Best friends of 55 years Charlotte Carroll and Didi Ryall normally watch the popular game show Wheel of Fortune together in the comfort of their Diamond Point homes. This Wednesday night, they will be a part of the same game show they watch together each week.
Carroll and Ryall will appear on tonight’s episode of Wheel of Fortune, “Girlfriend Getaways,” from 7-7:30 p.m. on ABC KOMODT.
“It’s a once in a lifetime thing being on a nationally televised game show; one that we watch every night,” Ryall said.
“I come over (to Carroll’s house) pretty much every night about 7 p.m. to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.”
The two best friends sent in a demo tape to Wheel of Fortune two years ago in September of 2015 and while they received a chance to audition for the show in Seattle that same year, they didn’t receive a call back for the show until six weeks ago.
“I thought, ‘oh this has got to be a joke,’” Ryall said.
“It was in the middle of a lunch when we got the email,” Carroll said.
Carroll and Ryall were attending a neighborhood luncheon when they both checked their phones and saw they had the same email from Wheel of Fortune.
“When I saw she also had the email, it became real,” Carroll said.
Carroll and Ryall said they weren’t able to tell anyone other than immediate family they were going to be a part of the show until one week before the episode went on air.
The duo said they have known each other since sophomore year of high school and met when Carroll and her family moved to Washington from Alaska right across the street from Ryall and her family.
“We’ve been best friends ever since,” Carroll said.
“We go way back through thick and thin.”
The demo video shows Carroll and Ryall saying why they would be perfect contestants for the show — other than their 55 years of friendship — which is evident in the way they finish each other’s sentences.
“I think somebody said to us, ‘you guys should be on Wheel of Fortune,’” Carroll said.
“We were both here in Washington and said, ‘you know, we will just see.’”
Both Carroll and Ryall also have homes in Juno, Alaska but they travel to and from Sequim during different parts of the year.
They said they have made a lot of memories together and traveling to Sony Pictures in Los Angeles to film Wheel of Fortune was another great experience.
“It was a very good experience, the whole staff there was phenomenal,” Carroll said.
“From start to finish, it was just a bunch of fun,” Ryall said.
The duo said they started filming at 6 a.m. and had a lot of time practicing spinning the wheel — which they said was very heavy — and getting comfortable interacting on set.
They also made a good team in playing the game. Ryall was the designated wheel spinnner and Carroll was the button clicker and speaker.
“Charlotte and I compliment each other in playing the game,” Ryall said.
“She knows things that I don’t know and she sees things that I don’t see.”
Carroll said to prepare for the show they paid more attention to the episodes of the new season leading up to the time they were going to film.
“I couldn’t have had a better partner,” Carroll said.
When Carroll and Ryall aren’t watching Wheel of Fortune, they said they are involved in the local theater at Olympic Theatre Arts and have season tickets to 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle.
“We’ve done so many things together in our lives,” Carroll said.
“And made so many great memories,” Ryall said.
To watch Carroll and Ryall compete on Wheel of Fortune “Girlfriend Getaways,” tune in at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 25, on ABC KOMODT. For more information, visit http://komonews.com/station/schedule or https://www.wheeloffortune.com/
