Wallace woman appears on ‘Wheel of Fortune’

Shawn Coston Miller, who lives outside Wallace, was recently a contestant on the longtime popular game show, “Wheel of Fortune.” Miller’s episode aired Dec. 18.

“She’s going to put Wallace on the map,” said her sister, Priscilla Coston. “It’s very exciting.”

Miller and her husband Kelvin flew out to Los Angeles, California, the week of Oct. 17 to film the episode, and waited almost two months for the show to finally air.

In the meantime, neither of them told anyone what prizes she may have won on the show.

“They haven’t told anybody,” Coston said at a watch party in the Millers’ home before the show came on at 7 p.m. “Her daughter has been dying to know, but they ain’t told nobody.”

Miller teaches second grade at DC Virgo Preparatory Academy in Wilmington, and hadn’t even shared with her students that she would be on their TVs last Wednesday night. She recorded the episode to share with them in class on Thursday.

The Millers also hosted a watch party for family and friends at their home near Wallace. Folks came from as far as Charlotte, Durham and Wilmington to watch the episode, complete with Shawn Miller’s commentary.

She shared that the preparation to be a contestant took months, and included practicing spinning the wheel and enunciating the letters to be called out. Shawn also got to know her fellow contestants, and said they have since become friends and chat regularly.

“They were all really good people,” she said.

In the end, Shawn won a total of $3,000 (before taxes), but said even though she didn’t win the million dollars, it was a fantastic experience.

At the end of the show, she announced to the crowd, “So, I will be back at DC Virgo tomorrow. I will not quit my job. I did not win a car or $1 million.”

However, she said it was “literally the best experience ever.”

“God knew I would have to fight with that child [her daughter] over $1 million, so he made it where I didn’t have to,” she joked. “She would’ve moved back home and now she can fly free.”

One highlight of the show for Shawn was that in her intro, she mentioned she likes to have liver pudding during the holidays. Host Ryan Seacrest had never heard of liver pudding and clearly wasn’t too keen on trying it. When she asked if he’d ever tried it, he replied, “Thank goodness, no.”

“He talked about liver pudding the whole time,” Miller recalled. “I told him I’d send him some, and he said, ‘No thank you, I don’t really want any.’”

Unfortunately, “Wheel of Fortune” episodes aren’t available to stream afterward on any apps, but you can probably find Miller’s episode on YouTube.