The Downside of Being on Wheel

Ugh....sorry Julie! That is SO ironic, wow. Sounds like my luck, ha....

No the 6 months runs concurrent to the 1 year wait by most other shows. Ex: Wheel will let me go in October, but Millionaire wouldn't let me go until next April.

Does anyone know if Wheel's "time out" period is still 6 months after your show airs? I'm applying for 500 Questions and wanted to make sure I wasn't violating anything I signed for Wheel, but I can't remember what the period was. My episode aired in October, so six months from that is late April. So does that mean I can't APPLY for another game show before that time, or TAPE another game show before that time, or have another appearance AIR before that time?

I had something similar happen to me last October. I submitted an audition video for Millionaire and they called me back right away. But then it all came to a screeching halt when I told them it hadn't been one year since my appearance on The Price is Right. It was only a few weeks shy. Now that it has been a year, I wonder if they still have me on file and will me give a call. I'm not holding my breath though.

^Thanks for sharing, kevin...congrats, dreamoffields  

Well, I got my answer (from Gary):

For anyone else that may have the same question, from the "contestant release form":

"I have not taped an appearance on any other television game show, dating/relationship show or “reality” show which has been (or may be) aired within one year of my appearance on this program, and I agree not to tape an appearance on any of the above types of television shows until six (6) months after the initial broadcast of my appearance on Wheel of Fortune."

500 Questions is taping in March, so it looks like I'll have to sit this one out.

That means no Celebrity Name Game auditions for me and I have to abstain from taking future JEOPARDY! Online Tests.

Yeah, I noticed that too. If I'm not mistaken, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and Family Feud tape their entire seasons during the Summer, so if you're on Wheel between about February and June you'll have to wait until next year to potentially get on either of those. The OP noted that Millionaire requires one year between last game show appearance and call, which if I'm not mistaken on the taping thing above basically means that if you're on a game show at any point during the previous television season, you're not getting on the next season of Millionaire.


Wheel's official reasoning is twofold: per the website, they want as many people as possible to play the game; per Pat, good puzzle solvers can keep hitting Bankrupt/Lose A Turn while not-so-good ones can luck into a runaway game. The latter is what kinda bothers me, since luck is a natural part of a game that's been described for years as "hangman meets roulette" and such scenarios still happen anyway. Given the show's taping habits, the other-other reason seems to be along the lines of "Having returning players means we can't tape/air in whatever order we want and can't do America's Game shows."


I'm not sure, but given that daytime and nighttime Wheel were virtually identical until the Big Month of Cash in Season 5, "no returning champs" might have been a way to distinguish the two versions.


For me, this is the most head-scratching part of the eligibility requirements in regard to other versions/hosts -- Wheel 2000 was a low-budget show designed to be educational (to fulfill the E/I requirements for Saturday-morning network programming) and differed so much from the parent show that I don't think it should be lumped in with the other versions. Say what you will about the shopping era, but it at least had prizes you probably actually wanted to take home, whereas on Wheel 2000 I think the computer they sometimes offered in the Bonus Round might have been the best of the lot.

^ Sorry, cu! Didn't realize this until after I had posted. Thought it was a recently created thread.