'Wheel of Fortune' contestant leaves Ryan Seacrest and fans in awe with last-second puzzle solve
While there have been many stunning wins on "Wheel of Fortune", a very few come close to the one that Kate Stuntz pulled off. In her game from the last season, Stuntz stunned viewers by putting up a show throughout the initial rounds. In the finale, she left even the host, Ryan Seacrest, in awe, as she solved the puzzle, "Quite A Shock," with less than almost a second left on the clock.
In the episode, Stuntz, a rugby player and a neuroscience student from Wellesley, Massachusetts, went up against JaRyce Echols from Spring, Texas, and Andy Kraus from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Stuntz came out of the gates with guns blazing as she solved the first few Toss Up puzzles on the fly. However, Echols tried to claw back by briefly taking the lead from Stuntz. By the Express Round, Stuntz found her winning ways again as she solved the prize puzzle to win a Collette tour of Iceland, and $11,898 in cash, according to Andy Nguyen's blog. She kept the momentum up in the following rounds as well and emerged as the big winner of the night with a total $28,548 in cash and the trip.
Advancing to the Bonus Round, she chose the category, "Phrase" for her final puzzle. Alongside Seacrest at the wheel, Stuntz was joined by her friend Keira, who broke her hand playing rugby, on the stage. Since the host had previously jokingly suggested to his co-host, Vanna White, to take up rugby, he changed his mind after looking at Keira's injury.
After spinning the wheel and picking out her Golden Envelope, she was faced with a three-word puzzle on the board. With the show's standard letters, "R, S, T, L, N, E," on the board, Stuntz went on to wisely choose, "C, H, M, and A," as her additional letters. While her picks provided some clues for the solve, there wasn't much on the board as her final puzzle read, "_ _ _ TE A SH _C_."
As Seacrest kicked off the ten-second timer, Stuntz looked puzzled and confused. However, she chose to follow the host's advice and yelled out a few guesses, but she couldn't get the complete puzzle. With less than a second left on the clock, she guessed the correct answer, "Quite A Shock," stunning the audience and the host. "You did that brilliantly. You talked it out, and in the last second, you got it!" Seacrest exclaimed before revealing that she had won an additional $40,000.
In the end, Stuntz celebrated with the host and her friend on stage as she took home a total of $68,548 and an Iceland trip. Even the fans at home were delighted as one viewer, @chaoemperorsempiretoda, wrote, "And just like that, with her last-second win, we had a perfect bonus round week. Five bonus round winners in a row this week! Congratulations to her and all of our winners!" in the comments of the show's YouTube clip.
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