Producer Merv Griffin, popular co-hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White have awarded contestants over $98 million in cash and prizes for guessing the blank letters of mystery phrases, with the winning amounts determined by spins of a giant wheel. In the ubiquitous game created by executive In 1998, America's most popular television game show, Wheel of Fortune, celebrated its fifteenth year in syndication by broadcasting for the 3000th time.