They were the fastest 20 minutes of junior Elizabeth Hatfield’s life. Luckily, she gets to relive them tonight – at 7 p.m. on ABC.
Last month, the elementary education major flew to Los Angeles to be a contestant on Wheel of Fortune’s “College Road Trip Week,” joining 17 other college students to guess phrases out of categories such as “college life” and “food and drink.”
Though Hatfield didn’t want to spoil the suspense of tonight’s episode by sharing the results, she said the taping of the show was overwhelming, causing her thoughts to spin faster than the wheel.
“I’m thinking, ‘OK, smile, make sure your hair’s OK, clap low, spin the thing, praise other people, look happy, keep it going, go fast, don’t hesitate,'” she said. “It’s just a million things going through your head at once.”
When her turn came to guess letters, Hatfield looked for common clusters of letters, such as “-ing,” “-ed” and “-ion”. When in doubt, she used the letters R, S, T, L, N and E.
“I didn’t try to figure out the whole word, I tried to get parts of it and then put it together to make the whole word,” she said.
Hatfield, who has been a game show enthusiast all her life, first heard of the opportunity to appear on the show from a commercial on a Friday night last spring. The following day she hopped on the Metro and made her way down to the Wheelmobile event in Washington.
Hatfield and her boyfriend, junior economics major Kevin Askine, filled out applications. A couple of months later, Askine was one of the people picked at random for an opportunity to participate in the auditions.
However, he felt that Hatfield would be less nervous on television, so he allowed her to go to the auditions in mid-June in his place, Hatfield said.
At the Grand Hyatt Washington, Hatfield joined 49 other contestants in a computer-simulated version of Wheel and took a written hangman-style test. Drawing on years of practice from watching the show and playing trivia games, Hatfield landed in the final 12 for the region. She later learned she had been chosen as a contestant.
Askine and Hatfield’s mother went with her to L.A. but had only limited access to Hatfield while she was prepped for the show.
Before the show, Hatfield practiced yelling letters and gave the wheel, which she said was very heavy, at least five test spins.
The contestants received professional make-up and a brief good luck message from Vanna White. Hatfield did not get to meet Pat Sajak until the show began.
“I figured I’d be OK, but I was nervous as hell,” Hatfield said. “You have the lights on. You got the make-up going. It was so much stuff.”
When the episode airs tonight, the outcome will be a surprise to all but Hatfield, her mother and Askine, who is now Hatfield’s fiance.
“I really don’t want to tell people, ’cause honestly, it’s not as fun watching if you know what’s going to happen,” Hatfield said.
Contact reporter Mike Brody at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.
