This contestant had wheely poor luck.
Outgoing “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak attempted to console a contestant Monday when he lost his chance to win $1 million after failing to solve a nearly complete puzzle during the show.
During the show’s third puzzle of “fun and games,” contestant Izzy Santiago, who was leading the competition with $2,550, spun big by landing on the coveted $1 million slat.
After correctly guessing the letter “F,” Santiago was presented with a nearly complete board reading “_ra_i_g from _ame_ from a hat.”
It was then that Sajak, 76, announced that the man had two choices.
“You have that and you have [your existing] $2,250. There are no vowels left,” Sajak boomed. “Spin it or solve it!”
Feeling confident from his recent acquisition, Santiago elected to solve the puzzle.
“I’ll solve,” Santiago exclaimed. “Drawing games from a hat!”
After a dreadful silence, which was punctuated by one over-enthusiastic fan clapping, Sajak deemed the answer to be incorrect.
“No,” whispered the host following the buzzer and a loud groan from the audience.
The puzzle, which was solved immediately after by another contestant, correctly read “drawing names from a hat.”
Sajak, in rare display of affection, attempted to chalk up Santiago’s blunder to nerves.
“You know, in addition to the regular nervous system — now here’s a million dollars and all this stuff. ‘What am I gonna do?’ Things like that happen,” Sajak stated.
“I got so nervous,” Santiago replied somberly.
Several X (formerly Twitter) users weren’t quite so forgiving of the blunder.
“NO WAY IZZY SAID DRAWING GAMES FROM A HAT. Who even says GAMES in that context? biggest L,” one X user slammed.
“This #wheeloffortune guy is an idiot,” another user ruthlessly chided. “When there’s an I and blank than G it’s an N . He just had a million dollar spin and screwed it up.”
“Drawing games from a hat lol poor guy #wheeloffortune,” a third user snickered.
This is not the first time a contestant has failed to solve a nearly complete puzzle.
Last week, one contestant lost $75,000 after he failed to solve the game show’s bonus puzzle.
The contest, identified as Jack, was given the standard “R, S, T, L, N, E” letters for the puzzle “What Are You Doing?”
After choosing letters “D, C, H and I,” Vanna White, 66, attempted to help improve Jack’s chances of winning — which she was unable to do.
Reading “_ _ R_IN_ _ _NDS,” Sajak told the player to “do his best” within the 10 seconds that were provided to solve the puzzle.
Failing to solve the riddle in time, Sajak revealed the answer to be “forming bonds.”
“Sorry that didn’t work out for you,” Sajak bluntly said as the audience groaned. “You needed another letter or two to have any chance of winning.”
The night was not a total loss as Jack went home with a whopping $71,700.
Sajak attempted to make light of the failure by saying: “This is a just a number printed on cardboard. He has actual money.”
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