one appearance.

Occasionally, episodes are taped with special audience restrictions. In college-themed episodes, the contestants are undergraduate students from local universities and in teen-themed episodes, the contestants consist of teenagers as young as 13.