Wheel of Fortune has been doing something a little different with the games that air this month on the 2026 TV schedule. In honor of the season of warmer weather that’s upon us, Ryan Seacrest and co. are allowing winning contestants to “spring forward” and continue playing until they lose (much like on Jeopardy!, where Jamie Ding is on a historic 31-game roll). Recent WOF contestant Chad Cabanilla took full advantage of the gameplay twist, but it sounds like winning a bunch of trips may not be as great as you'd imagine.
Chad Cabanilla competed on five episodes of Wheel of Fortune, and given his haul of $183,723 in cash and prizes, I’m sure he’d agree with the consensus calling it one of the best game shows of all time. However, most of that six-figure total came from the value of the trips he won — the SIX trips, to be exact, as Cabanilla told The Mankato Free Press after his fourth win:
