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NBC's The Wheel is the network's newest reality TV game show, which will be premiering this holiday season. The competition series will air its first episode on December 19, at 10 pm ET/ 9 pm CT.
The forthcoming series is a trivia-based game show based on a British game show of the same title that first aired on BBC One in 2020. The show will feature a different set of contestants every episode who take a chance at luck and battle it out for the chance of a lifetime to win $100,000.
The rules of The Wheel are quite simple, wherein each episode will feature a contestant seated in front of the spinning wheel. Once they spin the wheel and whichever wacky topic it lands on, the contestants will have to answer questions based on it in order to test their knowledge.
However, the contestants will not be alone, as there will be a set of celebrities who will be there to help them incase they get stuck. But there's a catch: the contestants cannot choose their preferred celebrity for help, they have to spin again, and the celebrity it lands on has to answer the question, it doesn't matter whether the question is in their expertise or not.
The upcoming show will be hosted by comedian and television personality Michael McIntyre, who also hosted the British version. In an exclusive interview with The Post, the host opened up about the format and more.
"It’s like a human roulette wheel": Michael McIntyre opens up about NBC's new show The Wheel
In an exclusive interview with The Post, Michael shared:
"It’s very much a sort of entertainment/quiz show. My fellow producer calls it ‘quint-etainment,’ which a phrase he’s trying to coin but I’m not sure it’s catching on."
Adding to that, the host said:
"It’s like a human roulette wheel. I liked the idea of people spinning around and it’s completely random with six celebrities helping [the contestants] answer questions. Every celebrity brings a category that they claim to be an expert in, but it’s only a one-in-six chance that you’re going to get them to help you."
Michael further continued:
"There’s also a ‘Danger Zone’ so that for every spin one of the celebrities shuts you down, so if you land on them you’re off the wheel … but you can pop back up, so it’s all about trying to stay there and cling to control of the wheel until the end."
Disclosing more about the format and how the money is prized for each round, Michael shared:
"The idea [for the contestants] is to stay there and clear the wheel of all the categories, and then try to cash out at the bank in the end. We rank the celebrities according to the strongest and the weakest [re: trivia] and if you play the strongest celebrity you play for the least amount of money and vice versa."
The 46-year-old host also revealed that as one is playing the game, it becomes very "captivating, engrossing, and ultimately very dramatic." The host also added that the game show is a mix of luck and skill and according to him, it's "just right."
The Wheel will premiere on NBC on Monday, December 19, at 10 pm ET. Readers can check their local listings for more information.
