'Wheel Of Fortune' contestant solves an entire puzzle with just one letter in bizarre TV moment
Winning on "Wheel Of Fortune" is all about combining sharp instincts and luck to consistently ace games on the show. While the show has seen people display impressive puzzle-solving skills, one contestant named Tom Stednicki blew everyone's minds including veteran host Pat Sajak. While the player blasted through the puzzles, he won everyone's respect by solving one with just one letter on the board.
Stednicki was already on a roll before the iconic moment occurred. He was the one to spin the wheel and delighted all of the participants when the wheel landed on $5,000 meaning each letter guessed would be worth $5,000 for them.
He was also leading ahead of the bonus round by a significant margin. “I don’t know if he’s happy about that or not because he’s got a big lead,” host Pat Sajak remarked, before the final round. The category for the final round featuring the three participants was "On the Map." The puzzle only had the letter S on the board leaving hundreds if not thousands of possible guesses on the table.
However, for Stednicki, the one letter was just enough. After taking some time he guessed the answer, "Glacier Bay Alaska', with some hesitation. It astonishingly was the right answer and even Sajak was baffled. “How’d you do that?” he asked the contestant.
Stednicki replied that he had looked at maps for a long time before the game and it prepared him well. But, the host wasn't buying it. “Oh, did you? That’s exactly what I would have said. I would have said it like eight letters down the road,” Sajak said. With that blazing guess, Stednicki proceeded to the bonus round of the show with a total of $33,048.
However, as per TV Insider, things weren't as good as expected for Stednicki in the bonus round. The contestant who chose 'Phrase' as the category, slowly selected his letters I, M, G, and B. The final board read _ T _ _ S _ _L_ _E. His first guess only gave him an I in front of the T making it yet another near-impossible solution. “if anyone can pull this out, maybe it’s him," Sajak joked. However, luck had run out on Stednicki who failed to guess the correct answer, "It was a fluke."
Sajak consoled him by saying it was a good attempt but remarked that for a great player of the game, his approach was rather chaotic. The host then revealed that Stednicki had lost out on $50,000 from the envelope. “He kind of deserved that the way he solved puzzles there,” Sajak remarked.
It wasn't the first time that a contestant solved a puzzle with just one letter. Back in 2014, another player named Matt DeSanto solved a puzzle in a similar fashion as Stednicki and ended up winning $90,000 on the show. DeSanto was given the category "character" and only the letter "e" at the end of the second word was put up on the board as a clue. The 39-year-old only took a double take at the board before guessing "The Lone Ranger" as the answer. The guess was bang on and DeSanto won the round at breakneck speed.
DeSanto further went on to ace other games as well and won a total of $91,892 on the show, as per Business Standard. He also won an all-expense paid trip to Mississippi and Jamaica but like Stednicki, he too failed in the bonus round, losing out on a million dollars more.
