Kansas City, Mo. ? The wheel starts spinning later this week. By the time it stops, Kansas City will be set for a three-week run of nationwide publicity reaching an estimated 10 million homes a night.

Pat Sajak and Vanna White are bringing their popular “Wheel of Fortune” television game show to Kansas City, where the Bartle Hall convention center will have a studio audience Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with five shows taped each day.

The familiar set, including the wheel and the electronic puzzle board featuring 42 television monitors, arrived over the weekend in advance of Thursday’s rehearsals.

The set will feature visual representations of Kansas City, including the Country Club Plaza shopping district, the four spires that tower above the convention center and “The Scout” statue in Penn Valley Park.

The shows will air in May. One week’s worth, taped Sunday, will use a “Kansas City Week” theme. Friday’s tapings have a “Mom and Me Week” theme featuring contestants and their mothers, and the shows taped Saturday will be for what is billed as “Big 12 College Week” featuring students, pep bands and cheerleaders.

The syndicated show will use four of the five exhibition halls at Bartle, making it possible to accommodate an audience of 3,200, 10 times the number of people who can watch at the show’s home studio in Culver City, Calif.

The show is bringing 120 members of its staff to town for the tapings and hiring another 200 crew members locally. Motor homes parked backstage will serve as dressing rooms for Sajak, White and announcer Charlie O’Donnell, and there’s a 40-foot trailer for hair, makeup and wardrobe, plus a mobile control room.

Of course, it’s much too late to try to get a spot as a contestant or even for a chance to watch the show. Thousands turned out for the first round of auditions last fall, with the finalists — 60 contestants plus alternates — picked in March.

The show mailed out about 20,000 free tickets to watch in Kansas City, with between 6,000 and 8,000 requests turned down. No tickets will be available at the door.