Wheel of Fortune fans were left stunned when a contestant practically had the Bonus Puzzle spelled out but forgot one of the words he’d already filled in.
The contestant in question was Derek Stutz, a golf and motorcycle fan from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was up against Rosemary Underwood, a grandma of seven grandchildren from Charleston, Arizona, and Vicki Byrd, a track athlete with three kids from Hanover, Maryland. The episode aired on Friday, September 12.
Stutz got off to a roaring start, nailing the first puzzle and then continuing to dominate from that point on. By the end of the Express Round, he’d amassed $14,250 cash and a trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
While Underwood put up a good fight, it wasn’t enough to catch Stutz, who won the episode with $22,250 cash and advanced to the Bonus Round.
Unfortunately for Stutz, this is where it all fell apart. Faced with a four-word puzzle under the “What Are You Doing?” category, Stutz selected the additional letters “H, P, D, and A” to go with his given letters of “R, S, T, L, N, and E.”
This gave him a puzzle board that read: “_ A _ T _ N G / _ _ R / A / P A _ _ A G E.”
The puzzle looked solvable, and Stutz came close with many of his guesses, but he kept forgetting the third word, “A.”
He first guessed “Waiting Our Package,” then “Painting Our Package,” “Staying Out Package,” and “Taking Our Package,” missing out the already filled “A” each time.
After the timer ran out, long-time letter-turner Vanna White revealed the correct answer as “Waiting For A Package.” Stutz looked crestfallen as new host Ryan Seacrest revealed he’d missed out on $40,000.
“My husband and I were yelling at the TV,” wrote one user on the Wheel of Fortune Reddit forum.
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“This was definitely an example of the pressure of TV and just having a total brain fart. He probably sees this puzzle in his sleep now,” said another.
Another quipped, “Probably cancelled his Amazon Prime account to never wait on a package again. 50k mistake.”
Dude… #WheelofFortune pic.twitter.com/NkmirvXb1H— WheelRob (@WheelRob10) September 13, 2024
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“Yeah I was thinking “how does he not see “A” there”???? And to make matters worse, he tried to solve it 4 times with 3 words instead of 4, despite the perfect setup to win,” added another.
“I was yelling at the screen when I saw him do this. Big fail on his part. Don’t know why he left out the A,” one commenter wrote.
Another added, “This is a perfect example of what I mean when I say that being there, under the lights, and dealing with the pressure of the moment can really affect someone’s ability to solve puzzles they would instantly solve at home.”
One X user added, “That was painful to watch.”
What did you think of Stutz’s blunder? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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