Wheel of Fortune contestant shares his story

Seated in a dark classroom inside the Student Building, Julian Batts watched himself amplified on a giant projection screen.

He watched himself spin the wheel and shout “L!” to Pat Sajak. And he watched Vanna White walk over and tap the four blue “L” screens. 

To his right, Batts’ friend Sara Zaheer turned to him, “Is it Achilles?” 

“Just wait,” he said.

More than half a million YouTube views later, freshman Batts earned the label “worst Wheel of Fortune contestant ever” on the Internet last week after three flubs on the show’s “College Week.”

With $11,700 in winnings, the Hudson and Holland Scholar, Herbert Presidential Scholar and Hutton Honors College member beat out students from the University of Alabama and Texas A&M University.

But it was his three mistakes — mispronouncing Achilles and missing the completion of two other nearly-finished puzzles — that earned him a title he wasn’t anticipating when he arrived in the Culver City, Calif. studio at 7:15 that morning.

Now, he takes special care to ennunciate “Achilles” very clearly — “uh-keel-eez.” 

“If I could describe that episode in one word it would be ‘crazy,’” Batts said.

It’s hard to say when Batts’ journey to the big wheel began. It might have been when he submitted his online application soon after starting at IU.

Or it might have been when he and his mom drove through an ice storm to Terre Haute for his audition in December.

Or, maybe it was when he watched his first episode at age 10 or 11. He remembers the colors and lights of the show grabbing his attention.

But his longtime love for what he simply calls “Wheel” culminated when he taped the show’s 6000th episode on Valentine’s Day this year. 

A self-proclaimed game show fanatic, he also loves following shows such as “Survivor,” “Big Brother” and “The Amazing Race,” among others. 

“That is just great TV, in my opinion,” he said.

Back in the studio, Batts spent the whole day going over rules and rehearsing for the episode before it was finally his turn to tape at 3 p.m.

A few minutes before the show began, a casting coordinator warmed up the contestants, showing them how to spin the wheel and making sure they had plenty of enthusiasm, and then she left the stage.

“That’s when it hit me,” Batts said. “I was like, ‘It’s just us three up here, and in less than a minute all the music and the cameras, the lights — they’re all going to start rolling.’”

He said he remembers picking up the million-dollar wedge a few minutes into the show and thinking, “You have to stay focused.”

“And that’s something I might have kind of shifted,” he said now. “My focus maybe got a little off track.”

He said he wasn’t familiar with the spelling of “Achilles,” so the pronunciation of the name just “didn’t click.”

He remembers looking out into the audience and seeing his family that had traveled to California with him, and though they couldn’t communicate with each other, he said he knew they were encouraging him to stay positive and keep going.

“Sometimes when you’re unfamiliar with words, they can trip you up,” Batts said. “And then when you’re under the spotlight, people can notice that much more easily.”

Batts didn’t actually lose $1 million, he clarified.

According to official “Wheel of Fortune” rules, Batts said, when a player lands on a million-dollar wedge, they then have to answer the puzzle correctly and not hit any “bankrupt” wedges for the rest of the game, win the game and also spin the wheel again in the bonus round and land on a million dollar envelope and solve that puzzle correctly.

He said it’s only ever been done on the show twice.

Despite his fumbles during the taping, Batts said he never expected what happened to go viral the way it did.

“I’m not online scrolling through to see, ‘What’s the worst comment someone could say about me?’” he said. “That just gets negative energy in your brain and makes everything worse.” 

Right after the episode aired April 11, the double major in business and Spanish said he definitely noticed some double takes walking around campus.

Despite some of the negative comments online, he said he’s experienced an outpouring of support from the University in person.

“I have a strong support system, and these people are behind me 100 percent,” Batts said.

Back in the Student Building, Batts listened to the buzzer and watched his competitor from A&M complete the puzzle.

Throughout the room he heard murmurs of laughter and people saying, “That’s OK!”

Later, he watched himself take the wheel, and spin again. 

“People can say what they’re going to say — haters gonna hate — but at the end of the day, I won.”