Villanova viewers who regularly tune into Wheel of Fortune may recognize a familiar face while watching next Friday, March 6.
Patrick Casale, a Villanova senior studying marketing and public administration, will appear as a contestant on the show after a months-long audition process that began with an open call in Philadelphia.
In September 2025, Casale learned that the open call for the game show was coming to Rivers Casino Philadelphia. Despite the timing coinciding with the busy week of Day of Service preparations, he invited his fellow Day of Service co-marketing director to join him at the audition.
“I picked her up, and we drove to Philly,” Casale said. “It was a long line of people. So when we got to the audition aspect, they called five people up at a time. We had been with these five people the whole time, so we knew them already. And then we met with this one girl who was auditioning us, and we had 30 seconds to talk about ourselves.”
From there, Casale said he and the other hopefuls were told they could be contacted about appearing on the show anytime between two weeks and one year after the audition.
For Casale, the email came three weeks later, as he was sitting in the Falvey Library telling him he had advanced to a second audition, this time over Zoom. Here, he introduced himself again and solved mock puzzles.
A few months later, on the second-to-last day of finals, Casale received the call confirming he would appear on the show. After spending winter break watching episodes to prepare, he and his family flew to Los Angeles for the taping just after second semester began.
Only Casale’s closest family and friends knew about the experience. It was not until last Friday, Feb. 20, when he posted about it on social media that his wider community found out, as he had kept it private to protect the integrity of the show.
On the day of filming, when he arrived at the studio at 6 a.m., he described feeling nervous, as he had no idea what he was walking into. However, as preparations progressed and it came time to film his episode, he described how positive the experience was and noted how kind everyone was, which helped put him at ease.
“The first 10 minutes of us actually being at the studio, you’re like in this big garage and have to like sign all these forms and stuff before the lawyer spoke to us,” Casale said. “Then they said they had a surprise guest and then Vanna White walked in. I mean meeting both Vanna and Ryan Seacrest was awesome. They’re actually so nice.”
Casale noted that he was the youngest contestant competing that day. Even so, he quickly formed meaningful connections with fellow contestants from across the country and all walks of life, bonding with competitors of every age, including the oldest contestant that day, who was 84 years old.
“There were 20 contestants total, with 18 ready to compete and two backups,” Casale said. “I made friends that day, like we really formed a community. We have a Facebook group. Everyone was just so outgoing and friendly.”
The taping was quick, with Casale noting it only took 30 minutes to film the episode.
“After walking off, I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I just did that. I have no clue what I just said.’”
Overall, Casale expressed gratitude for the experience, noting that he met someone at the initial open call audition who had been trying out for 17 years straight without getting on the show. While he did some preparation, he had not been watching the show for years and was not going in with the goal of winning a specific amount of money. Rather, he was there for the experience.
In terms of what Villanovans should look for during Casale’s episode next Friday, he said “expect some laughs and a good time.”
Casale’s episode of Wheel of Fortune airs Friday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m. on ABC.
