‘Wheel of Fortune’ Contestant Fails to Win $62,000 After Puzzle Sausage Shocker
Not only did a Wheel of Fortune contestant not win $62,000 on the Bonus Puzzle, but he also had a sausage nightmare when he failed to guess the Triple Toss-Ups. Fans cracked up over the meat-related puzzles.
Derek Stutz, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, played against Rosemary Underwood, from Charlestown, Arizona, and Vicki Byrd, from Hanover, Maryland, on September 13, 2024. The game show shared the clip on its Instagram on June 23, 2025.
Before the Triple Toss-Ups, Stutz was in the lead with $14,250 and a trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Underwood, a grandmother of seven, had $1,000, and Byrd had $4,550. Underwood quickly caught up to the leader when she guessed all three toss-ups correctly, giving her an additional $10,000.
With the first one looking like “_ _ _E _ _ _F,” Stutz guessed “Meat Loaf.” He was wrong, and Underwood correctly solved “Kobe Beef” when the puzzle looked like “KOBE BE_F.” She also solved the second one, “BELUGA CAVIAR,” with only one letter left. During the last one, Stutz messed up again. He buzzed in and guessed “VENISON SAUSAGE” on the puzzle “V_ _ _ _A S_U_ _GE.” The second “S” popped up, and Underwood solved “VIENNA SAUSAGE.”
Luckily for Stutz, a golf and motorcycle fan, he solved the final puzzle, which brought him to $22,250, advancing him to the Bonus Round. Underwood ended with $11,000. Byrd, a track athlete and mom of three, remained at $4,550.
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On Instagram, Stutz shared that he went with a strategy to “at least get a guess in.”
“This guy was too relaxed for them to be unintentional mess-ups,” an Instagram user said.
“Mete Loaf,” another fan joked.
A former player, Jerry Millenbach, said that he could “truly sympathize with Derek” after he made numerous mistakes on his show.
Stutz also made a crucial mistake during the Bonus Round that cost him a hefty paycheck. Faced with a four-word puzzle under the “What Are You Doing?” category, Stutz selected the additional letters “H, P, D, and A” to go with his given letters of “R, S, T, L, N, and E.”
This gave him a puzzle board that read: “_ A _ T _ N G / _ _ R / A / P A _ _ A G E.”
The puzzle looked solvable, and he came close with many of his guesses, but he kept forgetting the third word, “A.” He first guessed “Waiting Our Package,” then “Painting Our Package,” “Staying Out Package,” and “Taking Our Package,” missing out the already filled “A” each time.
After the timer ran out, Vanna White revealed the correct answer as “Waiting For A Package.” Stutz looked crestfallen as host Ryan Seacrest revealed he’d missed out on $40,000.
“My husband and I were yelling at the TV,” wrote a Reddit user.
“This was definitely an example of the pressure of TV and just having a total brain fart. He probably sees this puzzle in his sleep now,” said another.
Another quipped, “Probably cancelled his Amazon Prime account to never wait on a package again. 50k mistake.”
Wheel of Fortune, Season 43, Fall 2025, check local listings
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