Ryan Seacrest, the host of Wheel of Fortune, got confused when one contestant made a mistake during the bonus round.
On the November 18 show, Joey Sweet, a program director from Oceanside, California, came very close to winning a $40,000 reward. Sweet was almost done with the issue when he made his estimate in the “phrase” category.
After Sweet picked the letters C, D, M, and A, as well as an extra letter “F” from his Wild Card, the puzzle showed the words “CA_ED’ ‘_” AND.” At first, the young contestant’s guess, “Cleared in hand,” seemed like a good one, but the clock ran out before they could find the proper one. But the response was “Carved By Hand,” which was a rough one that made both Sweet and the people watching mad.
Vanna White, who was looking forward to the reveal, said she was disappointed with the wrong guess. Seacrest, who has been the host of the show since 2021, was quick to offer comfort. “You were on the right track. He told Sweet directly, “This is a tough one.” He then opened the gold reward card to demonstrate that Sweet had lost out on $40,000. But Seacrest didn’t stop there. He said, “That’s a tough one, even with the head start,” referring to Sweet’s Wild Card wedge.
Sweet was nice and positive even though he didn’t win the big prize. “It’s okay!” he said, letting the audience know that the hard puzzle wasn’t bothering him. He won a prize package worth more than $16,000 in cash and a trip to Mexico, which was a pretty nice consolation reward.
A video of the game that showed the weird thing that happened quickly went viral on YouTube. Fans bombarded the comments section with complaints about how hard the puzzle was. “I don’t think I would have been able to figure that out if I hadn’t picked the right letters.” One viewer said, “That’s a tough one.” Another fan said that the word “By” is always hard to guess during the bonus round, and many others agreed. People kept posting on social media. Someone on X (formerly Twitter) said, “To be fair, ‘By’ is a hard word to think of when you think of 2-letter words on Wheel.” #WheelOfFortune.
This mistake came after another viral event from the week before, when Will Jordan, a police officer from Connecticut, made news with his bold guess: “Treat yourself to a round of sausages.” “Give yourself a round of applause” was the right answer. People are talking about these amusing mistakes online, and one thing is for sure: Wheel of Fortune always has something new to show.