How do they make the show "Wheel of Fortune" come in exactly on time with the right commercial breaks, etc.?

Drum_God
Wed, 30 Jul 2025 22:37:35 +0000
Cafe Society

I assume that the show is edited to fit the time allotted, but since it is a game, how do they do that? If an unsuccessful guess were left out, the audience would notice that a player’s turn was skipped. The only thing I can see is if all three contestants made unsuccessful guesses, the entire round could be left out of the final production. That would also explain why the “used” letter board is never shown to the audience.

Old game shows used to be serial in nature. The show would end at the allotted time and the host would invite the audience to tune in tomorrow to see how the game turned out. They could be right in the middle of a round or even leading into the big “payoff” round. Then, the next day would start with the “payoff” round and then go back to normal game-play with new contestants. Now, most game shows are self-contained episodes consisting of ever increasing stakes that ensure each contestant has a mathematical chance of winning, no matter how far they have fallen behind the leader. Then, the winner goes to some sort of bonus round. End of show.

How does Wheel of Fortune get the game to line up perfectly every time given that different puzzles will take different amounts of time to solve?

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