Once the large camera focused squarely on her pensive face, Kimberlee Hole had trouble coming up with a quick response under the bright, warm lights of the big stage.
“I don’t known what happened,” Hole said of her experience as a contestant on the television game show hit, “Wheel of Fortune”.
“I just froze. That’s all I can say.”
For the 41-year-old Auburn woman, spinning the famous “Wheel” is more difficult than it appears on commercial TV.
Hole, however, conquered her brief camera shyness, relaxed and eventually cashed in. She passed two tossup rounds, solved the final puzzle and left the Culver City, Calif., studio with $8,750 (before taxes) the most cash won among the three contestants vying for top prizes on the show.
Her 15 minutes of national game show fame was filmed back on Nov. 21. It aired earlier this month.
Hole’s husband, Duane, and two sisters accompanied her to Southern California. They joined the live audience as Hole stepped on stage for the taping of the episode.
“I’m ecstatic to see it on TV (for the first time),” said Hole, a mother of one son, Connor, 17, and a lifelong Auburn-Kent resident. “I enjoyed the experience. It was a lot of fun.”
Hole, a medical assistant by day, has fun with games in her leisure time.
She is pretty good with a cue stick, especially when it comes to serious 9-ball. While Hole is considered an amateur, she has qualified to play against the pros on regional and national women’s billiard tours.
Hole, a Kent-Meridian High School graduate, is a longtime fan of the “Wheel of Fortune”. She made it to the show after surviving a long process of auditions. She entered her name on a card when the “Wheel Mobile” came to the nearby Emerald Queen Casino in Fife. Her name was drawn from a large, spinning wheel.
She passed her early auditions, including one that involved about 130 other prospects in a regional tryout at Seattle.
The judges liked her stage presence and delivery. She ultimately got the final call to appear in Culver City.
Filming took all day, Hole said, but it was an interesting and worthwhile process between brushes of makeup from the stage crew and timed applause from the audience.
About the only thing that caught Hole by surprise was the diminutive Vanna White, the game show’s letter-turning assistant, who took time to greet each contestant before the filming.
“She was a bean pole, paper thin,” Hole said. “I couldn’t believe how skinny she was.”
“But Vanna was great, a sweetheart. Everybody was great, and (host) Pat (Sajak) was funny.”
Hole wasn’t disappointed she didn’t win an exclusive trip to Europe or Canada, as her competitors did. She just wanted the cash for two reasons.
“I’m going to pay off bills and go on a family vacation in April (to Mexico),” she said.
Whenever she sees the show on TV, Hole now can pass on her cameo experience to inquisitive family and friends.
“I’m sure the story will get more elaborate as time goes by,” she said.
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