‘Wheel of Fortune’ Contestant Loses $72,000 After Ryan Seacrest Issues Warning
Wheel of Fortune fans blasted a contestant’s mistake on the game show. He continued to make it after host Ryan Seacrest warned him. However, he still made it to the Bonus Round.
After the week of “Love Is In The Air,” Wheel of Fortune went back to solo contestants. Liza Sklar, from Oceanside, New York, solved the first toss-up. She has been a high school librarian for 22 years, and her least favorite subject is history, but she recommends history books to the students.
She played against Damian Mitchell, from Maplesville, Alabama, and Harry Krenitsky, from Scranton, Pennsylvania, on March 23. Mitchell, a sports radio guy who was a former college football receiver, solved the second toss-up.
He obtained the Wild Card during the first round and solved “Chief Financial Officer” for $7,550. On the “Before & After” puzzle, Mitchell solved “Social Butterflies in My Stomach.” This gave him $15,650.
During the Prize Puzzle, Mitchell rode the Express Train, which meant that he would get $1,000 for each consonant he guessed. If he guessed one that wasn’t in the puzzle, he would get a total Bankrupt. Throughout the turn, the game show contestant knew the puzzle and even bought vowels “I” and “E,” which cost him some money.
Mitchell solved “Magic Carpet Ride,” but at the expense of the four vowels. Ryan Seacrest even warned him that the vowels cost money when he continued to guess them.
“I want you to win some money, not spend it,” Seacrest said. The solve gave Mitchell a trip to Panama. He had a total of $31,125.
Fans reacted to the contestant’s mistake on Reddit. “He lost money buying vowels when he seemed to know the puzzle,” one fan said.
“When he bought the ‘E,’ Ryan was like ‘Sure,’ and I was also like ‘bro wtf is you doing?😬” another wrote.
“What the heck? Did he not understand that part? Ryan gave a heads up!” a third added.
“Why Damian? Why?” another wondered.
Sklar solved two of the three Triple Toss-ups, putting $4,000 more in her bank. Krenitsky, a man who tries to watch every Oscar-nominated film with his fiancée, finally got on the board when he solved the third one.
Krenitsky solved the final puzzle — “Spring Fling.” This gave him a final total of $5,300.
Sklar went home with $5,000. Mitchell was the winner with $32,125. He chose “Phrase” for his Bonus Round category.
Wheel of Fortune gave him “R,S,T,L,N, and E.” Mitchell rounded out his puzzle with “C,D,F, and O.” The puzzle then looked like “C_ _N_E OF _EN_E.”
As the clock counted down, Mitchell guessed “Change of…” but couldn’t guess “Change of Venue.” He lost out on taking home $72,125 after there was $40,000 in the envelope.
Wheel of Fortune, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock
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