By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
GRAND RAPIDS — America’s Game received a bit of local flair during this past holiday season.
Alex Williams, a native of Vicksburg and a former choir director at Three Rivers High School who is currently living in Grand Rapids, recently competed on the Dec. 20 episode of the long-running game show “Wheel of Fortune.”
Williams finished in a close second place on the show after a strong start through the first couple of rounds, taking home $13,350, nearly $2,200 behind the winner of the evening.
“It was just the craziest thing, and I’m still running off the adrenaline of it,” Williams said. “I always wanted to be on a game show, and Wheel of Fortune was the number one show I wanted to be on. You can imagine my surprise when I got the chance to be on it.”
Growing up, Williams, 30, was a fan of the show and watched it with his family often. He got the motivation to audition thanks in part to a second date with his now-fiancé Rachel three years ago, when they played a Wheel of Fortune video game and did, he said, “very well.” He applied “on a whim” sometime after that, and didn’t hear back about an audition until a very interesting date.
“They reach out to you for a screening interview, and they emailed me on April Fool’s Day at 9 p.m., so I thought it was a complete scam, a joke, but I went through it and signed up,” Williams said.
The audition process was no joke, as it involved interviews with producers, solving puzzles alone and with other people, and making sure contestants are TV material. In all, he said, that took about a week, and didn’t hear back from producers until September, when producers reached out to do another interview, based on the fact he was being considered to compete on the show’s Disney-themed “Secret Santa” week.
“They knew I liked Disney; that’s something I brought up in my screening, and they wanted to ask specific questions about what Disney meant in my life,” Williams said, noting that he recounted the story of how his sister, who has Down Syndrome, is a big Disney fan along with himself, and he bought her a Disney+ subscription for Christmas one year.
After making it through the audition process, Williams got the call to come out to California and Sony Pictures Studios on Oct. 17 to record his episode, and flew out the night before, staying with family in the Santa Monica area. He arrived at Sony on the day of recording at 6:30 a.m., and he ended up being the last game of the day to record out of the five the show does per day.
The production itself, he said, was very efficient, recording promos for TV and social media early on and getting practice in with the wheel, which he said is pretty heavy to maneuver. He sat in the audience along with the other contestants on the tape day for the first four games, and he said that gave him a little more opportunity to get some practice in.
“It was really interesting, because it was four more opportunities to practice as well, and being able to practice with the other Wheel of Fortune contestants,” Williams said. “That made me realize how seriously people took it, including myself, where we all had our strategies and you see people talking it out and coming up with it with you.”
In the game itself, Williams, donning a Lighting McQueen Christmas sweater given to him by the show staff, got off to a strong start, getting the first two toss-up puzzles and sweeping the first-round puzzle to rack up $6,850 early on. He didn’t get to touch the wheel in the Mystery Round or Prize Puzzle round, but he eventually got one of the Triple Toss Up puzzles to add another $2,000, and was cruising in the fourth-round puzzle until a missed letter after landing on the $5,000 wedge with the puzzle nearly filled out cost him more money.
In the speed-up round on the final puzzle, Williams was able to solve for “Providence, Rhode Island” and earn another $4,500 to end the day, but it was not enough to catch first place. Williams did acknowledge, though, that had he called the three “D”s that had not been called in the puzzle instead of the “H” he called before solving, he would’ve made it to the Bonus Round.
“In my head, I’m thinking, well, I’m going to make it obvious for them and then solve it, and H was the biggest one next to the R in Rhode Island, so my mind is like, I’m going to make it clear that I know the puzzle, solve it, good to go,” Williams said. “A little bit of that strategy gets thrown out the window when you’re on that stage, and I’m sure you can imagine how different it would be being up there that those little things kinda go out the window, and you’re thinking, I’ve got to solve this thing, win my money, see what happens.”
Either way, though, Williams said he was happy with how he did on the episode, and gave a shoutout to his fellow contestants, Shenay and Desiree (who ended up winning the bonus round), whom he said he bonded with the most during his tape day.
“We didn’t even know we’d be playing together, but we hit it off well and as soon as we figured that out, we were ecstatic,” Williams said. “We knew we could solve puzzles relatively fast, and it was really cool to be able to play with people that you know you’re going to have a good time. It’s like playing a board game with your buddies, you’re going to have a great time.”
Williams also said it was great to be able to meet Ryan Seacrest, the new host of Wheel of Fortune who took over for longtime host Pat Sajak at the start of this season.
“I can’t tell you how much of an amazing person Ryan is. He is the most down-to-earth, genuine celebrity. I haven’t met many celebrities, but really easy to talk to,” Williams said. “It didn’t feel disingenuous, like he’s just doing the job and going through the motions. Even in between takes, he’s standing next to me, and I whispered to him, ‘You have fun with this job, don’t you?’ and he said ‘What gave it away?’ He loves that job.”
He and the other contestants even got a brief interaction with letter-turner-extraordinaire Vanna White.
“We get there at 7 a.m., filling out our contracts, and at 7:04, here comes Vanna White, no makeup, no outfit that you see, it’s just her and all she did was come and say, good luck, have fun, here are some tips, I’m rooting for you. When you see Vanna White, you think she has to be the nicest people ever, and genuinely one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. She’s wonderful.”
Williams said he will be using the prize money, once it arrives, to make a down payment on a new house for himself and Rachel, and in the meantime continue to give private voice lessons in the Grand Rapids area and take theater classes at the Grand Rapids Civic. Overall, he said he enjoyed the experience, and encouraged others to take the opportunity to be on a game show if it presents itself.
“I think a lot of people should experience it, because it’s really just a thrill ride, to be honest. Being on set, getting to rub elbows with a lot of other people that work in show business while being yourself, it’s a taste of the Hollywood life that I think a lot of people want to know about, and I think should get to know about,” Williams said.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
