As the most popular syndicated show on TV, with tens of millions of viewers everyday, competition to get on “Wheel of Fortune” is fierce: Millions of people apply to get on the game show every year. Of those, according to the show’s website, only 10,000 are selected to audition. Out of that pool, a mere 600 end up on the show, and of those, just 200 make it to the final round. Matt McMahan was one of them.
If getting on the show is hard, winning is harder still — requiring not just puzzle-solving acumen and the ability to think on one’s feet, but also strategy and luck. Making big bucks on the show is extremely difficult. McMahan won more than $30,000. That buys a lot of vowels.
While McMahan and his partner, Adam Hart, were regular “Wheel” viewers, he never gave serious thought to competing. One day, however, the two caught a “Teacher’s Week” rerun—a themed episode where all the players are teachers. While McMahan worked as an actor for several years — including in the most recent revival of “Les Misérables” — he currently teaches second grade in the Bronx as part of Teach for America. When “Wheel” announced it was seeking contestants for another Teacher’s Week, Hart urged him to apply.
“I knew he would get on if he tried,” Hart said. “He’s enthusiastic about teaching, he works in a low-income school, he’s gorgeous, and he’s been on Broadway. TV would love him.”
Getting on is a multistep process, the first of which involves making an introductory video. McMahan filmed one on his phone, which Hart — another former musical theater actor — “stage mom-ed”: “We did multiple takes; I kept telling him to smile, to show more enthusiasm.”
A month after he sent the video in, a representative from the show invited him to the next step: a tryout in Brooklyn, where applicants took turns playing a version of the game and were given 25 fill-in-the-blank word games, of which they had to solve 15 within a set time.
“They want to know that you understand the puzzles, that you can speak clearly and loudly and follow directions, and that you won’t freak out,” McMahan said. The show did not return requests for comment.
While McMahan met his fill-in-the-blank quota, he was not, unlike other aspiring contestants, asked to stay for additional tests, leading him to believe he didn’t make the cut. “Based on my acting experience, if you’re not asked to stay after an audition and others are, you didn’t get it,” he said.
Thinking his tryout would just be an amusing story, he eventually forgot about it until —appropriately — the final day of the school year, when he was contacted and told to pack his bags. The show tapes in Los Angeles, and gives out-of-town contestants $1,000 to use toward their flights and accommodations.
The show, which has aired more than 6,000 episodes since 1975, shoots as many as six episodes a day on the days it films, meaning there’s a lag between when one is filmed and when it airs. McMahan’s was taped on July 14 and aired Sept. 12 as the show’s 34th season premiere; other contestants can wait as long as six months to see their episode.
On the day of his taping, McMahan and his fellow competitors were shuttled to the studio to await their turn in the spotlight. To kill time, he did more practice puzzles.
And then, it was time to meet host Pat Sajak — “very nice” — hostess Vanna White — “oh Vanna, so lovely” — and to spin the “very very heavy” wheel. In the audience was his mother, Misty McMahan, who flew in from Denver, and his grandmother, Virginia “Ginger” Brown, visiting from Dallas.
Challenge! See how many push-ups you can do during the commercial break tonight and tell us how many in the comments! #FlexFriday
