Status as of October 3, 2026: applications are open. You apply on the show’s official form, reached from wheeloffortune.com. Applying is free, and nobody can get you on the show for money. Everything below comes from the show’s Be a Contestant page, its application form and its FAQ.

Season 44 premiered September 14, 2026, with Ryan Seacrest hosting and Vanna White beside him.

How to Apply

  • Apply on the show’s official form: your details, a photo of yourself and, if you like, a video of one minute or less. “Videos aren’t required, but we love to see them! (No TikTok videos, please).”
  • The last step is a quick game of five Toss-Up puzzles. It takes under 10 minutes and must be finished in one session.
  • The form says it accepts applications from the United States only. Applying is free.
  • If you are selected, the show emails you to set up a virtual audition, from home.

Who Is Not Eligible

The FAQ rules out:

  • anyone who has appeared on any version of the show, including the daytime version, Teen Week or any special week, and “Wheel 2000”;
  • anyone who has appeared on a game, dating, relationship or reality show in the last year, or on three such shows in the last 10 years;
  • anyone who works for, or is related to someone who works for, Sony Pictures companies, CBS Television Distribution Group, the show’s other listed partners, game show prize suppliers, or any TV station or network that broadcasts Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy!.

The Wheelmobile

The Wheelmobile, the touring audition van, “is currently parked,” the FAQ says; the free Wheel Watchers Club newsletter is how the show will announce where it goes next.

How to Prepare

The application ends with five Toss-Up puzzles, and the show’s site has a practice center and puzzle games such as the Toss Up Challenge. Watching recent episodes helps too: the categories recur (Phrase, Before & After, Thing, Place, What Are You Doing?), and Season 44 opens most episodes with the 30-second Fortune Frenzy. Our how-to-play guide covers the rules, and our how-to-watch guide lists where episodes stream.

A Word of Caution

A real casting call never charges a fee: anyone who asks for money to get you on a show is not the show. GameShows.com is a fan site: we do not cast any show, and comments on this page do not reach the producers.

Sources (checked October 2026): Wheel of Fortune, Be a Contestant; Wheel of Fortune, application; Wheel of Fortune FAQ