The Red-Letter Puzzle was one of the gameplay elements on Wheel of Fortune.
History[]
The first known Red-Letter Puzzle appears to have been sometime in late 1993. These were that could occur at any time during the main game, in any category. The puzzle answer had red letters in it that spelled out a short (usually 4-7 letters) word, and after a contestant solved the puzzle, s/he was given five seconds to unscramble the red letters for an extra $1,000. To aid the contestant, the rest of the letters in the puzzle were turned off.
The show also held an annual home viewer sweepstakes with similar puzzles, where viewers could submit the word spelled out by the colored letters for a chance at winning a prize:
- The Red-Letter Sweepstakes in Season 10 (February 8-26, 1993), which presumably led to the regular Red-Letter Puzzles.
- The Gold-Letter Sweepstakes (February 7-18, 1994), with gold letters that spelled the last name of an Academy Award winner.
- The Red, White & Blue Letter Sweepstakes (November 7-18, 1994), with red-and-blue letters that spelled the last name of a U.S. President.
- After the Red-Letter Puzzles were discontinued since February 8, 1995, the Olympic Sweepstakes (May 6-24, 1996) had red-and-blue letters that spelled an Olympics-related word.