'Wheel of Fortune' viewers annoyed that many players are picking random letters without a strategy

People have been watching “Wheel of Fortune” for decades, and by now, fans have figured out strategies to solve puzzles effectively. They are quick to point out blunders by contestants in comments and on online forums. During a recent discussion on Reddit, fans brought up how contestants keep selecting letters that don't help much with figuring out the words, according to a TV Insider report.

According to the rules of the Bonus Round, contestants are given the letters R, S, T, L, N, and E. After these letters are revealed, they have to choose three consonants and one vowel. If they have a Wild Card, they get to pick an extra consonant. However, some of the letters that they choose are too obvious, as far as fans are concerned. That doesn’t give the contestants the best chance of winning. “When a word CLEARLY ends with “i-n-g” .. maybe the word just has the N in it, and people waste their letters by choosing i and g !!! It happened tonight!! I cannot believe people could be that dense that they would willingly waste their choices by picking obvious letters! You only get 3 consonants, people use them wisely,” the post in r/WheelOfFortune read.

For example, a contestant named Renea appeared on a recent episode of the show and made her way to the Bonus Round. Before she chose her letters, the puzzle read, “__T_N_ ___R__.” It’s easy to see that the first word ends with ‘ing’, but she still picked both those letters when it was her time to choose. As a result, the puzzle now read, _CTING __IR__.”

The correct answer was ‘acting quirky,’ but she did not get it right. Not choosing the letters I or G does not always end up being favorable for contestants, but one can see why fans would be frustrated. “I doesn't have to be a wasted vowel, though it's rarely the one I would pick, but the G is always a wasted letter unless you're 90% sure the puzzle is GETTING BIG GOGGLES and you just want to be sure,” one user commented under the Reddit post.

“My husband and I have this conversation every time someone chooses those letters. WHY???” asked another. “Exactly! They’re completely squandering the ‘what are you doing’ advantage,” a fan added. Another instance of this happening was when a contestant named Kristyn made it to the Bonus Round in a recent episode of the show. Fans slammed the showrunners for making her puzzle tough, but she, too, picked some obvious letters.

It read, “R______N_ _N T_E ______R_.” It’s clear that the second and third words were ‘in’ and ‘the’ respectively. If one were smart enough, they’d understand that the last three letters of the first word were i, n, and g. However, the contestant still picked all of those letters, and it did nothing to open up the puzzle. The correct answer was ‘Rummaging in the backyard.’