It is Party Time, the Airdate for this Episode with Rob Elliott and Sophie Faulkner is Tuesday June 13th 2000 and Today's Torch Relay destination is Ipswich in Southeast Queensland with 65 Days to go until the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Wheel Of Fortune debuted in Australia on Monday July 21st 1981 with Ernie Sigley and Adriana Xenides at the Channel Seven Studios in Adelaide and now on Tuesday June 13th 2000 the historic 4000th episode of Wheel Of Fortune Australia with Rob Elliott and Sophie Falkiner at the Channel Seven Studios in Sydney.
15:00 That would've been a car prize going by Rob's reaction, alas this special episode would *possibly* be the last appearance of the Surprise wedge until February 21st 2001 (It was covering the orange 200 space in round 1, and the orange 310 space next to *Bankrupt* in round 2, where it was picked up by contestant Jenny, but she then landed on *Lose a turn* and thus failed to solve the puzzle)
And the last time the car was used in the Surprise Wedge was in March 2000 with Paddy winning the Proton via the Surprise Wedge it was a unbelievable moment.
I've never seen anyone win the *Surprise* in the last round either, I wonder if it ever happened (Hell, I used to think that people winning the *Bonus* in the last round was as rare as hen's teeth as well until we suddenly started seeing heaps of episodes from 1993-2002 uploaded during the pandemic. Before 2020, I only knew about the 2 Burgo episodes where Burgo spun up the Bonus wedge, but now I've seen 11 episodes with it being won in the last round in the last 2 years)!
Rob Elliot did spin up the Proton Wedge once, but was just removed from the wheel to reveal the dollar amount since the Proton was out of play after the bell sounded.
Interesting to note that John Deeks was announcer for all of those milestone episodes having joined the show just in time for the 1,000th episode in 1986.
