An appearance on Wheel of Fortune can change lives – especially when it comes to celebrity contestants who typically receive special treatment and more time on set than regular players. Celebrity Wheel of Fortune was no exception this season, featuring many stars vying to win $1 Million for their charity including comedian and TV host Nikki Glaser who featured prominently. Her episode premiered September 27, with Nikki spinning the wheel to see whether she would win her estimated amount or just less; when the pointer landed on “I” instead she still received an impressive amount that made an impressive contribution towards charity work.
This episode introduces not only a new format, but it is also notable as being the first time ever that neither Bankrupt or Lose a Turn were hit during gameplay – no turns were lost and bonus rounds began for the first time this season! Also for the first time ever this season, a $1,000 Toss-Up category of Phrase instead of TV Quote was chosen and an answer card appeared multiple times before being digitally painted over in one shot!
For the second week in a row, a celebrity won both rounds of the bonus round on TV show The Price is Right Live – making history by winning all four rounds at once! However, their victory wasn’t record breaking; additionally this game marked the first time Bonus Round was classified as Movie Quote instead of Rhyme Time; both rare categories for this round.
Tara Lipinksi, former child actress and presenter, chose Amy Selkirk Breast Cancer Research Fund at Baylor Scott & White Dallas Foundation as her charitable cause, making her only the second Celebrity Wheel of Fortune contestant ever to choose an organization other than a foundation as their charity for this show – as well as first openly transgender contestant to appear on it!
Brendan earned $328,200, which marks one of the highest non-million winnings on an episode of Wheel. Additionally, he became just the second contestant ever to finish with an average higher than Nikki Glaser – currently sitting on $1 Million!
Pat refers to this arrangement as the lounge. This was the only time such an occurrence has ever happened on any version of the show.
ABC On Demand and Hulu edited this episode to remove any references to home giveaways, including omitting Prize Puzzle copy and Pat’s reference of his trip after solving. In addition, Round 1 puzzle “CAN I PHONE A FRIEND?” was incorrectly labeled Phrase; for the first time this season a music cue from the syndicated 2017-21 music package was used.