‘Wheel of Fortune’ Contestant Loses $84,000 After Friends ‘Fight’ Over Trips

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It’s a game inside a game. A Wheel of Fortune contestant faced a dilemma when she won multiple trips, and her friends wanted to both go on them. The pair playfully fought over the prizes.

Wanda Key, from Queens, New York, played against Tony Wade, from Glenwood, Illinois, and Lucy Hill, from Ft. Wade, Indiana, on September 21. This week’s episodes are sponsored by Words With Friends, where all of the “Crossword” puzzles are Words With Friends themed. However, they also changed the format of the show to not have the Fortune Frenzy at the beginning and went back to the two toss-ups.

Wade, who is very into meditation, solved the first toss-up. Hill, a behavior tech for children with Autism, put $2,000 in her bank when she solved the second one.

Key, a woman who hosts game nights in her backyard, jumped up and down when she solved the first puzzle — “Let’s Get to Know Each Other.” After landing on the Napa Valley trip wedge, she had $18,359 in her bank, due to winning the California vineyard prize.

The next puzzle was the Crossword, and the category was “Graduation Day.” The board lit up pink and green instead of green and white for the Words With Friends collab. The letters also showed up as the yellow tiles in the game. Two letters had Double Letter while two more were Triple Letters.

Wade solved a few letters and then picked up the Mystery Wedge, which has “Bankrupt” on the other side. The turn then moved to Hill, who solved “Diploma, Gown, Cap, Party” for $2,550.

Key solved “Nine Times Out of Ten” for a trip to Spain and Portugal. This gave her a huge lead with $29,207.

Hill solved all three Triple Toss-ups, which gave her $10,000. She had $14,550. Wade solved the final puzzle — “Resistance Bands” for $3,300.

He ended the game with $4,300. Hill had $14,550. Key advanced to the Bonus Round with $29,207.

She chose “Person” for her category. Wheel of Fortune gave her “R,S,T,L,N, and E” and the game show contestant chose “B,C,M, and A.”

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Key brought two of her friends with her to cheer her on, and they both wanted to go on the trips that she won. Host Ryan Seacrest asked who would be going and the women raised their hands.

Her puzzle then looked like “_ _RMER  _L_M_ _AN.” As the clock counted down, Key said “Former…” but couldn’t guess the second word.

The puzzle was “Former Olympian.” There was $55,000 in the envelope, which would have given her $84,207.

At the end of the episode, Key’s two friends played rock, paper, scissors to determine the winner, but it seemed to have resulted in a tie.

Wheel of Fortune, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock