| Host | |
| Dax Shepard | |
| Broadcast | |
 | |
| Packagers | |
| Glassman Media/LBI Tennman Entertainment | |
Spin the Wheel was a short-lived game show similar to The Big Spin, Wheel of Fortune & The Wall, starring a 40-foot wheel that held different sums of money on its wedges.
Premise[]
Contestants spun the wheel and then answer various pop culture trivia questions. A correct answer will allow them to add money to specific wedges of the wheel of their choosing, while a wrong answer will add a wedge that could remove their total prize money if landed on. At certain periods in the game, contestants will be given the choice to walk away with their current prize money or continue spinning the wheel. $23,000,000 is available to win per episode.
Gameplay[]
A player is granted up to 16 spins of a 40-foot wheel that holds different sums of money on its wedges. They must answer pop-culture questions to either earn or lose whatever amount a large silver ball inside the wheel lands on. The game is divided into rounds of four spins each.
Part 1 - Quickspins (#1-4)[]
In this round, the wheel has amounts from $1 to $500,000. The player simply has to answer four questions, each within 10 seconds, with correct answers adding the amount landed on, and incorrect answers or lack of time deducting the amount landed on. The player must select their answer before the clock hits zero, or be locked out, which will automatically deduct the money value for that spin.
Part 2 - Quickspins+ (#5-8)[]
From here on in, the player is assisted by a partner, who sits in a special enclosed seat, with a red button that fulfills various purposes. As with the previous round, the wheel ranges from $1 to $500,000; however, this time, if the partner, who is encapsulated, presses the red button, it doubles the amount landed on, allowing each question to add or subtract up to $1,000,000 to the bank.
Part 3 - Build Your Wheel (#9-12)[]
For this round, the wheel adds negative money wedges (-$50,000/-$100,000/-$200,000/-$500,000), as well as two "BACK TO ZERO" wedges (if landed on, it reduces the bank to $0) and $1,000,000 wedges. In this round, the player can place additional wedges based on correct answers. The player faces four questions, each with four possible answers, which are worth $250K, $500K, $1M, and $2M; a correct answer gives the player the option to either replace one of the lowest amounts on the wheel ($1/$10/$100/$1,000) with the amount selected, or divide it amongst the four amounts in any way they see fit. However, an incorrect answer replaces those lowest amounts with "BACK TO ZERO" wedges, ranging from 1-4 depending on the amount played for. In this round, the player is shown the beginning of each question to assist in their decisions. Whatever configuration the wheel is set as will be the configuration that carries over to the next round.
Part 4 - Final Spins (#13-16)[]
For this round, the player is shown a random amount of money before each spin that increases with each spin. That amount is what is offered to end the game; if the partner, who is again encapsulated, hits the red button before a spin, regardless of the player's final total, the player leaves with the amount the partner chose. There are no questions in this round, and the wheel adds a $1,000,000 wedge and a "BACK TO ZERO" wedge after the first spin, a $2,000,000 wedge and two "BACK TO ZERO" wedges after the second, and a $3,000,000 wedge and three "BACK TO ZERO" wedges after the third. If at any point in time the player lands on a "BACK TO ZERO" wedge or any other wedge (a negative wedge that is greater than or equal to the player's current bank) that takes their total down to $0, the game is over, and any remaining spins are removed.
The top prize of $23M is achieved by earning $2M in Round 1, $4M in Round 2, $8M in Round 3, and $9M in Round 4.
The Wheel[]
The show features a 40 feet (12 m) high, vertical roulette wheel divided into 48 light-emitting diode wedges worth either a dollar amount or “Back to Zero”. In contrast, popular game show The Price is Right's Big Wheel is 9 feet, 8 inches tall and Wheel of Fortune's namesake is 16.5 feet wide.
The wedges’ typeface for displaying the dollar amounts is inspired by Federal Reserve Notes from U.S. Currency. The wheel has thick metal pipes for contestants to hold onto to start the rotation. To determine which wedge is chosen is a large silver disco ball-stylized metallic ball that bounces off the metal pipes but stays within the wheel's glass-enclosed area, coming to rest when the wheel stops moving. The wheel is so large that a structural engineer, Fraser Smith of Mendenhall Smith Structural Engineers,was commissioned to plan the execution of how to construct as well as support the device.
Neither the wheel nor the game are fixed to have any certain outcome. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Federal Communications Commission v. American Broadcasting Co., Inc. 347 U.S. 284, that quiz shows were not a form of gambling which paved the way for their introduction to television. In the years that followed a series of quiz show scandals tainted the genre. A formal congressional subcommittee investigation began in 1959. In 1960, Congress amended the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit the fixing of quiz shows. Spin the Wheel, like all U.S. television quiz shows, is bound not to fix the game by leaking trivia questions or rigging the wheel.
Additional Pages[]
Spin the Wheel/Quotes & Catchphrases
Spin the Wheel/Video Gallery