‘Wheel of Fortune’ Fans React After Contestant’s Controversial $56,000 Win

A Wheel of Fortune player’s game has sparked controversy with some viewers saying she answered incorrectly before winning $56,000. In fact some fans claim the game show contestant said the wrong thing in two puzzles and shouldn’t even have made it to the Bonus Round.

Vanessa Torres, from West Covina, California, played against Pam Mayberry, from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and Mike Cook, from Jekyll Island, Georgia, on Monday, September 22. Torres is a woman whose friends and family say her love life should be turned into a movie.

Mayberry, a retired pediatric hospital social worker, solved the first toss-up. Cook, a retiree who takes land turtles on walks with his wife, solved the second.

However, Torres took the lead when she solved the first puzzle — “Unsupportive Customer Support” — for $3,800. Mayberry solved the next two puzzles, putting her in the lead after winning a trip to Tuscany, Italy, and a total of $14,795.

Torres solved the first two Triple Tossups. The second one was “Love Note.” However, some fans thought she said “Love Notes” even though her exact answer on replay seemed to suggest she said “Love Note” singular before Cook solved the last one.

“Did anyone noticed that she solved the puzzle wrong? she said Love Notes- where it should have said Love Note? $2,000 put her towards the final round,” a YouTube user wrote.

With the final puzzle solve of “Loaded Potato Skins,” Torres added $8,500 to her bank and surpassed Mayberry for the lead with $16,300. Mayberry had $14,795. Cook went home with $4,000.

Torres chose “What Are You Doing?” for the Bonus Round. She brought her mom, Zuli, with her. After being given “R,S,T,L,N, and E,” she picked “D,G,F, and A.”

The puzzle then looked like “_ND_LG_NG   _ _SELF.” When the clock counted down, Torres said, “I’m Indulging Myself.”

“‘Indulging Myself’ is correct,” Ryan Seacrest responded. “I knew you would know it.”

However, some fans thought that she shouldn’t have been ruled correct since she added another word that wasn’t in the puzzle.

“She picked the right letters for an easy solve, but Ryan shouldn’t have let her fly till she said it correctly. There is no ‘I’m’ in the puzzle. Pat [Sajak] would not have allowed that for the win. She would have then noted her error and solved it correctly,” a viewer commented on YouTube. 

“She added an extra word to the puzzle,” a fan said.

But, she was ruled correctly, and won $56,300, after having $40,000 added to her total.

Do you think she was ruled correctly? Let us know in the comments.

Wheel of Fortune, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock