Falls High graduate Davina Albanese had a turn at cash and prizes this summer when she participated as a contestant on “Wheel of Fortune.”
The episode, which coincidentally is the season premiere for the long-running television game show, will air Monday. Check local listings for the time and station.
While she was not able to discuss the outcome of the show because it has not yet aired, she did tell The Journal that she was nervous to be on camera.
“It was quite nerve wracking being on national television,” she said. “I’ve never done anything like that before.”
She said that she was approached by a customer at the restaurant she works for in Las Vegas, Nev., to audition for the show. The customer, who turned out to work for “Wheel of Fortune,” gave her a business card and she went to the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino to try out, never imagining that she would make the cut.
She said that she reached the second round of auditions this summer, before she was called to tape the program in mid-July.
Albanese was in International Falls visiting her family on vacation in the beginning of July when she got the call to tape the show in Las Vegas the next week.
“It was a total shock,” she said, to be selected to be on the show.
She said that her parents were, “much more excited than me,” adding that she was more nervous, after she got the call that she was chosen to be on the show.
She said that the show didn’t take long to tape, about the half-hour that the show runs.
“The contestants were a lot of fun,” she said. “It was a good experience.”
Albanese’s show opens a series of episodes taped in, and featuring, the Las Vegas area and its residents. The show, with hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White, is known for taping various theme weeks around the country.
Albanese has lived in Las Vegas for the last five years. She graduated from Falls High School in 1998, where classmates would know her by her maiden name, Doris.
