Wheel of Fortune celebrated its 50th anniversary on Wednesday night (January 8) with a high-scoring game that saw all three contestants reaching totals in the five figures, though another tricky Bonus Round puzzle ended things on a whimper.
The episode saw a showdown between maintenance electrician Jason Blackwell from Spartanburg, South Carolina, world traveler Jennifer Hawkins from Ypsilanti, Michigan, and recent first home-buyer Amber Holland from Visalia, California.
Hawkins took the early lead after nailing the Round 1 and Mystery Round puzzles, giving her $19,894 cash and a trip to Hawaii. At this point, Blackwell trailed with $3,000, while Holland had yet to get on the board.
Holland mounted a comeback in the Express Round, landing the correct answer for $17,050 cash and a trip to Puerto Rico. She also picked up the Wild Card wedge, giving her a potential advantage if she moved through to the Bonus Round.
Blackwell still trailed with $3,000 heading into the Triple Toss Up round, and his game looked to be over when Hawkins and Holland beat him to the buzzer and answered all three puzzles between them.
However, he had a stroke of good luck in the final Speed Up round, where each letter was worth $6,000, meaning he had a chance to build up his total and steal the episode. That’s exactly what happened, as Blackwell found four correct letters and could have even had an extra $6,000 if he wasn’t so eager to solve the puzzle.
Regardless, Blackwell ended up winning the closely fought episode with $27,000 over Hawkins’ $23,894 and Holland’s $19,050.
Heading into the Bonus Round, Blackwell hoped to be the one to break the unlucky streak of wrong answers in recent episodes. He selected the “What Are You Doing?” category, along with the additional letters “G, M, C, and A.” Unfortunately, those letters proved to be bad choices.
His final puzzle read: “G _ _ _ _ N G / _ _ _.”
Blackwell shook his head as the ten second timer began, realizing he had no clue. “Getting… here?” he guessed before joking, “Not getting this prize.”
“Yeah, I don’t know how you’re gonna get there,” host Ryan Seacrest said as the timer ran out and Vanna White revealed the correct answer as “Goofing Off.” The American Idol host then opened the prize envelope to reveal Blackwell missed out on an extra $70,000.
Fans jumped onto social media to share their thoughts on the high-scoring episode and the tough Bonus Round puzzle.
“Nearly impossible under that pressure,” wrote one YouTube commenter in regards to the final puzzle.
Related‘Wheel of Fortune’ Player Misses $70,000 After ‘Deal or No Deal’ Disaster
“Very tricky tough puzzle. He picked the bad category,” said another.
“Wow. That was hard,” added one fan, while another simply wrote, “Tough puzzle.”
Others praised the level of competition by all three contestants, with a commenter on Andy Nguyen’s Wheel recap site writing, “WHOA – you couldn’t get a better 50th anniversary episode than this, sans the BR loss.”
Another added, “Spectacular $10K+ match by all three contestants today!”
What did you think of the latest episode? Did you solve the Bonus Round puzzle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Wheel of Fortune, Weeknights, check local listings
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