‘Wheel of Fortune’: Balloon-Maker Loses $64,000 on Pasta Puzzle That Angered Fans

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A Wheel of Fortune player lost out on taking home $64,000 on a tough Bonus Round. The puzzle angered some fans, who said they had never heard of one of the words the contestant was tasked with guessing.

Mandy Jeter, from Shallowater, Texas, played against DJ Hamilton, from Tampa, Florida, and Margaret Moody, from Robersonville, North Carolina, on January 12. Jeter is a balloon-maker who made it into a business for parties, graduations, and car dealerships, complete with garland and archways.

Hamilton, a girl dad, solved both of the toss-ups, putting him in the lead with $3,000. After incorrectly solving the first puzzle, the turn moved back to Hamilton, and he solved “I Want to Get Away, I Want to Fly Away” correctly, giving him $6,500.

Jeter finally got on the board when she solved the “Before and After” puzzle —”Founding Father Figure” — for $2,600. She won a trip to Costa Rica after solving the prize puzzle — “An Emerald Wonderland” — giving her $16,648.

Jeter solved two of the three triple tossups, giving her an additional $4,000. Hamilton solved the third, putting $2,000 more in his bank.

Jeter solved the final puzzle — “The Moral of the Story” — which gave her a final total of $24,048. Hamilton ended with $8,500. Moody, a woman who loves shopping and reading, was given $1,000 by Wheel of Fortune after not getting any money all game.

Jeter picked “Food & Drink” for her Bonus Round category. The game show contestant brought her sister, Marie, and her best friend, Kimberly, with her, who got ribbed by the show’s host for their initial low-energy reaction.

“They’re excited,” host Ryan Seacrest teased.

“Oh my God! We’re so excited. Win big!” Marie said in response.

“Well, they had to be told to be excited, but they’re excited,” Seacrest joked.

After being given “R,S,T,L,N and E,” Jeter chose “C,D,H, and A.” Her puzzle then looked like “_A_ED  _ _T_.”

As the time counted down, Jeter figured out that the first word was “Baked,” but she couldn’t guess the second word, which was “Ziti.” This resulted in her losing out on taking home $64,048, since there was $40,000 in the envelope.

The video was posted to Wheel of Fortune‘s YouTube page, and fans wondered what ziti was. Ziti is a smooth, tube-shaped pasta that originated in Sicily, Italy. It sparked a big reaction from fans, some of whom were angry and annoyed.

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“What a total stumper this one was. For the life of me, I don’t think Ziti was ever going to come to my mind,” one fan said. 

“I’ve never heard about baked ziti before,” said another.

“Never in my entire life have I ever heard of a ziti (just looked it up and it’s a type of pasta), so obviously I wouldn’t have gotten this,” a third wrote.

“I wouldn’t have gotten that even with the I. I’m not a ziti fan,” a fan wrote. 

“Just WTF is Ziti???” one last fan said.