After shaky start, Peoria man, granddaughter win $8,000 on 'Wheel of Fortune'

Appearing as contestants on the game show “Wheel of Fortune,” Tony King of Peoria and his granddaughter Grace Pepperel of Dallas did not get off to an auspicious start.

“I think I’m a pretty good puzzle-solver,” said King, who regularly watches the show and plays along from his couch at home. “But on the very first puzzle, I hit the buzzer a little too fast. The answer was ‘The Ideal Temperature.’ I got ‘The Ideal,’ but then I said ‘Numerator.’”

Wheel of Fortune blogger nickskapower briefly and bluntly summed up King’s early gaffe by writing “Tony totally blows it w/ THE IDEAL NUMERATOR” while writing a recap of the May 10 Grandparents Week episode on which King and Pepperel appeared.

With first-puzzle jitters behind them, King and Pepperel righted the ship and sailed to $8,000 in winnings. King intends to donate part of his haul to Pepperel’s initiative to help families dealing with infant deaths by creating a bereavement room at Texas Health Frisco Hospital, where her mother, Dr. Michelle Pepperel, works.

How did they get on Wheel of Fortune?

King and Pepperel began their auditions for the show with a series of interviews with staff on Zoom. Along with 19 other grandparent-grandchild teams, they were invited to Sony Pictures Studio in Culver City, Calif., to audition in person.

Of the 20 teams, 18 were chosen to appear on a show and the other two were named alternates. King, a longtime “Wheel of Fortune” aficionado, said it took him days to come down from the sense of exhilaration he felt after competing. The episode was taped in March.

“It was a lifetime memory,” he said. “I can’t think of anything that was better, except for the births of my children and grandchildren.”

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria man, granddaughter win $8,000 on 'Wheel of Fortune'