Wheel 2000 (partially lost children's game show; 1997-1998)

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Wheel2000ShortLogo.png

The show's logo.

Status: Partially Lost

Wheel 2000 was a children's version of the popular game show Wheel Of Fortune that aired from September 13th, 1997, to February 7th, 1998, on both CBS and Game Show Network, lasting a total of 24 episodes.

It was created by Scott Sternberg (who also created Catch 21, Everything Goes and Rock & Roll Jeopardy) and was hosted by actor David Sidoni (who previously worked on Nickelodeon productions like Roundhouse and Bing! The Sound of Something New) and a CGI character named Cyber Lucy (voiced by actress Tanika Ray)[1] and has mostly the same format as Wheel Of Fortune but with a few changes.

Format

The format is mostly the same as Wheel Of Fortune (three contestants, now kids aged 10-15, try a guess what a word puzzle by picking letters and spinning a wheel awarding them money, a correct solve banks the winning player's money and the winner of the episode is determined with the player with the most money, the winning player solves one more puzzle to win a prize) but with a few changes because the show is now for kids.

The contestants now pick from three categories (which Wheel Of Fortune would start doing in 2017) and various wedges on the wheel were swapped for more quirky ones. The 250 wedge would have various physical challenges attached to it (depends on what episode) and the contestant who landed on the space would do the physical challenge that would typically last 15 to 60 seconds (75 on one game) to earn up to three letters selected from a randomizer. When the physical challenges is over the player went back to the wheel and then decided to either use those letters and see if they were in the puzzle for 250 points each, or spin the wheel and choose a letter of their own. If none of the letters appeared in the puzzle, or if they didn't earn any letters at all, that player automatically lost their turn.

The physical challenges in the series were Call Waiting, Feed the Raptor, Monster Heads, Letter Launch, Smell-O-Letter, Chutes and Letters, Remote Rally, Cube Roll, Match It, Wash and Wear Words and Alien Toss. Other wedges on the wheel include 100/Prize Box, where if the player guesses the right letter they win the prize in the green box on the wedge, 500/Double Up, where Sidoni asks the player a multiple choice question under the same category the game's puzzle is in and a correct answer, a correct letter would be worth 1000 points and an incorrect answer means the letter is worth 500 points and 750/WWW.WHEEL2000.COM where the contestant would not only play for 750 points a letter but would also try to win a Wheel 2000 t-shirt & hat for an at-home studio player who already registered on the website shown on the wedge[2].

The Creature and Loser wedges are basically kid versions of the Bankrupt and Lose A Turn wedges from Wheel Of Fortune. The bonus round would be the exact same as the one used on Wheel Of Fortune at the time where two prizes would be hidden in two envelopes (labelled A and B) and the correct solution awards the contestant the prize.

Episodes

# Contestants Known Airdate Status
1 Marissa/Gerrard/Vinnie Sept 13th, 1997 Found
2 Jessica/Lea/Dwayne Sept 20th, 1997 Found
3 Sara/Ian/Jay Sept 27th, 1997 Found
4 Nick/Tissan/Christine Unknown Found
5 Natalia/Julia/Carl Unknown Found
6 Alyssa/Nicole/Simon Unknown Found
7 Katie/Seph/Brent Oct 4th, 1997 Found
8 Lauren/Skye/Murphibennett Oct 11th, 1997 Found
9 Gino/Alana/Jason Oct 18th, 1997 Lost
10 Dawnell/Ebony/Patrick Nov 1st, 1997 Found
11 Gregory/Kayce/Jeremy December 1997 or January 1998 Lost
12 Erin/Caleb/Nikki Unknown Found
13 Alberto/Sarah/Camille Unknown Found
14 Courtney/Tenoa/Cammie Unknown Found
15 Ernie/Cody/Regine Unknown Found
16 Jerry/Matt/Lauren Unknown Found
17 Tara/Zoe/Ryan Unknown Lost
18 Unknown Unknown Lost
19 Unknown Unknown Lost
20 Unknown Unknown Lost
21 Unknown Unknown Lost
22 Unknown Unknown Lost
23 Unknown Unknown Lost
24 Unknown Feb 7th, 1998 Lost

[3]

Availability

When the show was announced on February 5th, 1997[4] to the end of the show's run, many people labelled the show as silly along with Jep! (another kid's version of another Merv Griffin game show Jeopardy!) and the show was criticized for straying too far from the Wheel Of Fortune format and adding unnecessary elements to the gameplay (as which mainly Scott Sternberg produced game shows would do)[5]. The show would air its last original episode on February 7th, 1998, and would be reran a lot on both networks.

Reruns on CBS ended on September 26th, 1998, and was removed from the Saturday morning schedule to make room for cartoons from Nelvana and Scottish Television. Reruns on Game Show Network would last until October 11th, 2001[6] when the show was removed from both the schedule and Game Show Network's website. It is also known that the show was reran on the Canadian Discovery Kids for a short time in the 2000s [7].

Since then, very few episodes from the show's run have resurfaced. Many episodes only survive through home recordings taken from the CBS or Game Show Network airings. As of November 2021, fourteen episodes can be found online, the other ten episodes remain unaccounted for.

See Also

References