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California Lottery looks for TV production company

"We are looking to update America's longest running lottery game show," said California Lottery Director Joan Borucki. "This will be a great opportunity to make television history and give Californians an exciting new way to win from the California Lottery!"

The California Lottery's "Big Spin®" show has been around for 22 years and all game shows need change! The new game show should be fun, suspenseful, and exciting to the viewer. The California Lottery puts its game show production contract to bid every 4 to 6 years. With the current contract set to expire at the end of this fiscal year, the California Lottery recently released information requesting proposals for a new lottery game show.

The proposal review process will take place over the coming months. The current projected timeline would allow for the California Lottery Commission to approve the contract in summer 2008. The new California Lottery game show will premiere fall 2008.

The "Big Spin®" show will continue to air during the bidding process and the popular "Big Spin®" Scratchers® will continue to be available at more than 19,000 California Lottery retailers throughout the state. In the meantime, Lottery players will continue to have the chance to be on "The Big Spin®" show and win millions of dollars!

"The Big Spin®" Show Facts

The California Lottery's "The Big Spin®" show has aired since 1985. The current show is produced as a thirty-minute time slot in Hollywood, California and broadcast in ten media markets throughout the state. From 1985 to 1998 "The Big Spin®" Show was produced in Sacramento. Over its 22-year history, "The Big Spin®" show has featured at least five different sets, a multitude of games and various ways to become a contestant.

* Lottery players have won nearly a billion dollars on "The Big Spin®" show making it, we believe, the highest paying game show in television history.

* In all, 14,599 contestants have won $896 million in prize money since the show first aired in 1985.

* Since its debut October 1985, 404 contestants on "The Big Spin®" show have won prizes totaling over one million dollars. "The Big Spin®" show produced 54 millionaires by the end of its first fiscal year.

* Since "The Big Spin®" show was introduced there have been six celebrity hosts—Chuck Woolery, Geoff Edwards, Larry Anderson, Jack Gallagher, Maiquel Alejo, and Pat Finn.

* "The Big Spin®" show is the longest running Lottery game show in the country, airing continuously since 1985.

* The "big wheel" has 100 spokes representing prizes ranging from $20,000 to $1 million. Eight spokes on "The Big Spin®" prize wheel are valued at $100,000. Four spokes on the wheel are worth $1 million and there are also spaces marked "Triple". Any ball landing on "Triple" gives the winner the next prize value spun times three, for a potential maximum prize of $3 million.

* When it debuted, "The Big Spin®" show was carried on ten major California television stations, the Spanish independent television network, and many English and Spanish radio stations.

Over 95 cents of every Lottery dollar is returned to the community in the form of contributions to education, prizes and retail commissions. The California Lottery contributes at least 34 cents of every dollar that players spend on Lottery products to public education and returns more than 50 percent of sales to players in the form of prizes. Since its inception in 1985, the Lottery has contributed more than $19.6 billion to California schools out of total sales of more than $53.25 billion. Retailers win too, earning $3.4 billion in compensation since 1985.

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