'Wheel of Fortune' contestant gets the right answer — still loses $1 million because of how he said it

On “Wheel of Fortune,” and other game shows, some contestants are known to make a comeback from positions where they seem destined to lose. But there are few who can manage to lose even when the odds are stacked up in their favor. Paul Atkinson had the chance to win $1 million and all he needed to do was to get one puzzle right. By the time his turn to guess the phrase came around, only one letter was missing.

He did give the correct answer but still did not clinch victory. The correct answer was “Corner Curio Cabinet” but Atkinson mispronounced the word curio as coo-rio. He didn’t pronounce corner that well either. However, anyone could understand what he was saying. Unfortunately, the showrunners of “Wheel of Fortune” did not think so and decided against awarding him the million-dollar prize, leaving him with $2000 in winnings.

Speaking about the incident, Atkinson said that nervousness got the better of him. That and the fact that he had never seen the word curio in his life before. “I was so nervous. I’ve got Pat freaking Sajak to my immediate right, I’ve got lights and cameras in my face, I’d never seen the word curio before,” he said in an interview with ABC News. “That was my biggest nightmare. I knew I messed up, I knew something awesome could have happened.”

While many fans slammed the show for not awarding the win to Atkinson, some people understood why the showrunners did it. “I can maybe see "curio" being a hard word to pronounce, but "corner" into "cornoh?" I don't think so,” a user called @Bfyobrian12 commented on YouTube. “He didn't even say corner correctly. He completely rushed through it,” quipped another user named @applefan2151.

A similar situation unfolded with contestant Renne Durette and it was far more outrageous than Atkinson’s. Renne had solved a puzzle that stated, “Seven Swans A-Swimming” correctly. The only problem was that she pronounced swimming as swimmin’. For people from the south of the country, that’s a widely common way to speak. So when Renne wasn't awarded the win for this reason, several fans were unhappy with the showrunners.

“That’s kind of how I speak being from Florida and I had asked for the G so I knew it was there,” Durette stated in a later interview. An ABC News report stated that the judges did not consider that to be the correct answer since it was spoken in the vernacular. It’s safe to say that fans on social media were not too pleased with how things turned out.

“You are right. She should have won and the show should pay her what they owe her regardless of the fact they said the other contestant won. They have the money. I have to give it to her, that no matter what she is a true winner and they didn't take her winning spirits,” one user named @Jessecraft1954 wrote on Youtube. “Pronunciation is enforced on Wheel, pronunciation and spelling both on Jeopardy!. They know this going in. She's not the first and won't be the last,” quipped another.