‘Wheel of Fortune’: Ryan Seacrest Blasted for Murder Joke Before Contestant’s $66,000 Win

‘Wheel Of Fortune’ Game Show Spin Wheel Enamel Backpack Pin

$15.99

Buy Now

Uhh… That wasn’t cool. Wheel of Fortune host Ryan Seacrest is under fire for joking around about murder on the show.

It came after a contestant called Robin, from Mt. Prospect, Illinois, solved the first toss-up for $1,000. She is a true crime fan who enjoys thrifting. Robin said that she tries to solve the case within 15 minutes of watching the documentary or podcast.

Robin played against Jeremy Soria, from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Kim Fasano, from Stony Point, New York, on March 9. She also solved the second toss-up, giving her a total of $3,000.

Fasano, a woman who runs a pizza club, got on the board when she solved “Sweet, Salty, Sour, Savory” for $1,800. She jumped into the lead with $5,200 after solving “My Nickname in Grade School.”

With only one letter left to guess, Robin solved “Soaking Up Some Rays” for a trip to Mexico. This gave her the lead again with a total of $21,050.

Soria, a man whose mom told him when he overate that his “eyes were bigger than his stomach,” which she learned from WOF, finally got on the board when he solved two of the three Triple Toss-ups. Soria and Robin both buzzed in for the third but got it wrong. Fasano solved “Banana Peppers,” giving her $2,000 more.

Soria clapped wildly when he solved the final puzzle — “Going to Pilates” — for $7,600. He had a total of $11,600.

Fasano went home with $7,200. Robin was the night’s big winner with $21,050. She chose “Phrase” for her Bonus Round category.

Ryan Seacrest asked Robin what the latest case she solved was. She said it was a Dateline special where a young lady went missing, and it was her boyfriend who killed her.

“Be careful of those boyfriends. Watch out!” Seacrest said.

She brought her fraternal twin sister, Rosalyn, with her. When the host asked her if she had a boyfriend, Rosalyn said, “No!” And pretended to wipe sweat off her brow.

“Smart,” Seacrest replied.

Reddit users thought that the host shouldn’t joke about murder. “That was really bad,” one user said. “I thought it was REALLY inappropriate for the contestant and Ryan to joke about a real story where a boyfriend killed his girlfriend. I find the whole ‘true crime’ obsessions that people have kind of odd anyway (they treat it like a TV show or game when it’s real life people affected), but they really should have cut that part out (in fact, Ryan shouldn’t have mentioned it at all).”

Related

'Wheel of Fortune' Fans Point Out Costly Mistakes After Contestant's Car Loss

“That is pretty inappropriate tbh sometimes people take their obsessions like that too far,” another replied.

“Many of the latest crop of people these last months just come across way too hard in trying to tell their story, whether they are just that cringy off the show or whatever direction it is they are getting from production staff that causes them suddenly to become caricatures of themselves,” a third added.

However, other fans told the original poster not to take it too seriously.

After being given “R,S,T,L,N, and E,” Robin chose “B,C,H, and A.” Her puzzle then looked like “HE  _S  BEA_ _N_  _ _TH  _ _ _.” The game show contestant quickly solved “He is Beaming With Joy.” There was $45,000 in the envelope, which gave her a total of $66,050.