'Wheel of Fortune' player was close to winning $40,000 but her fumble turned out to be a painful watch
Fans were left disappointed after the contestant, Alicia Slagle, failed to guess an easy phrase in the finale.
Aug. 25 2025, Published 9:45 a.m. ET
While fans have been complaining about the increasingly difficult Bonus Round puzzles on "Wheel of Fortune," they were left disappointed after a contestant lost $40,000 on a rather easy solve. The player, Alicia Slagle, who played the game beautifully to win over $22,000, was stumped by a common phrase, "Making The Rounds," in the finale. While the show's host, Ryan Seacrest, consoled the player after the loss, fans weren't too kind in the comments of the show's YouTube clip.
In the episode, Slagle from Red Wing, Minnesota, went up against Dean Schansinger from Montclair, New Jersey, and Barbara Hamilton-Mbambara from Strongsville, Ohio. Slagle started the game with a flyer by solving the very first Toss Up puzzle to take the early lead. She kept her winning momentum up through the initial rounds and won a trip to the Westgate New York City Grand Central worth $8,070 in the Express Round, according to Andy Nguyen's blog. In the end, she emerged as the big winner of the night with a total of $22,020 in cash and the trip to advance to the Bonus Round.
For her final puzzle, she chose the category, "What are you doing?" and alongside the show's host, Ryan Seacrest at the wheel, Slagle was joined by her husband Ben and her mother-in-law, Vicki. After spinning the wheel and picking out her Golden Envelope, she was faced with a long three-word puzzle. With the show's standard letters "R, S, T, L, N, E," filled in, Slagle chose the letters "D, C, G, and O" as her additional letters for clues. With this, her final puzzle read, "_ _ _ _ NG T_E RO_NDS."
"Oh, I'm not sure what kind of help it's going to be, but good luck!" Seacrest said as he kicked off the ten-second timer. It looked like Slagle was stumped by the first word of the puzzle, as she yelled out guesses like "Boxing the rounds; Mobbing the rounds; Mailing the rounds," none of which were correct. Finally, co-host Vanna White revealed that the answer was "Making The Rounds." To add to her heartbreak, Seacrest went on to show that she had lost out on winning an additional $40,000 from her prize envelope.
"You were so, so very close," the host said in the end to console the player. While Seacrest was being nice, fans had a lot to say about Slagle's performance. "I got it before she picked her letters - anyway, congrats on $22K Alicia!" wrote one fan, @scottleung9587, on the YouTube clip. "This was easy. I hear this phrase in the hospital where nurses make their rounds with patients," added @Animegamespublishing.
Some even claimed that they didn't need any extra clues to solve the puzzle. "I actually got it after the selected letters were revealed," shared @bryanloveseighties.
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