Gameplay elements

Over time, Wheel of Fortune has introduced and occasionally retired various elements of the show.

Current gameplay elements
The current round structure is as follows:
 * $1,000 Toss-Up
 * Contestant interviews
 * $2,000 Toss-Up
 * Round 1 (Jackpot)
 * Commercial break
 * Round 2
 * Commercial break
 * Round 3 (Mystery)
 * Commercial break
 * $3,000 Toss-Up
 * Round 4 (plus extra rounds if time permits)
 * Commercial break
 * Bonus round
 * Promotional plug
 * Post-game chat

 Bankrupt 

Introduced in the 1974 pilots, Bankrupt is a black wedge on the Wheel that takes away the player's score for that round when landing on it (score from previous rounds is not affected). Originally, the space had white outlines; this was changed by June 7, 1976 to its current appearance. There is one Bankrupt on the Wheel until round 3, when a second one is added.

The wedge's symbolic slide whistle was added sometime before April 6, 1978, and changed to the current sound on July 17, 1989.

For a time beginning on September 16, 1996, the second Bankrupt was "off model", using the Clarendon font with all letters the same size. This was fixed by October 29.

 Lose A Turn 

Present since the 1973 pilot Shopper's Bazaar, Lose A Turn simply makes the contestant lose his or her turn, but unlike Bankrupt does not remove money or prizes. Originally, a second wedge was added in Round 3; this was removed by June 7, 1976.

The wedge was originally yellow with white outlines around the lettering and the space itself. By June 7, 1976 the outlines were removed, and on September 16, 1996 the wedge adopted its current appearance.

Despite very common fan thought, the current Lose A Turn wedge is not white; rather, it is a very light shade of yellow.

 Toss-Ups 

The Toss-Up rounds were introduced with the Season 18 premiere on September 4, 2000. For that season only, there were only two: one before the interviews, to determine who starts Round 1, and one before Round 4 to determine who starts that round. Both Toss-Ups were valued at $1,000, and the round was not split-screened; home viewers saw only the puzzle board.

In Season 19, a third Toss-Up was added, with the values set at $1,000, $2,000, and $3,000. The $1,000 is essentially a "warm-up" for the contestants, determining who is interviewed first. The $2,000 Toss-Up determines who starts Round 1, and the $3,000 one (still before Round 4) determines who starts that round.

During a Toss-Up round, the puzzle answer reveals one letter at a time. Contestants are given buzzers similar to those on Jeopardy! and may ring in when they think they know the answer. Giving an incorrect guess "locks out" that player for the rest of the Toss-Up.

On rare occasions, Toss-Up rounds are unsolved; most frequently, this results from a contestant giving a wrong answer with most of the puzzle filled in, leaving little to no time for the next contestant(s) to ring in. However, there are several known cases of all three contestants ringing in with wrong answers (with the third answer almost always coming just ahead of the last letter being revealed), and at least one instance where no one even rang in at all. If no one gives a correct answer to the $1,000 Toss-Up, then the player in the red position is interviewed first; if the $2,000 one is not solved, then the red player starts Round 1; if the $3,000 one is not solved, the player who started Round 1 also starts Round 4.

 Prize Puzzle 

Introduced in Season 21, the Prize Puzzle offers an extra prize to the contestant who solves the puzzle (usually trips). Since Season 23, every game has a Prize Puzzle; previously, they occurred randomly throughout the week.

On March 15, 2004, the show debuted the Wheel Watchers Club, which allows home viewers a chance at winning the prize as well. After each Prize Puzzle, a SPIN ID is drawn, and if a home viewer sees their ID on the show, they have 24 hours to verify it on the show's website. SPIN IDs are sporadically used for other home viewer sweepstakes, and until 2009, were also used if a contestant won a car in the Bonus Round. Beginning in April 2007, Wheel Watchers Club members who have an active Sony Card receive $50,000 as well.

Until Season 28, a Prize Puzzle could occur in any of the first three rounds; from that point onward, they are no longer in Round 1. It is not known why this change was made.

Mystery Round

Introduced in Season 20, the Mystery Round offers a chance at an extra prize in the main game. The prize was often a compact car when the round debuted, but since Season 23 it has always been $10,000 cash.

Two Mystery wedges are placed on the Wheel in Round 3. Both are valued at $1,000 ($500 until Season 22), and offer the choice of taking their face value or forfeiting it for a chance at the prize. One wedge has the prize on the reverse; the other has a Bankrupt. If either wedge is flipped over, the other functions as a $1,000 space for the rest of the round and cannot be flipped over.

 Speed-Up 

Present since the earliest days, the Speed-Up round is used when time is running short.

During a Speed-Up, the host gives the Wheel a Final Spin, to determine the cash amount of each consonant called; since October 4, 1999, the Final Spin has $1,000 added to its value. Vowels called in a Speed-Up round are free. Later in the shopping era, winnings in a Speed-Up round were typically placed on a gift certificate.

Control begins with the player who was in control at the time that the Speed-Up bells ring. Each player calls one letter at a time, going in order from the viewer's left to right. After calling a letter, the contestant has three seconds (reduced from five on April 13, 1998) in which to solve the puzzle. Since around 2000, every game ends in a Speed-Up round.

In the early years, clacking and chalkboard taps were frequently heard during the Speed-Up round; these were from the Used Letter Board, as letters were discarded and scores changed.

 Free Play 

Free Play is a special wedge introduced in Season 27 that is essentially a successor to the Free Spin. If a contestant calls a wrong letter or makes an incorrect solve while on Free Play, the wedge allows the player to keep their turn. It also allows the contestant to call a free vowel. Consonants called on Free Play are worth $500 each.

Prize Wedges

Present on the Wheel from Rounds 1-3. Every episode has a prize, almost always a trip. These are claimed by calling a right letter and, like all other winnings, held if the contestant solves that round's puzzle without hitting Bankrupt.

Initially, a contestant who hit a prize wedge claimed it immediately, then spun again. In Season 7 (1989-90), they were still claimed immediately upon being hit, but instead of spinning again the contestant called a letter for the value of the dollar amount underneath it. From Season 8 (1990-91) onward, the contestant has to call a right letter before claiming the wedge.

From the retirement of the shopping era to the late 1990s, Wheel prizes were introduced in Rounds 2 and 4. In Season 14 (1996-97), the second one was retired. For a short time after the retirement of the Surprise wedge (see below), the second Wheel prize was reinstated in round 3, but it was retired again around January 2002. Currently, the Wheel prize is always in Round 1.

 Million-Dollar Wedge 

The Million-Dollar Wedge is a special, 1/3-size wedge which offers a chance at $1,000,000 in the bonus round; it is shiny green and surrounded by 1/3-size Bankrupts. The contestant must hit the wedge and solve that round's puzzle without losing it to Bankrupt to get a chance at the top prize. If s/he then wins the game without hitting Bankrupt, the $100,000 envelope is removed from the Bonus Wheel and replaced with a $1,000,000 envelope.

The $1,000,000 bonus envelope has been hit once, on October 14, 2008. The puzzle, LEAKY FAUCET, was solved by contestant Michelle Loewenstein.

 Jackpot Round 

Introduced on September 16, 1996, the Jackpot is a special cash prize which starts at $5,000 and has the value of each successive spin added to it. An onscreen display throughout the round shows how much is in the Jackpot. To claim it, the contestant must land on the wedge, call a right letter and solve all within the same turn. The first Jackpot win was on September 26, 1996.

Initially, the Jackpot was in Round 3. It moved to Round 2 on the weeks of May 1 and 8, 2000, a change that became official in the next season. In Season 27 (2009-10), it moved again to Round 1.

From Season 24 onward, letters called on the Jackpot wedge are worth $500 each. Previously, they had no value.

From September 4, 1997 until the retirement of the "Friday Finals" format, the Jackpot started at $10,000 on Friday Finals episodes.

Wild Card

Introduced in 2007, the Wild Card offers an extra letter to be called on a spin, for the same amount as the contestant is currently sitting on. Alternatively, it can be taken to the bonus round, where it allows for a fourth consonant. The Wild Card is over the green $700 space.

Bonus Round

The first bonus round ever used on the show was on the 1973 pilot, Shopper's Bazaar. The "Shopper's Special" was the name of the prize the contestant was playing for. The winner was shown all vowels in the puzzle, then had 30 seconds to give consonants to fill in the solution.

The second bonus round was during the hour-long episodes between December 1, 1975 and January 16, 1976. While details on the hour-long format are sketchy, it is believed that three contestants competed in the first half-hour and three more in the second half-hour; the two winners then played a Speed-Up to determine the top winner, who was asked for four consonants and a vowel, then given the category and 15 seconds to solve.

The third bonus round was present in Spring 1978. Called the Star Bonus, this was a token that allowed a trailing contestant to play a special puzzle in the middle of the show. Here, the contestant could pick among four different prizes, with the difficulty of the puzzle corresponding to the prize's value. If the contestant made it to the Star Bonus round, it was played identically to the bonus round used in the hour-long episodes. Star Bonus was retired most likely because there was no guarantee that it would be played, and if it was, the interviews were considerably cut down to squeeze it in.

The current bonus round has been in place since roughly December 1981. Originally in the current bonus round, the contestant was provided a blank puzzle and a category, and asked for five consonants and a vowel. He or she then had 15 seconds to solve. The vast majority of contestants chose some permutation of R, S, T, L, N, and E.

The rules were altered on October 3, 1988. Now, the contestant is given those six letters automatically, and then asked for three more consonants and a vowel. Also, the time limit is reduced to 10 seconds, and the puzzles are made slightly harder.

A look at the bonus round answers over time has shown some trends in the answer difficulty. Those in Season 6 were still relatively easy, often providing obvious patterns like T_E. Also, some puzzles were still fairly long; within the first month, THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE was an answer, while EGGNOG was used only two months later.

Starting in Season 7, it was rare to see a bonus puzzle longer than 7 letters. Many 3-letter answers appeared between 1992 and 1995, as did many answers which had no RSTLNE in them at all. The late 2000s gradually reversed the short-puzzle trend, although the amount of categories used has also been narrowed down considerably; between March and May 2011, only seven bonus puzzles were not Thing(s), including one streak of 13 consecutive Thing(s) puzzles.

Retired elements
 Your Own Clue 

Used only in the 1973 pilot Shopper's Bazaar, Your Own Clue was a space on the Wheel that activated the rotary phone in front of the contestants. The player who landed on it picked up the phone and received a hint from announcer Mike Lawrence about the puzzle solution. If that same player landed on Your Own Clue again, Lawrence gave her a more detailed clue; if another contestant landed on the space, she started from the first clue.

Despite Your Own Clue being discarded after this pilot, the concept found its way into various iterations of Wheel (albeit without the phone).

 Buy A Vowel 

Introduced in the 1974 pilots, Buy A Vowel was a red wedge on the Wheel (two from Round 3 onward) which allowed contestants to purchase a vowel provided s/he had $250. Should the player not have $250, or all vowels in the puzzle were already called, the wedge essentially became Lose A Turn.

While the wedge was retired in favor of contestants simply being given the option to buy vowels at any time for $250, it remains unknown as to when. Various accounts say it remained anywhere from a few weeks up until the end of 1975, and it is known to have outlasted the original two-digit values (as shown in Milton-Bradley's two board game adaptations from 1975). The wedge was removed by June 7, 1976.

 Free Spin 

Also introduced in the 1974 pilots, Free Spin was originally a single tan wedge on the Wheel. Hitting it automatically gave the contestant a Free Spin disc, and s/he spun again. A Free Spin could be used at any time after a contestant lost a turn, or saved for later.

The wedge originally had white outlines like the other three special spaces, which was removed by June 7, 1976. On October 16, 1989, the wedge was replaced with another $300 space and Free Spin was reduced to a single disc placed over a random dollar amount. It spent all of Season 13 on the purple $200 (next to Lose a Turn), and then moved to the green $300 a season later, where it stayed until its retirement.

For Season 27, its final season of use, Free Spin's rules were changed slightly. Previously, hitting it gave only the token, but for that season only, hitting it offered both the token and $300 per letter. To indicate this rule change, the token was moved up the wedge slightly, so that it did not obscure the 3.

Double Play

Present only in Season 13, the Double Play token could be used before any turn in to double the value of the next spin. If used before hitting Bankrupt or Lose A Turn, it is discarded. It is also believed that it would have been discarded if used before hitting a prize, Surprise, or Free Spin, although this never happened. However, one eyewitness report indicates that a pair of contestants in February 1996 used it to double the value of the $10,000 prize.

Surprise

Present from October 5, 1992 to June 1998, the Surprise wedge was a special Wheel prize. Unlike the other ones, the Surprise was present on the Wheel throughout the whole game, and the "surprise" was that the prize was not revealed unless a contestant won it.

For the first couple weeks, the Surprise wedge had a much thinner font than it would later have. It was essentially replaced in September 1998 by a second Wheel prize.

Puzzler

First introduced on June 12, 1998 and made official on September 21 of the same year, Puzzler was a special "extra" puzzle done immediately after any of the first three rounds. The Puzzler answer was related to the puzzle immediately before it. In a Puzzler round, the contestant was given an appropriate category and about half of the letters in the answer. He or she then had 5 seconds to try and solve it for a cash bonus of $2,000 ($3,000 in the 1999-2000 season); the bonus round beeps played during the 5 seconds.

Until either October or November, a series of bells indicated a Puzzler round. For the rest of their tenure, no sound was played.

Preview Puzzle

Introduced on October 4, 1999 and retired June 2000. The Preview Puzzle was a short, partially filled-in puzzle (complete with category) shown before the intro. While it was shown, Vanna announced it through a voiceover: "Here's tonight's Preview Puzzle just for you at home. It's a [category]. Can you solve it? Stay tuned for the correct answer." After she and Pat walked out, she would then reveal the Preview Puzzle answer. The first one used was TOM CRUISE.

The Preview Puzzle is unique in that it had literally no bearing on the game whatsoever, and was entirely for the home viewing audience. It was most likely an attempt to provide more play-along factors for home viewers, something which has since been done more smoothly and successfully with the Toss-Ups.

$10,000 Prize

Introduced on November 28, 1994 and retired in September 2008, when it was replaced with the Million-Dollar Wedge. The $10,000 wedge was one-third the size of the other wedges, with a one-third-sized Bankrupt on either side. Hitting it gave the contestant a $10,000 cash prize, which was treated as a prize and could not be spent on vowels. The reverse of the wedge had a shiny golden $10,000 design.

Initially, it was in Round 3. In Season 14 (1996-97), it was only in play during Round 2, and it moved back to Round 3 in Season 18 (2000-01). From Season 20 until its retirement, it was introduced in Round 1 and kept on the Wheel through Round 3.

Big Money Wedge

A special wedge introduced in the Mystery Round in Season 25 only. This wedge alternated randomly among values of $5,000, $7,500 and $25,000, plus Lose a Turn and Bankrupt. Its cash values were obviously flat rates. If hit for any cash amount, the wedge functioned as a $1,000 space for the rest of that round. For the first week of Season 25 only, its amounts were treated as prizes, but for the rest of the season, any money won with it could be spent on vowels.

The housing of the Big Money Wedge is currently used for the Jackpot wedge.

25 Wedge

A second Wheel prize, also present only in Season 25. To celebrate the show's 25th nighttime season, this wedge offered a special prize with a theme of 25 (such as a $2,500 cash prize, $2,500 in gas cards, etc.). It functioned identically to the existing prize wedges.

½ Car Wedge

A special wedge used only for the week of April 11, 2011, offering a chance at winning a car. Similarly to the $10,000 and $1,000,000 wedges, it had a one-third-sized "Car" space surrounded by one-third-sized $500 wedges. Hitting the "car" space gave a license plate-shaped "Car" tag, two of which had to be claimed to win a car. The ½ Car wedges were in play from Rounds 1-3.

Unlike all other "special" wedges, the "Car" tags are unique in that they are not lost to Bankrupts hit in subsequent rounds (but are lost to Bankrupts hit in the same round). Also, if one is claimed, another is placed on the Wheel to replace it in the next round, meaning that as many as six "Car" tags could theoretically be gathered. During the week that these were in play, only one of the tags was ever claimed.

Another unique property of the ½ Car Wedge is that it affected two other spaces on the Wheel: because of its red color, the red $900 wedge was changed to blue. Also, to prevent two "special" wedges from being adjacent, the Wild Card moved to the pink $900. Both of these changes were reverted in the next week.

 Red-Letter Puzzles 

Present in Seasons 11 and 12, Red-Letter puzzles could occur at any time during the main game, in any category. In these rounds, the puzzle answer has some letters which are red. After the contestant solves the puzzle, he or she is given a time limit to unscramble the red letters, which spell out a short (usually 4-6 letters) word. Doing so won a $500 ($1,000 in Season 12) bonus.

The show also held several home viewer sweepstakes with similar puzzles, starting with a Red Letter Sweepstakes in Season 10. In these sweepstakes, home viewers could submit the word spelled out by the red letters for a chance at winning a prize. Later sweepstakes used red-and-blue letters that spell out the name of a U.S. President, gold letters that spell out the name of an Academy Award winner, and red-and-blue letters that spell out the name of an Olympic event.

 Shopping 

"The prices of the prizes were furnished to the contestants prior to the show and have been rounded off to the nearest dollar. Gift certificates do not include sales tax."

Arguably the most famous retired element. After solving a puzzle, a contestant could spend his or her winnings on prizes in a showcase. This element was unofficially retired from nighttime on October 5, 1987 with the Big Month of Cash, an experimental play-for-cash format that seamlessly became permanent. Daytime, however, kept shopping until June 30, 1989.

Contestants could put money "on account" at any time during a shopping round, which allowed the money to carry over to the next round (but at the risk of being lost to Bankrupt). From about June 1976 onward, the winnings could also be placed on a gift certificate. If a contestant did not have enough money left over to buy another prize, s/he would almost always choose to have the remaining amount on a gift certificate under this rule instead of putting it "on account".

It should also be noted that contestants did not have to spend all of their winnings on prizes; a contestant could choose to put winnings "on account" or on a gift certificate at any time, even without buying a prize.