How does Wheel of Fortune host Ryan Seacrest behave when the cameras aren’t rolling? Many viewers might be curious now that he has banked two full months as Pat Sajak’s replacement alongside Vanna White. For the first time, fans got insight from a contestant who just competed, sharing what Seacrest is really like behind the scenes.
A player who appeared recently took to the WoF Reddit forum after their episode aired to share a lengthy post about their experience and how Seacrest is during commercial breaks.
“Ryan was SO friendly during the commercial breaks,” they wrote in part. “He had individual conversations with each of us. He would talk to the audience. He was just the absolute best. At one point mid-sentence, I just stopped and said, ‘I can’t believe I’m literally talking to you right now.’”
The player (who requested to stay anonymous) went on to share that Seacrest finished his conversation with them despite being interrupted by a producer.
“Something else that stood out to me was when I was talking to him and a producer interrupted to say something to him. I figured that was the end of the conversation, and then he turned to me and said ‘sorry, go on!’ It was so small but so NICE and polite. He genuinely cared about the conversations he was having! All three of us told him how he’s doing such an amazing job as host, and he was visibly touched.”
Fans loved the takeaway that Seacrest puts on the charm on and off camera and is making an effort to get to know each player.
“Congrats on such a lovely experience! It’s great to hear all these details, one fan wrote.
“Thanks for sharing your experience!” wrote another.
In their post, the player also detailed exactly how a WoF tape day goes, starting with a practice session, rehearsal, and the randomized division of the group of players.
First, everyone is taken to a “big empty warehouse type area” on the Sony studio lot where that day’s group of contestants, “sat at tables.” They continued, “We had a talk from a lawyer right off the bat. He was pretty funny too. They went over what to expect for the day.” A producer went over what Seacrest would ask each contestant in their intro.
Next, the players were ushered into the set. “Now we practiced our intros and spinning the wheel. One of the producers acted as Ryan.” They continued, “Three people went up at a time, and we basically played a mini game. Spun the wheel, shouted out random letters to practice enunciating, and our intros.”
Then, “We went back into the warehouse area, which is when I had my makeup touched up. During that time, they started announcing the show lineup. They said three names, then pulled a ball from a bowl and whatever number was on it, was the show you’d be on.” Their game was up first.
And right before the game, they players were brought back to the set. “We did our rehearsal in our groups and in the order of our shows. It was similar to practicing spinning the wheel, but this time we actually had practice puzzles too. There are also platforms behind the wheel, and they were raising and lowering those for each contestant so everyone was at a comfortable height for the wheel.”
While not competing everyone sits in the audience, then came their episode, which entailed some “devastating” bankrupts. “It took about an hour to film the episode.” There was a mishap involving “the fire alarm and a couple technical difficulties.” They closed, The producers were amazing. They really made us all feel like we belonged there. Everyone on the set had such a positive attitude.”
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