‘Wheel of Fortune’ Contestant Makes ‘Painful’ Mistake on ‘Longest Puzzle Ever’

Spin That Wheel

For exclusive news and updates, subscribe to our Wheel of Fortune Newsletter:

A Wheel of Fortune contestant lived their “worst nightmare” on Tuesday night’s (March 25) episode after failing to solve a puzzle with only one letter missing.

The contestant in question was Nikol Gamble, an escape room owner from Houston, Texas, who was up against Dustin Whittern, a black diamond snow skier from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Rachael Traywick, a Wheel fan since the Chuck Woolery years, from Kapaa, Hawaii.

Gamble’s embarrassing mishap happened in the Mystery Round, where the category was “Song Lyrics.” The contestants were attempting to solve a huge 12-word puzzle, and between them, they managed to fill in all the letters but one.

This left them with a puzzle that read, “S E E / T H E / L I N E / W H E R E / T H E / S _ Y / M E E T S / T H E / S E A / I T / C A L L S / M E.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Wheel of Fortune (@wheeloffortune)

Gamble attempted to solve it, but she fumbled. Despite host Ryan Seacrest reminding her there were no more vowels in the word, Gamble filled the missing letter with an “O,” guessing, “See The Line Where The Soy Meets The Sea It Calls Me,” which, of course, made no sense.

She instantly realized her mistake after the incorrect buzzer sounded, but it was too late. Traywick swooped in with the correct answer, “See The Line Where The SKY Meets The Sea It Calls Me,” from the song “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana.

Fans were quick to jump onto social media to react to Gamble’s response, with one Instagram user saying, “This is quite literally my worst nightmare 😱”

Another added, “Omgeeee!!!! Painful to watch!!!!! 🥴🤦🏻‍♀️”

“May be the worst Wheel of Fortune sequence of ALL time. My 3 year old niece can’t even read, and even she knew the answer,” commented one X user.

“Her reaction when she realized the correct answer was great,” said a fan on Reddit.

“I would immediately leave the stage oh my god. “Thank you for the opportunity everyone have a good night I don’t want any money anymore” and go cry in bed,” another added.

Another said, “I rewound and hit record to save. I couldnt believe it.”

“That would haunt me forever lmao,” another added.

Related

'Wheel of Fortune' Player Loses Car on Tough Puzzle & Puts Ryan Seacrest in Headlock

“Love it! I have a feeling she’s laughing at herself!” said one user.

Another pointed out how Vanna White mentioned this puzzle, at 12-words long, is the single longest puzzle ever not counting punctuation.

However, one Reddit user mentioned that there are different ways of counting the longest, and the record for most letters used is 46, seen twice, in a 2005 episode puzzle “BRITISH FILM SUPERSPY FOND OF GADGETS AND DRY MARTINIS” and 2007 episode puzzle “HERSHEY BAR GRAHAM CRACKER GOOEY ROASTED MARSHMALLOW.”

As for Gamble, she never recovered from her blunder and ended the episode with zero. Meanwhile, Whittern went on to Bonus Round, answering the puzzle and bagging $40,000, to give him a grand total of $68,880 cash.