‘Wheel of Fortune’ contestant loses $40,000 in confusing bonus round — fans blame 'nasty' puzzle
Harris still walked away with a good amount of money and a vacation after the game.
July 20 2025, Published 8:45 a.m. ET
"Wheel of Fortune" fans were left in disbelief after a highly unusual phrase in the show's Bonus Round cost a contestant $40,000. The player, Matt Harris, looked set to win big, having impressed everyone with his puzzle-solving skills in the initial rounds of the show. He won a whopping $29,990 before getting to the final round, where he had a chance to win even more. However, it all fell apart as he couldn't get the tough puzzle, "Bubbling With Excitement." Even the fans couldn't believe how the unusual phrase ended up on the show.
In the episode, Harris from Indianapolis faced off against Caitlin Sterchi from Yorkville and Marilu Banal from Plainfield. After a rough start to the game, Harris found his mojo in the Mystery Round, where he solved the puzzle, "Bob Marley: One Love," won an exotic trip to Greece worth $13,590, and took the lead with $15,490 in cash, as per Andy Nguyen's blog. While Sterchi made a comeback in the Express Round to win a trip to The French Quarter at the Omni Royal Orleans in New Orleans, she couldn't catch up to the leader. Harris then stretched his lead by solving a few more puzzles and emerged as the big winner with a total of $29,990 in cash and the holiday in Greece.
Going into the Bonus Round, Harris chose the dreaded category "What are you doing?" which is known to throw contestants off track. With the show's host, Ryan Seacrest, at the wheel, the player was joined by his best buddy, Tim, on the stage for support. After picking out his Golden Envelope, Harris faced a long three-word puzzle. With the show's standard letters R, S, T, L, N, and E filled in, the player chose C, H, I, and M as his additional letters. With everything on the board, the puzzle read, "_ _ _ _ L _ N G _ _ T _ E _ _ _ T E _ E N T."
As soon as Seacrest started the ten-second timer, it seemed like Harris had figured out the last two words of the puzzle. He made a few guesses, saying, "I'm buckling with excitement," "folding with excitement," "patting with excitement," but none of them were correct. Once the clock ran out, Seacrest revealed that the answer was "bubbling with excitement". He also revealed that Harris had lost out on winning an additional $40,000. "It was so close," Seacrest said, trying to console the player.
While Harris still walked away with good money and a fantastic vacation, fans of the show expressed their frustration with the loss. "Second person to pick WHAT ARE YOU DOING this week...only to get burned by a nasty puzzle," wrote @richardhernandez4490 in the comments of the show's YouTube clip. "Who bubbles with excitement? " exclaimed another viewer, @TheJohnny928.
While Harris failed to win big, in another episode, a player, Charles Tapacio, aced the game's Bonus Round to win over $74,000. The big win led to a grand celebration, with Seacrest asking the player to "squeeze" him.
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