‘Wheel of Fortune’: Sommelier Speaks Out After $73,000 Loss
A Wheel of Fortune contestant lost out on taking home $73,000. The sommelier spoke out after his loss. There was only one win the whole week.
Calvin Thompson, from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, solved both toss-ups, giving him the lead with $3,000. Thompson is a house sommelier for his local winery and a singer in a cover band. A sommelier is a wine steward or professional wine expert who works in fine dining and is responsible for wine service, storage, and food pairing.
He played against James Williams, from Jefferson, Texas, and Mariann Coolidge, from Clovis, California, on February 27.
With only one letter left in the puzzle, Williams, a former basketball player turned sales worker, solved “Lakes, Lagoons, Landscapes” for $5,500. Coolidge, a traveler who recently went to Spain, finally got on the board when she solved “Please Do Not Touch the Animals.” This gave her $4,350.
After Coolidge solved most of the Prize Puzzle, the turn moved to Thompson, who solved “Come Sail Away With Me.” He won a trip to Costa Rica, making his total $16,000.
Thompson put $4,000 in his bank after solving two of the three Triple Toss-ups. Coolidge solved the third, getting another $2,000.
Thompson solved the final puzzle — “Picture of the Year.” This gave him a final total of $23,000.
Coolidge went home with $6,350. Williams left with $5,500. Thompson advanced to the Bonus Round, where he picked “Place” for his category.
Thompson was given “R,S,T,L,N, and E” by Wheel of Fortune. He picked “C,D,M, and A” to round out his puzzle. It then looked like “A C_ _L _AN_ _ _T.”
As the clock counted down, the game show contestant guessed “A Cool Gauntlet,” “A Cool Pamphlet,” “A Cool Vacant,” and “A Cool Campout.” However, the puzzle was “A Cool Hangout.”
“Tomorrow is the BIG day!! I can’t wait for you all to watch me spin the iconic wheel for Cash and BIG prizes! If you all have been watching this week, you know there are some incredible prizes up for grabs! Thought I would share some wheel memories over the years to get us in the spirit 🥳,” he wrote on Instagram the day before his episode.
“I have a couple of favors from you… outside of tuning in, of course! When you are watching at home, send me pics! I would love to see you and your family watching the episode!”
He went on to ask his followers and fans to not go to the bar he works at to watch the episode because Friday is their busiest day and the TVs are fairly new there. “Since the episode happens to be on Friday, our busiest day, it’s not fair to anyone to have the servers divide their time between the episode and our customers. Nobody wins here,” he wrote.
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“So my solution to this problem is I will show the staff my episode after work on Saturday, and we will stream the episode via Hulu with subtitles on members’ night. And let’s be honest, we will probably be showing the episode a lot. Like, you might get sick of it kind of a lot.”
“I appreciate everyone’s understanding. The outpouring of love and support for this accomplishment has been incredibly humbling, and I am so blessed to have a great community around me! Love you all! Cheers!” Thompson ended.
Were you able to solve the puzzle? Let us know in the comments.
Wheel of Fortune, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock
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