‘Wheel of Fortune’ Player Wins $120,000 on ‘Easy’ Puzzle After Ryan Seacrest Snafu

It was a good night for the winner of Wheel of Fortune but not so much for host Ryan Seacrest. Right before the contestant won more than $120,000, Seacrest encountered a problem that he said had never happened to him before.

Keith Upton, from San Diego, California, played against Clare Antoine, from Madison, Wisconsin, and Dhaina Grubb, from Grayson, Georgia, originally from Jamaica, on Thursday, March 27.

During the introductions, Seacrest bonded with Upton over being a coffee lover and wearing similar clothing. He then said he liked Grubb better because she was from Georgia, which is also his home state.

Upton gained a Wild Card from guessing the first puzzle of the game — “Blowing into a conch shell” — giving him $5,850. Antoine solved the next puzzle and almost solved the third, but she rode the express train and became Bankrupt when she guessed a “S” that wasn’t in the puzzle. Upton solved the puzzle — “Achieving peak relaxation” — and won a trip to Barbados, taking the lead.

Grubb finally got on the board during the second to the last puzzle, but Antoine wound up solving it. She also solved the final puzzle. By the end of the game, Antoine was in second place with $18,000. Wheel gave Grubb $1,000 since she only had $450 in her bank. Upton was the big winner with $20,730. He advanced to the Bonus Round, where he picked “Event.”

During the Bonus Round, Upton introduced his wife, Havilah. When he spun the wheel, a snafu happened that perplexed Seacrest. The ticker on the wheel got stuck in between two spots, between the “A” and the apostrophe. “Well, that’s interesting,” the host said. “That’s never happened to me. Do I go this way or this way, judges?”

The audience laughed as Seacrest waited for the answer. They told him it was the apostrophe, and Seacrest said, “That was a first for me.” They then continued on with the puzzle. After Wheel gave Upton, “R,S,T,L,N, and E,” he chose “C,H,D,A, and B,” for the wild card. His puzzle then looked like, “THE B_ _  _ _NALE.” As the letters formed, Upton nodded his head, confident of the answer.

“The Big Finale,” he guessed before the timer could even count down. Seacrest revealed that he won an extra $100,000. Confetti fell from the ceiling, Upton cheered, and his wife ran over to him and hugged him.

“That was incredible! When did you know it?” Seacrest asked the game show contestant.

“I think the ALE in finale. I put it all together,” Upton said. He left with a grand total of $120,730. Upton got emotional as Seacrest revealed the total, and the host said that he understood why.

Fans reacted to his win on YouTube. “Now that’s what I call a BIG FINALE! Congratulations on the $100K, Keith,” one fan said.

“That was definitely ‘The Big Finale’ that I would go for! Way to go, Keith! Another $100,000 Winner of the Ryan Seacrest Era on Wheel of Fortune!” said another.

“That was awesome!” commented a third fan.

“Once he got the letters, it was so easy,” wrote one last fan.