Solve the puzzle, spin the wheel, buy a vowel or choose a consonant. These choices may not seem as significant as selecting classes and majors, but some Penn students will soon have the opportunity to face these very same predicaments on national television. Wheel of Fortune, the popular syndicated prime-time game show, will hold a contestant search at Penn tomorrow. Conducted by representatives from WPVI-TV -- the local ABC affiliate that broadcasts the game show -- the auditions will begin at noon inside the University Museum at 33rd and Spruce streets. Ten episodes will be filmed in Philadelphia on April 17 and 18, according to University spokesperson Jeanne Leong. Five of the shows will involve selected citizens of the Delaware Valley area and the other five will feature students from area colleges. The episodes will air during the first two weeks of May, although it has not yet been decided exactly when "College Week" will be broadcast. According to Rebecca Campbell, WPVI's director of programming, all perspective contestants should arrive at the museum between 10 a.m. and noon Thursday. Tickets will be distributed at 10 a.m. and the line will officially form two hours later. Campbell stressed that all interested students should be in line -- with tickets in hand -- by noon in order to audition. At that point, 200 students will be randomly selected to audition. The selected students will then have a "pre-audition," Campbell said, where they will have to answer some brief questions, show some basic knowledge of Wheel of Fortune and prove that they would "make a good contestant." Campbell explained that the show is looking for students who are "very enthusiastic," have a "great personality" and who "know the game." Leong agreed, adding that the audition will not be "like Jeopardy! where they would test your knowledge on one topic or another." And Ann Davis, another University spokesperson, also speculated that the auditions would require more enthusiasm and excitement than sheer intelligence. "I think you have to be able to clap really loud, jump up and down and shout 'big money, big money!'" she said. Neither the University nor the television station could predict how many people would attend Thursday's audition. But Campbell said that around 550 students attended a similar audition at the University of Delaware yesterday and nearly 13,000 people auditioned at the nearby King of Prussia Mall. Similar contestant searches are being held at Temple, Villanova, Rowan and Lincoln universities, as well as at Delaware and Penn. Those students who do not make the cut at Thursday's audition can attend another contestant search at Plymouth Meeting Mall on March 27. Two hundred students will be selected from each of the seven auditioning sites, which include the universities and the Plymouth mall. Out of those 1,400, however, only 120 will advance to the third round of auditions -- interviews with the staff at Wheel of Fortune. Only 15 will then be selected to appear on the show, which will be taped at the Apollo at Temple University. WPVI-TV is broadcast locally on channel 6.
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