Allison Rubenak, lifestyles desk editor, sat down with Shelby Edmiston, sophomore industrial distribution major, who won second place on the College Wheel of Fortune in an episode aired April 11. She is the subject of a popular video clip where one of the other contestants mispronounced the final answer.
THE BATTALION: What was going through your mind when Julian Batts mispronounced “Achilles” on the show?
Edmiston: I kind of was in shock because once all the letters went up, and I thought the puzzle was over and he had to pronounce it right and he didn’t. So once he mispronounced it, I got so much more nervous because I realized we could screw up and get embarrassed and so my nerves just went sky high, and I was like ‘Okay Shelby, don’t mess up.’ I just blurted out the answer, what I thought it was and luckily I got to win the prize, which was cool.
THE BATTALION: What were the host and the crowds’ response in that moment?
Edmiston:Everyone was silent, like you could hear a pin drop. After it happened, Pat Sajak was trying to alleviate the pressure, like make jokes, but the whole crowd was silent and they cut to a commercial and you still – during the commercial no one talked. It was just completely silent.
THE BATTALION: When did you become a fan of Wheel of Fortune?
Edmiston: Pretty much my whole life. Growing up, my grandfather lived across the street from me and he’s blind and so every night at 6:30 I’d go over there and we’d try and work the puzzles together and I’d call out the letters to him. Early on, I loved the game and so I thought it would just be funny to apply and it ended up here.
THE BATTALION: How do you feel about being a part of an online video that has attracted so much popularity and traffic recently?
Edmiston: I knew taping this show it would be one for the records and cause some laughs, but I didn’t realize it would go viral so quickly – that it would go on all these TV shows and talk shows and that all these famous people would be tweeting at us. I think the most recent was Perez Hilton, which I don’t even know who that is. It was definitely a shock, it’s been kind of hard to discern the truth from it all, because it’s all been so vamped up and some people aren’t telling the true story, which is hard, but I didn’t know it would spread like wild fire.
THE BATTALION: What responses have you received from your family about the show?
Edmiston: My family has been super supportive, but they’ve also been ‘Wow, she’s had her six days of fame instead of 15 minutes.’ And everyone is having their laughs, but they all understand how Julian could be hurting right now and they’ve just been helping me with this because it’s a lot of media, it’s a lot of attention that [I am] not used to. They honestly can’t believe I kept it a secret the past two months.
THE BATTALION: Have you had any campus response to the video?
Edmiston: On campus, my professor sent out an email and everyone knew I was going to be on it and a couple classes showed the video. So people will realize it’s me in the class and it’s just been fun to talk to them about it. There have been a few times that people have stopped me on campus. That was really random for me. I was just leaving an interview and this random guy came up to me and he was like, ‘Are you the Wheel of Fortune girl?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah that’s me,’ and he said, ‘I’m the Jeopardy guy’ and in my head I was thinking about, ‘I’ve been hearing about you for the past two months.’ This is so funny and so random that the guy noticed me who all these people were talking about before.
THE BATTALION: What do you plan to do with your winnings from the show?
Edmiston: Student loans. Pay off some loans for school. And I won a trip to Jamaica so I’m going to go on that and it will be fun.