‘Wheel of Fortune’ contestant follows Ryan Seacrest’s advice — but still loses $40,000 in bonus round

One of the most common phrases used by the host on the "Wheel of Fortune" is "talk it out," especially when it comes to the Bonus Round. While many players like to make one good guess, some contestants follow the instructions. However, it doesn't always work out, like in the case of Carrie Trujillo. When host Ryan Seacrest encouraged her to work out her final puzzle, she made almost a dozen guesses, yet she failed to bag the $40,000 win.

In the episode, Trujillo went up against Matt Komma from Riverton, Utah, and Phil McManus from Palmer, Massachusetts. Both she and Komma started the game on equal footing, with Trujillo edging out a lead. She then briefly got overtaken before making a strong comeback in the Express Round. Unfortunately, Trujillo, who always wanted to take her grandson to Disneyland, lost out on winning the sponsored trip to Walt Disney World from the show. However, in the end, she still won a total of $22,050 in cash.

Advancing to the Bonus Round, she chose the "What are you doing?" category and was joined by her son, Carlos, and her husband, Tony, on stage for support. At the wheel alongside Seacrest, she mentioned her grandson, Roman, as well. After picking out her Golden Envelope, she was faced with a four-word puzzle. With the show's standard letters R, S, T, L, N, and E filled in, she chose D, M, B, and I as the additional letters. With this, her puzzle read, "_ R _ _ _ N _ _ N T _ E _ _ _ _ _ _."

"Ten seconds to try and work it out. Do the best you can. Good luck," Seacrest said before kicking off the timer. With the clock ticking, Trujillo made a series of guesses like "Driving in the," "Driving in the road, "Driving on the railroad," "Driving on the express drive," and more. However, none of them were correct. "You were right there!" Seacrest exclaimed, before revealing the answer, "Driving on the Highway." To add to the heartbreak, Seacrest further revealed that the contestant lost an additional $40,000. 

While Tujillo took the loss in stride, fans of the show had a lot to say about her attempt. "They always tell you to 'talk it out' when you're in the bonus round, and to her credit, Carrie did exactly that. She tried her best. Nobody can say she didn't try. Sorry it didn't work out, though," wrote one viewer, @Garrison_the_Barbarian, on the show's YouTube clip. 

Some even broke down what exactly went wrong in the game. "Carrie was on the right track, if she would've chose an "H" and broke a cardinal rule in a good way just like she did with the "I" which surprisingly the right vowel to pick, the "H" would've surprisingly the right letter to pick because of an extra 2 H's just like there were extra 2 I's then she would've got it. That could've been interesting if they broke the Cardinal Rule twice in a good way, thanks to H's & I's & also "D" was the right letter to pick as well," explained @jacobwilson6192.

While Trujillo chose to speak her guesses out loud, in another episode, a pair of contestants tried whispering as their strategy, and that too didn't work out, as they lost $75,000 in the Bonus Round.

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