'Wheel' Finds First $1 Million Winner

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Michelle Loewenstein -- a 24-year-old newlywed and floral designer from Santa Monica, Calif. – is Wheel of Fortune’s first ever $1 million winner since the show introduced the “One Million Dollar Bonus Round” at the start of this season. 

This season, Wheel of Fortune increased its top cash prize ten-fold since it started the $100,000 Bonus Round seven years ago. The show has since given away a $100,000 cash prize to 16 lucky winners.

Loewenstein is now the biggest money winner in the show's 26-year history. The Edison, N.J., native solved the Bonus Round puzzle —“Leaky Faucet” – on 08-08-08, a day she considers lucky.  

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.