Wheel of Fortune's Vanna White and Pat Sajak by Paul Warner/WireImage.com
Pat and Vanna have opened up their pocketbooks, big time. Starting next season, Wheel of Fortune contestants will have a chance to win $1 million, but they'll need some spinning skills and some lady luck.Broadcasting & Cable says during a regular puzzle-solving round, a player will have to land on a newly-placed $1 million wedge and go on to solve the puzzle. If a contestant wins enough cash to make it to the bonus round — without landing on "Bankrupt" at any point during the regular rounds — he or she can spin a "bonus wheel", which determines what the final puzzle is worth. The player will have to land on a $1 million wedge on that wheel, and then solve the bonus round puzzle.Currently, the largest cash prize a Wheel player can win is $100,000. Not a bad step up from the ceramic dalmatians players often won in the early days.Wheel — which has notched 24 consecutive seasons as TV's top-rated syndicated series — will join Who Wants To Be a Millionaire as game...
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Pat Sajak and Vanna White, Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (syndicated; check the TV Guide Network or TVGuide.com for listings) has been celebrating its 25th anniversary this month. We sat down with host Pat Sajak and Vanna White to talk about their — gulp — quarter century (!) turn around the Wheel.
TV Guide: Did you have any idea this would have this kind of longevity? Vanna White: When I first joined the show, we were sitting in makeup chairs next to each other and I said to Pat, "Where do you think we'll be in 10 years?" I'm sure he said something funny. Pat Sajak: I say funny things as often as not, so it's hard to narrow it down. I do rememb
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Patrick Dempsey by John Shearer/ WireImage.com
Patrick Dempsey: The E! True Hollywood Story premieres Tuesday at 9 pm/ET.... Jimmy Kimmel Live drew its largest-ever weekly audience — averaging 2.05 million viewers — when Jimmy pulled double duty with his late nighter and as Regis & Kelly cohost.... Wheel of Fortune celebrates its 25th anniversary with a series of themed weeks, beginning today with "Best Friends".... Similarly, Family Feud this week pits WWE superstars such as Ric Flair and Batista against divas like Candice Michelle and Queen Sharmell.
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Merv Griffin by Jemal Countess/WireImage.com
Game-show bigwig Merv Griffin, 82, died of prostate cancer early on Sunday. His family issued a statement explaining that his recurrence of prostate cancer, for which he was hospitalized earlier in the week, progressed quickly.The veteran talk-show host created a multimillion-dollar empire in the entertainment industry, most notably by producing Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Wheel host Pat Sajak tells the Hollywood Reporter, "The loss of a dear friend has made it difficult to focus on Merv's enormous contribution to the world of entertainment. I'm dealing with deep sadness and the realization that I will never hear that wonderful laugh of his again. He meant so much to my life, it's hard to imagine it without him."Former first lady Nancy Reagan remembers Griffin as "a dear, dear friend," telling the trade, "He was there for me on some of the hardest days when Ronnie was fighting Alzheimer's." "To say that working with Merv Griffin was the highlight of our careers is an understatem...
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Merv Griffin by Lester Cohen/WireImage.com
Merv Griffin was the anti-Trump. No matter how many riches he amassed through creating the formidably successful game-show phenom of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, this band singer turned talk-show host turned entertainment mogul turned hotel/real-estate magnate never projected an air of arrogance or entitlement. Publicly affable to the end, Griffin (who died Sunday at 82) was one of those rare talents whose success only a grinch would begrudge — in part because the ubiquitous shows he's best known for continue to provide so much pleasure on a nightly basis. That lilting, nagging Jeopardy theme? He wrote it. That alone is enough to ensure him a place in the annals of TV history.But he also had a long, profitable run as a talk-show host, primarily in syndication. He was never the coolest or funniest (that would be Johnny Carson), he was never the most trenchant (that would be Dick Cavett), but he was an effortless entertainer who put the audience at ease even as he occasionally...
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It’s time I come clean, allow it to be public record. Fess up. This is full disclosure -- I have always secretly longed to be a game show host!Yes, a prize package pushing deal or no deal come on down put it in the form of a question broker! For some reason until now I have been unable to come to grips with my shameful secret. I am not sure why.They are cool. They are funny. They are articulate. They move at the speed of sound. And... they work 2 days a week. (You see where I am going?)Oh, and in the case of Pat Sajak, they make it look incredibly easy. He is an artist, a composer, and a venerable lyricist in the field of game show communiqué. I’m not kidding. (Well maybe the last part) What is so awesome about them (and you can go back to the days of Bill Cullen, early Bob Barker, and Bobby Rivers. Yes, Bobby Rivers. Remember Bedroom Buddies?) is how they navigate 22 minutes and you never feel the boat move. When lights blow, a contestant is paralyzed with debilitati...
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To help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Huntsville, Alabama, institution, Star Trek icon William Shatner will emcee the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame induction banquet in June.... Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have been renewed through the 2011-12 season because, really, I'm sure their fates were up in the air.... James Lipton has a stack of note cards waiting for Matt Damon on tonight's Inside the Actors Studio, airing 8 pm/ET on Bravo.... Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve bested the ratings of Carson Daly's NBC special, which in turn trumped Cat Deeley's fete on Fox. Swell coat, though, Cat!... Speaking of New Year's, the lingering confetti slush in Times Square is brought to you by Target.
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Bold and the Beautiful star Jack Wagner (Nick) was the big winner during Wheel of Fortune's Soap Stars Week. Click here for TVGuide.com's full report on the star-studded showdown.
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Jack Wagner, The Bold and the Beautiful with soap fan Cookie Sheehey
Bold and the Beautiful star Jack Wagner (Nick) was the big winner during Wheel of Fortune's Soap Stars Week. Solving Vanna's puzzles like a pro, he scored $142,550 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in honor of his brother, Dennis, who is currently in remission with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. In so doing, Wagner not only did a really good deed, he won the most cash any celebrity contestant has ever won on Wheel. Nice going, Jack!
"I was fortunate to be involved in this unique and magical moment on Wheel of Fortune," Wagner told TVGuide.com via e-mail. "I hope and pray that my brother can be an inspiration to families and patients who suffer from this illness."
Last week's second-biggest winner was Days of
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Don't forget that Wheel of Fortune's Soap Stars Week begins Feb. 27. Your daytime faves drop in on Pat Sajak and Vanna White to play for their favorite charities. The all-star contestant roster includes B&B's Susan Flannery, Lorenzo Lamas and Jack Wagner; Days-fan faves Matthew Ashford, Deidre Hall and Alison Sweeney; GH's Corbin Bernsen; GL's Ricky Paull Goldin; OLTL's Kamar de los Reyes; Passions hunk Galen Gering; Y&R's Peter Bergman, Kristoff St. John and Michelle Stafford; and Dancing with the Stars vixen Lisa Rinna with her Soap Talk cohost Ty Treadway. Just for fun, here's a photo I took wit
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