The Speed-Up, also known as the Final Spin, is one of the gameplay elements on Wheel of Fortune.
History[]
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Present since the earliest days (but not in the pilots), the Speed-Up round is used when time is running short. It is indicated by a bell sound; the original bell was previously used as the time's-up sound on the Art Fleming version of Jeopardy!, while the current sound was introduced when the sound effects were overhauled in mid-1989.
During a Speed-Up, a Final Spin is done. The dollar amount on which the Wheel lands (plus $1,000 since October 4, 1999) is the per-consonant amount for the rest of the round, and vowels are free. Until Season 38, the host would always do the Final Spin from the red arrow; starting in Season 39, it is now done by whichever contestant is in control when time is called, with the respective arrow determining the amount. Pat Sajak chose to make this change after becoming a consulting producer, as he felt that having him do the Final Spin allowed him too much control over the outcome.
Control begins with the player in control of the Wheel at the time. Each player calls one letter at a time, going clockwise. After calling a letter, the contestant has three seconds after the hostess clears the board (reduced from five on April 13, 1998) to solve the puzzle; this time limit is indicated by the "wrong letter" buzzer. Unlike in the rest of the game, the contestant may make more than one attempt to solve the puzzle, and a correct answer is still considered valid if started on or before the buzzer without pausing.
When shopping rounds were still part of the gameplay, they typically followed Speed-Up rounds unless very little time remained, in which case the round would be played for a gift certificate equal to the amount claimed by the winning contestant in that round.
Since Season 18, every game ends in a Speed-Up, most likely to allow for a better chance at a comeback by trailing contestants and/or to bring a definite "end" to gameplay. Previously, they were only used if necessary, and it was not uncommon for a game to end without one. Until Season 21, this sometimes led to a Final Spin being done even if only one letter remained in the puzzle. November 27, 2000 was the last episode to end without a Speed-Up, due to a contestant solving over the Final Spin bells.
Originally, if Round 4 began with a Final Spin, the category and puzzle were not revealed until after the dollar value was established, and no sound effects were used. (During the shopping era, if a Final Spin was needed immediately coming out of a mid-round commercial break, a similar method was employed, with the puzzle resuming from where it left off before the break after the dollar amount was established.) At the start of Season 18, Round 4 puzzles that begin as a Speed-Up are now revealed normally (using the chimes), with the Final Spin bells sounding immediately afterward. However, three episodes early in the season were revealed in the old way, likely out of habit and/or due to taping order. The change in revealing the puzzle was likely done in relation to the above-mentioned change to always include a Final Spin.
If a Speed-Up puzzle has all the consonants revealed, the announcement that only vowels remain, if any, has been inconsistent over the years. For most of the 1980s and 1990s, no indication would be given unless the contestant who called the last consonant failed to solve. During all but one episode of Season 19 in which this happened, the "only vowels remain" beeps sounded immediately if the last consonant in the puzzle was called. Starting in the early 2010s, the beeps were exclusively used on the turn after the last consonant is revealed if at all, and sometimes added in post-production with no such announcement in the studio. At the beginning of Season 37, likely due to the previous rule having affected the outcome at least once, the "only vowels remain" beeps once again sound immediately if the last consonant is called.
Initially, if the Final Spin landed on anything other than a cash amount, the "invalid" spin was usually left in the episode and the host spun again until a dollar amount was hit. (According to one recollection, on a daytime episode hosted by Bob Goen, he had Vanna White do the Final Spin after repeatedly landing on Bankrupt.) The current practice of editing out an "invalid" Final Spin was first done on February 26, 1996, although it did not become standard until 1999. To lessen the chance of one happening, many episodes from this point onward have had all cardboard removed from the Wheel if the last round begins as a Speed-Up. However, in at least two episodes from Season 40 (both from April 2023), multiple invalid Final Spins were actually kept in the episode.
Originally, clacking and chalkboard taps were frequently heard during Speed-Up rounds. These were from the Used Letter Board, as the hinged letter cards chosen were flipped back and scores changed. By early 1988, the chalkboard was replaced by a dry-erase board; around 1997, both were replaced by a single monitor. Background music was added starting on November 6, 2000, and the music bed has changed several times since.
During a Speed-Up round, the contestants were originally shown at the bottom of the screen with the puzzle at the top; this arrangement was reversed sometime between September 22 and December 28, 1981. The category display was present from at least July 5, 1977 until sometime between September 22 and December 28, 1981 (likely removed at the same time the split-screen arrangement was reversed), returning around September 1987. At the beginning of Season 42, the split-screen arrangement switched back to its original position, albeit this time with the category strip appearing on top of the screen, and each contestant appearing in a box with a gold border that 'glows' with their respective podium's color to indicate their turn.
According to one recollection, early Speed-Up rounds did not allow contestants to pick vowels in the first 30 seconds; this period ended with a beeping noise, possibly the "only vowels remain" ones, to signify that vowels could now be chosen. However, on the July 15, 1975 episode, the game ends with what Chuck refers to as "our final 60-second round" and indicates that vowels may not be picked at all. He also prompts each contestant to solve immediately after calling a correct letter, thus suggesting that the Speed-Up round was originally timed, although it is not known what was done if the time limit expired. A likely possibility is that each contestant got a chance to solve the puzzle at the end of the 60 seconds, with the puzzle being thrown out otherwise; this theory is based on the fact that this is still the procedure if only vowels remain in a puzzle but no contestant has at least $250. The time limit was removed by the Armed Forces Week finals in October 1978, though Chuck says "vowels or consonants" approximately 60 seconds into the round, implying that the timer now applied just to vowels; the limitations were removed entirely by about March 27, 1979.
The Milton Bradley games released in 1975 do not give the round a time limit, suggesting it was dropped prior to November 3, though the games' rules also do not give any limitations on calling vowels in the Speed-Up.