Wheel of Fortune fans seethed over a misleading puzzle that cost a contestant $100,000.
On an April 8 episode, Laura Young, a mother of two from York, Maine, made it to the Bonus Round where her lucky streak came to an abrupt end.
Young, who calls herself the “crazy walking lady" and said she walked over 3,000 miles in the past year, was informed that the puzzle category was "place."
But the dedicated wayfarer went nowhere fast when attempting to solve the two-word puzzle with the additional letters, “C, P, D, and O," none of which were on the board.
The board with the revealed four letters appeared like so:
“_ R _ _ E L / _ _ L _ _ _ _.”
To which the stumped contestant said:
“Oh, my goodness. There’s gotta be another vowel in there.”
Unfortunately, she didn't stand a chance as the ten-second timer ran out and the board revealed the correct answer was “GRAVEL WALKWAY.”
Host Pat Sajak twisted the proverbial knife by telling the expert ambler, “Ironically, it’s a walkway for you."
Even Sajak admitted to Young:
"But you had no shot at that."
You can watch Young's unsuccessful gameplay here.
Laura's Bonus Round | S41 | Wheel of Fortune youtu.be
Sajak felt bad for Young's loss and couldn't bring himself to show her the placard indicating she could have won $100,000.
He asked her to turn around as he showed viewers. Young obliged but spun back to see the lost prize money after hearing the audience collectively groan on her behalf.
"Number one, I feel terrible," Sajak said, adding:
"Number two, you knew there was no way you were gonna solve that puzzle with the letters you had."
But the host suggested she look on the bright side of things with her $19,350 total prize money.
"You did great," said Sajak.
However, fans thought the game show did Young wrong for attempting to pass off "gravel walkway" as a "place."
Viewers thought the answer was more of a "thing" than a location.
In response, social media user Christian Dixie took to X (formerly Twitter) and observed the game show gets crafty sometimes.
"Just a friendly reminder that #WheelOfFortune likes to add adjectives to trick their contestants in the bonus round for added difficulty."
"For example, GRAVEL WALKWAY on last night's show. 'WALKWAY' is the place, but Gravel is the adjective that describes the place, the walkway."
Other viewers thought the unfair puzzle was a deliberate sabotage ploy.
@QueenShamshley/X
Better luck next time, Laura.
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