Emily F.

I am game show obsessed, and also a writer, so I love words, which means I have always loved Wheel of Fortune! I watched it with my grandparents as a kid, and literally planned my first daughter's bedtime around the show when she was a baby. We would eat dinner, give her a bath, watch Wheel, and then lay her down for bed!

I have applied to go on the show multiple times through the years. I distinctly remember doing so when I was in college, because I was eligible for 'College Week', and I know I've done it at some point since being married (15 years!), because I remember saying I was interested in 'Sweethearts Week'. But apparently, the most recent time I applied was in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic shut down. Because applying to be on a game show when you can't leave your house makes perfect sense! :)

Needless to say, I have no memory of said pandemic application, so when I got a call from a WOF producer in July of 2023, I legitimately thought I was being pranked! Once I figured out it was real, went through my audition and was invited to film, I immediately went into prep mode.

I am in a phase of life where having the TV on at 7pm is a challenge with kid bedtimes, but we adjusted dinner and showering around Wheel, and started watching every night without fail. I also started playing the WOF app on my phone and playing another version of the game on Xbox! If I had one moment to spare, I was prepping with the games. As a writer, my biggest fear was going on national television, telling everyone that I get paid to write words for a living, but then make a total fool of myself by not knowing any words! So I seriously prepped A LOT!

Since I now had an unexpected trip to LA happening, my husband and I decided to make a weekend of it, and turned it into a 15th anniversary trip. We packed a LOT into our 3 days and will definitely never forget our Wheel of Fortune weekend!

One of the most unexpected things about my day of filming was the immediate family I gained with the 20-something people who were filming the same day as me. The whole training and practicing and filming experience is many hours long, and so surreal, and it created such an instant bond between us all. After filming, I kept telling my husband that it was obvious that everyone had auditioned to be on TV, too, because everyone had such fun, engaging personalities! It was seriously an amazing group of people to share an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime, bucket list experience with! 

My episode happens to be airing on Thanksgiving, so I have a built-in viewing party with my family, which I'm so excited about! But, since all my friends will be with their respective families that day, I am going to record the show and have a second viewing party later that weekend, so I can watch the show again with my friends. I'm making them all promise to wait so we can watch it all together! So instead of Thanksgiving weekend this year, it will be Wheel of Fortune weekend at my house!

I also seriously can't wait to watch the show again, because filming is honestly the most surreal experience. It is simultaneously the longest and the quickest 25 minutes of your life! I felt like my body was functioning, but I also sort of blacked out throughout the entire thing, so I really want to see what it looked like from the outside watching in! I'm still not entirely sure if I embarrassed myself as a writer or not! :)