'Wheel of Fortune' contestant wins $40,000 in bonus round after randomly guessing the right letters
Dec. 19 2025, Updated 12:41 a.m. ET
"Wheel of Fortune" contestants aren't able to solve the bonus round puzzle most of the time. It could be due to the puzzle being too tricky or a terrible selection of letters. However, a player named Chantel won $40,000, and her main strategy was to choose the right vowel and guess the exact letters, which turned the random puzzle into a cake walk.
Chantel dominated in the "What Are You Doing?" category during the triple toss-up round by solving all three puzzles, which were, "going down the rabbit's hole," "eating a donut hole," and "looking for a loophole," earning her $10,000 from the clean sweep. She added another $10,200 by correctly solving the main game puzzle "Superman or Batman". Chantel then proceeded to the Bonus Round with a total of $20,200.
Chantel introduced her mother, Pam, to host Ryan Seacrest as her no.1 supporter. "What do you think, Pam?" Seacrest asked Chantel's mom about her performance. "I think she's doing good," Pam replied, praising her daughter. "She is doing good. Trust me. We've seen a lot of these shows. She's doing great," Seacrest backed. Chantel then chose the "Food and Drink" category. After the standard letters R, S, T, L, N, E were revealed, Shantel randomly selected C, M, B as her consonants and A as her vowel.
At that moment, both the contestant and Vanna White couldn't stop beaming since they knew the puzzle board had already revealed the answer. It was an easy solve with the board displaying C, R, _, M, B, C, A, _, E. Chantel successfully guessed "CRUMB CAKE" within the first second and won an additional $40,000. Her total winnings for the night amounted to $60,200. "Did you randomly guess those letters?" A surprised Seacrest asked. "I did," Chantel confessed. "Well, you picked almost all the letters up there. A grand total $60,200. Way to go," Seacrest said congratulating her.
Fans called it a dopamine boost and lauded her random guessing skill. "Excellent letter selection by Chantal! Congrats to her and her mama Norbit!!" @DriftGenes praised. "Chantal, this holiday money is a piece of crumb cake. $40,000," @bradgearly chimed in. "It’s easy when you only have a little bit of empty spaces," @zaidarodriguez8455 added. "Tonight's bonus round puzzle was a lot easier to solve than yesterday's bonus round puzzle," @tima.curtis2488 pointed out. "Congratulations, Chantal! Nice work! I love seeing people win! I needed the dopamine boost today, and I'm glad you delivered!" @Garrison_the_Barbarian celebrated.
Watch the winning moment here.
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