Here’s the process for winning a million dollars on Wheel of Fortune, what Alexander Abad-Santos calls the no-hitter of game show feats :
…a contestant must land on a tiny ONE MILLION sliver of the wheel during the normal game against two other contestants — then obviously choose a letter on the board and solve the puzzle, like for any other prize during the early rounds. That puts the potentially million-dollar “envelope” into play… but not until later. Then that contestant has to win the episode and make it to the bonus round — without landing on bankrupt in between. That still doesn’t mean you have a shot at the $1,000,000. Then you have to spin another, smaller wheel in overtime, hoping that after you solve the final clue, you’ll have landed on the biggest prize of them all again.
Here’s the video of this happening recently to Autumn Erhard:
This event occasioned my learning about a few other legendary feats of intuitive guessing on WoF (and the most legendary fails). Here’s Caitlin Burke, winning on a long phrase with only one letter given.
Winning the Scripps Spelling Bee is a bit more difficult (maybe?) and a bit less lucrative (surely?), but similarly it all comes down to one final moment. Here’s Arvind Mahankali winning this year’s Bee on “knaidel.”