This Saturday, April 18, marks exactly 20 years since The Wheel of Fortune started spinning on Antena 3 in the current stage of the show. And every single one of those broadcasts over these two decades has had the same host, Jorge Fernández (Alicante, 53 years old). Before starting the interview, sitting at the foot of the show’s panel and with the set half-lit, he boasts about the audience share: “Every day we achieve the highest share on all television and it is not given the importance it deserves.”
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Question. Do you remember how you got here 20 years ago?
Answer. Of course. My agent calls me and says he has good news and bad news. The good news is that Antena 3 wants me to host a show and the bad news is that it’s The Wheel of Fortune [laughs]. It was half an hour, and we also invaded María Teresa Campos’s set, because it didn’t look very promising at first. It was a trial, from 12:30 to 13:00, I remember. I said, “I’m going to do it very well because, since they’re going to cancel it, so they give me another show on Antena 3 and start off on the right foot in this house.” And look how visionary I was.
Q. Was there no casting, was it assigned to you directly?
A. I did a casting to host Pasapalabra, I had many chances to be its host on Antena 3 after Silvia Jato. In the end, they decided that Jaime Cantizano would stay on Pasapalabra and I on The Wheel. Better, because then Pasapalabra went to Telecinco, and I stayed here.
Q. Many times you have been asked if you fear being typecast, but 20 years later you are completely typecast…
A. But for me it is a reward. Being on television for 20 consecutive years with the same show, contrary to what people might think, is a joy. And since we are lucky that this show is different every day, with three contestants and three different situations. I go without a script and without knowing the panels or anything. That makes you have butterflies and everything comes out spontaneously. It gives you peace of mind to control the show so much. That comfort zone they say you have to leave… maybe you have to leave it, but at work it’s very good to be like this. I am very comfortable, I am very happy being typecast.
Q. What does The Wheel have, a format that has lasted so many years, to still be there?
A. It’s a show that has had a lot of hosts since the first one, Mayra Gómez Kemp, it has been broadcast in different phases, and before this stage there were 10 years without broadcasting. The last one had been Carlos Lozano on Telecinco, who didn’t even last a year on air. We took it 10 years later and have been running it for 20 straight years. We have known how to understand the format well, we have understood the audience it is aimed at, the team knows what to do… When a train runs on rails, it doesn’t derail.
Q. And as a host, what key have you hit to stay here so long?
A. I watched a lot of shows, even the American one, to see how they did it, and I was clear that I shouldn’t resemble anyone. It was rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, and above all, naturalness and spontaneity. It has to reach the viewer in the most normal and natural way possible, and even if I make mistakes, I try not to stop the show, I always say keep recording.
Q. Have you evolved as a host over these years? Can you see yourself in old recordings?
A. I have evolved a lot. I don’t like to see myself, but from time to time I do to correct mistakes. Every summer I think about what I could improve, if I get stuck on things, what I can change… Now I have the challenge of not making mistakes while I speak, not stumbling. Small changes that maybe people don’t notice, but I do. I even try to be kinder to the contestants. There was a time when I got angry when they landed on Lose Turn and I scolded them. Now I’m kinder, things annoy me less. I do my homework every year.
Q. You haven’t been replaced even once in these 20 years.
A. No, and even though I was sick and the doctor told me I had to stop, I said not here. I stopped everything else, told my agent not to get me any gigs, no commercials or anything, but I wanted to record the show myself. I didn’t want anyone to be in my place.
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Q. So they wouldn’t take your place?
A. Not so much for that. It’s that I made the show, I didn’t want anyone to be able to change it. It has an essence that I cooked up and I wanted it to stay that way. And I had a hard time, terrible, there were moments I cried in my dressing room, I had lost 13 kilos, I looked terrible. But I went out and recorded it. The network even told me to take a few months off and they would put someone else, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want the leave. I have come with a broken foot, broken hand, sick… The only time I stopped recording was for my son, who had eye surgery and I had to be with him, but for me, never, and I have recorded under circumstances… I like to be responsible, and canceling recordings is annoying.
Q. What do you like least about the behind-the-scenes of TV, what is not seen on screen?
A. I don’t experience any of that, really, because I live in Bilbao. I haven’t been to parties, events, presentations for a long time… Only what the network forces me to. I work on TV, but my world has nothing to do with TV. I am an athlete who works on TV. I like sports, my friends are there, I do skiing, biking, windsurfing, I have my family and a very simple life. I think to be well on TV and keep mentally well, when you leave the set you have to take off the host suit and be the person you have always been and not continue being the host of The Wheel when you are on the street. Otherwise, the character can consume you. I have seen it in many colleagues I have and have had, the character eats them. When I leave here, it’s over, I don’t look for anything unrelated to TV.
Q. Have you made many sacrifices for work?
A. No. Well, I chose to live in Bilbao instead of Madrid, my sacrifice is going back and forth every week, but it’s something chosen. I have been traveling every week Madrid-Bilbao, Bilbao-Madrid for more than 25 years. Sometimes now it weighs on me a bit, but when I get there, it compensates me.
Q. Have you had any fellow host as a reference in your career?
A. It’s been a long time since I had them, but when I started, for many game show hosts Jesús Vázquez was a reference. He was god in the entertainment world, he started dressing more differently, more transgressive… He’s a great guy with whom I get along great, he’s a TV icon.
Q. Why are there hardly any female game show hosts in Spain?
A. Aren’t there? There are, right?
Q. Not as many as men.
A. And why aren’t there more men doing morning shows? Honestly, I don’t know, but the morning shows have been dominated by women, and the game shows… well, I don’t know, I can’t tell you. I understand that the networks do market studies, they will have the answer. I haven’t stopped to think about it, but it’s true that there aren’t as many, now that I think about it.
Q. The role of Laura Moure as the assistant on the show is often questioned. Do you think her role is justified in 2026?
A. I understand what you mean. Laura is a super important part of the show. She is co-host, she has a co-host contract. She has the microphone open, speaks when she wants, says goodbye, has her role. The show 20 years ago came imposed like this. I doubt the original American format would have let us do this show without a person on the panel. We have tried to integrate her and not make her an assistant, but a host and have an important presence on the show. I understand that some people might question it, and I know it’s a thornier issue, but doing without her would be a pain for the whole team, and for her, because, most importantly, she wants to be here.
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