How big is the wheel from wheel of fortune?

How hard are contestants required to spin the wheel on Wheel of Fortune?

• On The Price is Right, contestants must spin the wheel hard enough to complete a revolution, presumably in order to prevent something like, say, a one spoke spin in order to control the results. Is there a similar requirement on Wheel of Fortune that just isn't mentioned?

• Answer:

  I'm a former contestant (1992) but remember it well and had a unique experience related to the "minimum spin" requirement.  If you watch the show closely enough to note the current space and the spaces on either side of it, you'll note that the wheel usually doesn't go all the way around.  Given this, the "Price is Right" rule clearly does not apply.  They do not advise contestants as to what the minimum spin is, but they do encourage you to "get up there and give it a good spin".  And that's not always as easy as it looks... The Wheel of Fortune videotapes five shows -- one week -- in a single day.  They start in the morning and continue to mid-afternoon, providing the contestants a catered lunch in the middle.  When you arrive, they take you onto the set and everybody gets a chance to spin the wheel once.  Many of the contestants -- and I remember the smaller women specifically -- would comment that it was heavier and harder to spin than they expected. The Wheel of Fortune wheel actually is pretty heavy.  As a contestant, your ability to spin the wheel is also hampered by a few other factors: There's a rail you stand behind as a contestant.  Depending on your height (and whether you stand on a roughly 5" platform they offer for to all contestants), the rail can hit you above or below the waist.  If it's above your waist, you can't reach as far to grip the wheel.  If it's below your waist, reaching too far can throw off your balance. The actual pegs on the wheel don't provide the greatest gripping surface, so your hand can slip. There are so many other things going on in the studio that you don't see at home (e.g., live audience, cameras, lights, used letter board, etc.) that you tend not to think about how hard or soft you're actually spinning.  Note the relatively regular occurrence of a contestant watching the wrong arrow to see the results of their spin.  There's just a lot going on. And here's a little speculation that, if true, further muddies the water on trying to analyze spins from home: through the miracle of editing, I don't think you actually see/hear the full spin in most cases.  Rather, you hear a pre-recorded wheel-spinning sound effect and you get video of the beginning and the end of the spin.  This keeps things consistent and moving right along for the watcher at home. When I was on the show, there was a contestant on my episode that had figured out that his typical spin put the wheel at almost exactly one complete revolution.  When it was his turn, he could clearly see that he didn't have a Bankrupt or Lose a Turn space anywhere near his arrow/indicator, so he was able to couple his "one revolution" spin with the fact that he was in safe territory and spin until there were no more letters.  It was a great strategy that he used very effectively and he led for most of the show  He was also savvy enough that he was watching other players' spins as well. On what proved to be the last puzzle with contestants spinning, the third contestant was ruling the board up to the point that there was one consonant left.  Fortunately for me, he hit Bankrupt with one consonant left and it was suddenly my turn.  I was absolutely floored that it came back to me and without thinking, reached down and spun hurriedly.  My hand slipped a bit as I spun, so the wheel only spun a little past half-way around.  Even more fortunately for me, it landed on a prize space (a car), which proved to be the only space on the wheel that would have allowed me both to win and move on to the Bonus Round Puzzle.  As they say, "it's better to be lucky than good". In terms of the general process, following each puzzle they usher the contestants backstage while they set up for the next puzzle.  It's generally just a couple of minutes, and the "contestant coordinators" go with you, all the time trying to keep you pumped up and happy and thinking about the fact that everybody can still win.  After the end of the round before the Bonus Round, it takes a little bit longer because there's a bit more setup to do (i.e., set the stage for the Bonus Round, round up your friends/family that are going to run out on stage if you win, etc.), but it's still pretty brief.  What's different about that set change is that you're alone with a contestant coordinator backstage -- the other contestants have been dismissed.  If you're in the audience, you see everything that's going on, but for the contestants, you just hear that there is activity and lots of people scrambling around getting set for whatever's next. At this particular break, it took longer -- and the other contestants were still there, just cordoned off in another area backstage where we could still see each other, but not talk.  A couple of minutes turned into five and then ten and it felt different -- the contestant coordinator kept going back and forth between the show floor and where I was backstage.  Finally I asked the contestant coordinator what was going on.  At that point, he forgot his happy smile and told me rather sternly, "You just need to wait here for a couple of minutes."  Soon after that, the other contestant coordinator poked his head backstage and said "We're good.  Let's go."  The coordinator I was with was then back to all smiles and was getting me pumped up for the Bonus Round.  I was too focused on the game to think about it at that point, and went out and won the bonus round! After the game was finally over, they usher you to a room backstage where you meet w/ someone who represents the prize distribution company (yes, they have a separate company that manages all that).  They brief you on how you'll end up receiving your prizes and when, then you complete a 1099 for tax purposes (yes, all winnings are taxable income).  When finally done, they hand you back to a contestant coordinator to gather your stuff and you're on your way. Since meeting with the prize distribution rep took a little time, I started to wonder again what had happened during that last set change.  When the contestant coordinator came back to meet me, I asked what had happened.  He said "Oh, the judges just needed to check something.  Everything's fine."  So I pressed again and he let me have it: the other contestant (with the uncanny spinning ability) had filed a complaint that I had "short-spun" the wheel, aiming for the car spot and that it shouldn't have been considered a "legal" spin.  The coordinator went on to say that their judges had to review the videotape and make sure that the spin was hard enough -- and went far enough -- that there was no air of impropriety.  They needed that extra time to review the tape and my spin was ruled "good".  If my spin had been ruled "not acceptable", they needed to keep the other contestants around so we could replay a new round. I didn't even think to ask at that point what their "acceptable" criteria was.  Was it how many spaces the wheel went?  Was it how hard it looked like I was spinning it?  Was it how consistent my spins looked from spin to spin?  I doubt I'll ever know.  But I do know that I'm one lucky guy who is quite happy to have gotten the chance to spin the Wheel of Fortune in the first place.