The Scratch

Catching Up With The Wheel of Fortune Second-Chance Giveaway Winners

All of this rainy weather has the members of our office longing for the sunny warmth of summer and the fun times we had outside, both at work and at home. One of the fondest memories we have is of our Wheel of Fortune Second-Chance Giveaway at the Nebraska State Fair.

To reminisce, we recently caught up with the lucky winners who were able to go to Los Angeles to take part in special Wheel of Fortune rounds on the set of the game show.

Between April and August, Nebraska Lottery players entered over 17,000 non-winning $10 Wheel of Fortune Scratch tickets in the Wheel of Fortune Second-Chance Promotion. Three preliminary drawings were held in June, July, and August to select the nine semifinalists who competed in the Grand Prize drawing.

Mark Bianco of Lincoln, the Grand Prize winner, will receive a VIP Trip to Los Angeles with a chance to play on the lottery-players only, non-broadcast Wheel of Fortune show with Pat Sajak and Vanna White and $12,000 cash. Terry Selvage of Lincoln  won a Wheel of Fortune VIP Trip to Los Angeles with a chance to play on the lottery-players only, non-broadcast Wheel of Fortune show and $8,000 cash. Bill McMullen of Kearney Wheel of Fortune VIP Trip to Los Angeles with a chance to play on the lottery-players only, non-broadcast Wheel of Fortune show and $7,000 cash.

I first spoke to Bill McMullen who was lucky enough to be selected as a team captain and spin the Wheel in a non-broadcast Wheel of Fortune show.

“It was excellent,” he said. “It was one of the better experiences of my life.”
Bill said that spinning the wheel with Pat Sajek was the highlight of the trip for him, but spinning the wheel is harder than it looks.

“The thing weighs 2,400 pounds and it takes all the oomph you’ve got to get that thing around,” Bill said. “The first time I did it, I just leaned forward and gave it a little practice spin and they said, ‘No-no, Bill. Reach in front of the guy next to you.'”

According to him, there is a great deal of professionalism that goes on behind the scenes that he experienced while on-set. As one of the lucky contestants who would spin the wheel, Bill had to have makeup done to look his best for the cameras recording the non-broadcast show. Between recorded segments, set producers and crew members were coaching players to remember to smile and clap when others were spinning.

Bill was able to make it to the bonus round where two letters stood between him and victory. The letters displayed on the board were “C H E E – – O N E S.” With the pressure to win not only for himself and his team, Bill took a stab at the word by guessing that the remaining letters completed the word ‘cheese.’  The guess was incorrect, but Bill said he thinks he threw the remaining contestants off when he guessed. The correct word was ‘cheekbones’ but Bill didn’t walk away empty handed as he won $10,800 for himself and his teammates to split.

Of the experience, Bill says he feels extremely lucky to have had this opportunity.

“They have 10,000 applications a year and only 600 of them get on-stage,” he said. “So I don’t know if I’d have ever been picked up on stage if I’d gone another route.

Mark Bianco, who was the grand prize winner, took this opportunity with his wife to have their first getaway for the first time in 20 years. The Biancos loaded up their car and embarked on an 11-day adventure that took them through Oklahoma City, Flagstaff and Las Vegas where they checked into their hotel at the same time as Jennifer Aniston – the actor from the one where they hang out in a coffee shop.

Their trip took them to L.A. where they met with contestants from other states as well as the other finalists from Nebraska. Altogether, Mark is happy that he was able to share this experience with his wife. They had time to go to explore L.A. and Hollywood with time to spare at the beach where his wife saw the ocean for the first time.

“I thank the Nebraska Lottery,” he said. “It’s probably something I never would’ve done on my own.”

You can find photos of the winners on-set here.