‘Wheel of Fortune’ Fans Bash ‘Worst Contestant of All Time’

Wheel of Fortune fans claim the game show just had the “worst contestant” of all time. She raised her hand to solve a puzzle, called letters that were already on the board, and more, causing host Ryan Seacrest to correct her.

JoAnn Lawrence, from Valley Stream, New York, solved the first toss-up on February 26. She played against Veronica Klein, from Hermosa Beach, California, and Josh Williams, from Spokane Valley, Washington.

Even though Lawrence, a youth sports organization business manager who is on their board of directors, solved it, Klein, a woman who grew up on her dad’s pirate ship, raised her hand when she wanted to solve it. She didn’t buzz in, so it didn’t count.

“Thank you for raising your hand, Veronica,” Seacrest said. “That was very polite of you.” She buzzed in on the second one, but stumbled over her words. Seacrest told her they needed a quick answer, so the turn moved to Lawrence again, who solved it, giving her $3,000.

During the Crossword puzzle in the category “____ Shower,” Klein solved every letter before solving the puzzle. “I would like to solve, please,” she said.

“Yeah. That’s what I was hoping,” Seacrest said. She solved “Meteor, Bridal, Rain, Cold” for $5,950.

In the next puzzle, Klein landed on the Mystery wedge, and Seacrest told her to call a consonant before she picked it up. She called out “H,” but it was already on the board.

Seacrest chuckled and said, “That happens a lot.”

Williams, a cook who also does rockhousing, solved the puzzle — “Give The Best Advice” — for $1,000. He tried to solve the Prize Puzzle, but said “Enjoying the Caribbean Coast” instead of “Exploring the Caribbean Coast.” Instead, Lawrence solved it and won a trip to Panama and Colombia. This put her in the lead with $24,400.

During the Triple Toss-ups, Williams solved the first two. Klein tried to solve the third one with only one letter revealed and was wrong when she said “The Middle of the Woods.” It was “The Middle of the Road.”

When it came to the final puzzle, Klein guessed a “Z.” Luckily, it was on the board. The puzzle only had three letters left, and she said, “Can I have a…?”

“You have to try to solve it after you call a letter,” Seacrest said. Williams wound up solving “Zero to Sixty” for $3,000 more. This gave him $8,00 in total.

Klein left with $5,950. Lawrence won the game with $26,400. She chose “Place” for her Bonus Round category.

After Wheel of Fortune gave her “R,S,T,L,N, and E,” Lawrence chose “H,M,C, and O.” Her puzzle then looked like “_N   EM_T_   _ _R_.”

She didn’t guess anything as the clock counted down and couldn’t figure out “An Empty Park.”

“That would’ve been hard to get to,” Ryan Seacrest said. There was $50,000 in the envelope, which would have given her $76,400 if she had won.

Fans reacted to Klein’s gameplay on Reddit and wondered how she got on the game show. “What is Veronica playing… not wheel… 😳,” one said.

“Ryan was not having it,” replied another fan.

“I missed the pirate girl raising her hand to solve the first puzzle, dang!” another wrote.

“That was priceless. Where did she come from? I kept thinking about all the applicants who weren’t accepted so that she could play,” a Reddit user replied.

“Gave me major second-hand embarrassment,” another replied.

“Oh, poor Veronica, wow,” a fan commented.

“Veronica really might be the worst contestant to play in the Ryan Seacrest era,” another said.

“I was scratching my head at some of the stuff she was doing, but I think she was nervous,” a fan replied.

“Veronica kept looking to someone in the audience. It seemed like she was getting letters or words from the audience member, which explains her wild guesses. I didn’t notice it until the last round, I can’t wait to watch it back later and see if it was happening the whole game!” another wrote.

“Every week, it’s like we see the new worst player of all time,” a fan said.

“She doesn’t even know the rules! How did she get on the show?” another wondered.