‘Wheel of Fortune’ is coming to NJ

Can you believe “Wheel of Fortune” is 47 years old?

Years before there was the evening version of the tv game show there was a daytime version that debuted in 1975. I don’t remember there being one. It was apparently hosted by Chuck Woolery.

The evening version that catapulted Pat Sajak and Vanna White to fame didn’t begin until 1983. Even that version is pushing 39 years. Amazing.

Well “Wheel of Fortune” is coming to New Jersey. But not the actual TV show. It’s a traveling live version of the game that is going on a North American tour. It stops in New Jersey at Count Basie Center in Red Bank on Oct. 5.

It’s not televised, yet the game is the same and the prizes and money you can win are very much for real. It’s not often you can buy tickets to a show and come away with a profit.

According to NJ.com prizes include $10,000 and trips to places like Hawaii and Paris. Sweet! If you can’t make the October 5 stop there’s one the next night at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music. To get tickets check out the venue box offices or Ticketmaster, or any of the typical secondary market sites. The cheapest seats I saw on Ticketmaster at this time were $45.

TV game shows turned live roadshows are hardly new. “The Masked Singer” and “The Price Is Right” are also coming around in the next few months.

But if “Wheel of Fortune” is in your skillset then you’ve been told. And old school fans? Don’t even get me started by saying the days when you shopped for overpriced prizes like the $2,000 porcelain Dalmatian were the glory days.

You would be…

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Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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