'Wheel of Fortune' fans unhappy with contestant who failed to solve easy puzzle worth $40,000

The contestant, Ron Sheppard was inches away from solving the Bonus Round puzzle.

PUBLISHED NOV 14, 2025

Screenshot showing Ron Sheppard attempting his Bonus Round puzzle (Cover image source: YouTube/Wheel of Fortune)

Tricky Bonus Round puzzles leaving contestants clueless isn't new on "Wheel of Fortune," but it's more heartbreaking when someone loses out on $40,000 after playing well in other rounds. A contestant named Ron Sheppard made his way to the finale after putting up a great fight during the episode. While he guessed one and a half of the two words in the final puzzle, he missed out on solving it on time, which cost him a $40,000 bonus round prize, and disappointed the fans.

Screenshot showing the contestant's reaction to the loss (Image source: YouTube/Wheel of Fortune)

Sheppard had a bumper start as he solved the first two Toss Up puzzles to take the lead with $8,500 in the bank. However, going into the Express Round, his rival Green mounted a strong comeback as he cracked the prize puzzle to win a trip to British Columbia worth $8,768, as per Andy Nguyen's blog. With this, he led the way with $14,668 in the bank, and Sheppard trailed behind, still with $8,500. However, Sheppard didn't give up and got two out of the three puzzles in the Triple Toss Up round. In the end, he emerged as the big winner with a total of $20,000 while Green failed to add to his purse after the Express Round.

Screenshot showing Ron Sheppard alongside Ryan Seacrest (Image source: YouTube/Wheel of Fortune)

Advancing to the Bonus Round, Sheppard was given a choice to pick from the categories, "Phrase", "Thing", and "Places". He picked the tricky "Thing" category for the final puzzle and joined host Ryan Seacrest at the wheel to pick out his Golden Envelope. He faced a two-word puzzle on the board. With the show's standard letters, "R, S, T, L, N, E," on the board, he chose "M, C, G, C, and O" as his additional letters. With this, the puzzle read, O _ _ E C T _ _ E O _ _ N _ O N.

Screenshot showing Sheppard facing the puzzle board (Image source: YouTube/Wheel of Fortune)

After Seacrest kicked off the ten-second timer, it seemed like Sheppard didn't have the answer right off the bat. After making a bizarre guess, "A Lecture Onion," he steered in the right direction with the guess "Objectionable Opinion," which was close but not correct. Once the time ran out, co-host Vanna White uncovered the answer, "Objective Opinion". Adding to the heartbreak, Seacrest revealed that Sheppard lost on taking home another $40,000, which would have taken his total to $60,000.

Screenshot showing the player's total (Image source: YouTube/Wheel of Fortune)

While the Marine vet took the loss on the chin, fans at home were a bit disappointed. "That should’ve been solved. We need a winner tomorrow to avoid the shutout," wrote @sammylerman7136 in the comments on YouTube. "I got it as soon as the countdown started. That’s a pretty weird thing to call a 'thing', but still a very solvable puzzle with the letters he picked. Congrats to him nonetheless, on his $20K total," @douglaspinsak1246 added.