'Wheel of Fortune' contestant loses out on new car with the right answer. Audi gave her one anyway

A "Wheel of Fortune" contestant was denied a brand new Audi Q3 despite answering the puzzle correctly. Charlene Rubush made it all the way to the bonus round and answered the puzzle in the episode, but a technical error prevented her from winning the prize. The audience wasn't happy with that and the incident went viral. Luckily, the posts reached the right audience at Audi who worked up a Christmas miracle to set things right.

A very costly technical error

In the 2021 season, Rubush was at the final step of the show with a shot at winning the bonus round prize. The final puzzle fell under the category "What are you doing" and it said "_H_ _ S I N _   THE  RIGHT _ _ RD".

With the standard letters "R S T L N E", and the letters already guessed, and filled in, Rubush was inches away from the correct answer. When the countdown started, Rubush made her first guess, "CHOOSING THE RIGHT CARD," which was barely wrong. As she realized that only the last word in her guess was wrong she took a pause and corrected her answer to "WORD". 

Her second guess was correct and the answer was revealed to be "CHOOSING THE RIGHT WORD." While Rubush had guessed the word within 10 seconds, the 4-5 second pause she took before saying "WORD" cost her dearly. 

The show's host, Pat Sajak, revealed that she hadn't won because the pause between "right" and "word" was just too long as the answer had to be continuous. As usual, Sajak went on to open the envelope Rubush had picked for her prize and it showed that she missed out on winning a brand new Audi Q3. The audience gasped as it took only 4-5 seconds for Rubush to miss out on the prize. When she went home with the $16,500 she had won, the audience wasn't happy. 

A huge backlash

Fans of the show quickly expressed their outrage on social media, claiming that Rubush was robbed. The issue was propagated by another famous game show winner, Alex Jacob. The former winner of Jeopardy, who shared the clip of the incident, got in touch with the show's X handle. 

And, there was a happy ending

Jacob's sentiments were echoed across social media, and he even took up the issue with Wheel Of Fortune and Audi on Twitter. As his plea gained traction, it grabbed the attention of Audi. Soon, the company tweeted that Rubush was a winner in their eyes and they would present her with a well-deserved prize. 

Tara Rush, Audi of America's Chief Marketing Officer, told CNN that the company was “thrilled" to present the car to Rubush. “It is the season of giving after all and, technicality or not, we are always eager to share a bit of Audi magic and cheer!” Rush's statement read. 

While things turned out to be well for Rubush, several other contestants of the show weren't that lucky. In a similar case, finalist Paul Dodson failed to win an Infinity car after failing to answer an impossible puzzle. While the audience expressed their displeasure, Dodson did not get as lucky as Rubush.