‘Wheel of Fortune’ Fans Blame Clueless Contestants for ‘Disaster Episode’

Rex and Katherine Wang on Wheel of Fortune
NBC/YouTube

Wednesday night’s new episode of Wheel of Fortune has got fans talking — for all the wrong reasons. The newest Grand Giveaways night saw three pairings of young people and their grandparents: Rex and Katherine Wang; Sam Johnson and Linda Vian; and Jovanni White and Joan Bradshaw.

Katherine claimed to have been a Wheel watcher since the ’70s, but some fans weren’t convinced that any of the contestants of the night were truly up on the rules of the game.

It all started when Sam & Linda couldn’t quite decide if they wanted to solve or request more letters during the first puzzle. Then, Rex and Katherine started spouting off vowel requests without the magic phrase — “I’d like to buy a vowel” — in the second puzzle. (They’d later go on to buy all of the vowels for some reason.) Then, Jiovanni and Joan joined in on the mayhem by trying to ask for another letter in the after-the-bell guess-off.

“Uh no, what we do is,” host Pat Sajak started to correct the pair before abandoning the effort and turning things over to Rex and Katherine again. Once the game got back to Jiovanni and Joan, they were ready to solve it — but Sajak had to remind them they had a chance to earn more money before doing so: “Well you might want to add another letter and get a little more money. You don’t have to.”

Fans watching at home were either highly amused or angry at the players for not being more prepared.

“Wheel of Fortune right now is a bunch of kids who have apparently never watched the show and their grandmothers who are avid fans and I am THRIVING. One of the kids just raised her hand during the final spin to ask if she was allowed to solve it. I could watch this forever,” one fan cheerily wrote about the episode.

“Apparently you can go on Wheel of Fortune without knowing the rules of Wheel of Fortune,” another fan observed of the game.

“Has any of these people on @WheelofFortune tonight ever watched the show? What a disaster episode,” another added, with a bit more feeling.

Finally, another put it simply by writing, “That was the most chaotic #WheelofFortune I’ve ever seen. Nobody understood the rules.”

In the end, the winners of the night were Rex and Katherine, who, despite missing out on the final puzzle, got a trip to Switzerland at least.

Wheel of Fortune, weeknights, check local listings