Finally, the producers intervened and grandfathered these letters into the Bonus Round as freebies, then modified the round, so that as a handicap, the puzzles would be more complicated and contestants only got ten seconds to solve the puzzles and a choice of three consonants and one vowel (which ironically tends to be 'CDMA' a lot of the time, giving rise to another metagame), with the addition of the Wild Card mechanic allowing for a fourth consonant call.

However, a Metagame strategy emerged to call the letters 'R', 'S', 'T', 'L', 'N', and 'E', which soon took over almost every single Bonus Round and made the game feel broken. The original game played with a blank Bonus Round puzzle that was usually simple and limited to one word, and contestants could call five consonants and a vowel, and had 15 seconds to solve the puzzle.

The 2022-2023 season trades it in for an LED display with LIDAR sensors. On February 24, 1997, the board changed to 52 touch-activated monitors, which themselves became flat-screen LCDs on September 10, 2007. The board changed on Decemto 48 trilons on four rows as part of the set's overhaul four more trilons were added to the corners in 1982, which served as little more than decoration (the board's border blocked them from being turned). In 1974, this changed to 39 trilons on three rows and no 'wrong letter' spaces.

The puzzle board of the 1973 pilot originally consisted of 60 pull cards, only 45 of which were used for gameplay (the last set acted as a 'Wrong Letter Board').

(The 1973 Wheel, along with the rest of the Shopper's Bazaar set, was designed by Spencer Davies.) The current Wheel weighs 2,400 pounds, is made of stainless steel, and is framed with Plexiglas.

The Wheel used since 1974 was designed by Ed Flesh and was originally built from cardboard, paint, and light bulbs.

On March 6, 1986, Wheel of Fortune became the first Game Show to have Closed Captioning.

Wheel of fortune bonus round music 2002