Feet firmly planted on the ground, Deanna LeBlanc strategically put her right hand on the handle and spun the 2,000-pound wheel. This one was for all the marbles.
A contestant on Wheel of Fortune, LeBlanc, a junior journalism major and former advertising representative for The Diamondback, never thought she would have the chance to be on the iconic game show until her cell phone rang one summer day. On the other end was a Wheel of Fortune representative saying she made the cut.
“I guess I’m just a huge nerd, and I just like to watch it,” LeBlanc said. “This kind of thing doesn’t usually happen to me.”
From a small town just north of Boston, LeBlanc said her dad was the reason she entered her name; he sent her an e-mail about the show’s casting calls. She applied — figuring it couldn’t hurt to try — and didn’t give it a second thought. That is, until the last day of her summer internship at a Boston TV station.
“I felt my phone vibrating, and I didn’t recognize the number,” she said. “I picked it up and immediately this really excited guy was like, ‘Hello, this is Gary from Wheel of Fortune.’ At first I didn’t know what he was talking about, because I completely forgot about sending in the application. I’m pretty sure my co-workers were wondering why I was jumping up and down and screaming.”
A few weeks later, LeBlanc flew to Boston for the auditions, where she was tested on her ability to shout above a crowd, solve puzzles and work under pressure. She was one person in a crowd of 100 auditioning for three different shows, all to be held in Boston. With all the other applicants, LeBlanc said it was difficult to bring attention to herself.
“I thought I’d wear my sorority letters to help me stand out,” LeBlanc said. “But apparently every other girl there had the same exact idea. We had to stand on chairs and shout across the room, testing to see how loud we could be. Since I do broadcast, I’m used to projecting, so I didn’t really have a problem with that.”
She got a call a week later saying she passed her audition, officially making her a contestant on the game show.
“I went into the audition with no expectations,” she said. “After a couple days after the audition and I didn’t hear from them, I was just like, ‘Oh well, at least I auditioned.'”
On Sept. 4, LeBlanc competed with students from Georgetown and Tufts. Although she was playing against two other contestants, LeBlanc said it was more fun than competitive.
“I spent all day with everyone,” she said. “We didn’t start taping until four in the afternoon, so we ate lunch and dinner together. We got along. One of the show producers told us, ‘It’s not playing against each other. It’s the three of you playing against the wheel.'”
It took contestants hours to learn to operate the one-ton wheel — it’s harder to spin than it looks, LeBlanc said.
“It literally weighs a ton,” she said. “It’s very technical. I was nervous the first time that it wasn’t going to go all the way around.”
With friends and family in the audience, LeBlanc made small talk with Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak and game-show icon Vanna White during the 30 minutes it took to tape the show, which airs tomorrow at 7 p.m.
“This was such a shock; I don’t even remember a lot of the details,” she said. “I just can’t believe it happened. I probably won’t until I see it again.”
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