Community Corner

How to Get on Wheel of Fortune and Other Game Shows

Carlsbad Patch Editor Deanne Goodman has been on two game shows, including "Wheel of Fortune," and has been asked to audition for dozens more.

This month, I competed on Wheel of Fortune with my younger brother Oren Goodman. We were selected to be on Family Week and both won a nice amount of money. According to Wheel of Fortune’s website, “Last year over a million people requested the chance to audition for Wheel of Fortune. Fewer than 600 were accepted to appear on the show.”

Our show airs on Sept. 21. In the coming months I’ll be writing more about my experience on the show, but first I wanted to share tips on how to get selected for Wheel of Fortune, or any game show for that matter.

Wheel of Fortune was my second game show experience. In 2009, I was on Game Show Network’s Catch 21 hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. From 2008 to present, I’ve been asked to audition for more than a dozen game shows, including Wipeout, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader, Still Standing, a show where they wanted me to be a panel expert, and even Deal or No Deal as a briefcase girl.

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Once you do a game show, you typically have to wait a year to do another, which is mainly why I wasn’t on all those shows.

So what is the secret to getting all these chances to be a game show contestant?

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Here are my secrets for getting on game shows.

1. Find out who is casting. Check craigslist.com under the “talent” and “tv/film/video” sections.

2. If there’s a show you know you want to be on, such as Wheel of Fortune, go to the show’s official website. Fill out a contestant form. Get to a Wheelmobile event.

3. When submitting yourself as a contestant, show your high energy in your writing. Use exclamation points! Brag about yourself. If you have a unique job, be sure to mention that.

4. Submit a good photo. Usually they will want to see a head shot, so pick a good one. Looking good helps your odds of getting selected.

5. Once you get an invite to audition, dress to impress. Don’t wear jeans to an audition. Dress up and wear bold colors.

6. At the audition, you really need to stand out. You will have the chance to introduce yourself. Know what you want to say and deliver it in a loud, clear voice. Be excited to be there. Try to say something that will help the casting directors remember you. Typically, you only have about 30 seconds to introduce yourself and make an impression.

7. At the audition you will play the game, so know the rules and how to play. In our Wheel audition, there were probably 200 people and a handful of them had no idea they needed to ask to buy a vowel. They didn’t make it to the final round of the auditions.

8. Think fast on your feet. Dead air on television is awful. They want contestants who will keep the game moving.

9. Smile. Be happy. When I audition for a game show, I tend to be quiet until I’m in the room with the casting people. Then, I’m about 10 times as loud as I normally am. Clap till your hands hurt.

Once you have left the audition, the waiting period starts. Oren and I auditioned for Wheel of Fortune in April 2010. We nailed the audition and were told we’d know within two weeks if we’d be selected. Two weeks went by and we never heard back. Then, more than a year later, on July 8, 2011, we got a call asking us to be on the show the following week. Although we both had scheduling conflicts, we made sure we cleared our calendars for the taping day.

Trust me, you want to go on Wheel of Fortune. Even if you lose, you still win a parting gift of $1,000.


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