'Wheel of Fortune' player gets Ryan Seacrest's watch as gift after losing out on Toyota car
The contestant, a magician, tried to steal the watch before he lost a Toyota SUV in the Bonus Round.
Nov. 18 2025, Updated 8:03 a.m. ET
Losing a significant amount of money on "Wheel of Fortune" can be devastating, but the blow can definitely be softened by a gift from the host, Ryan Seacrest. Curt Ostrow, who had been doing magic tricks for the past 40-50 years, first tried to steal Seacrest's watch by pulling a fast one on him. His luck ran out as Seacrest caught him, and it didn't get any better as he failed to crack a tricky puzzle in the finale to lose out on a Toyota SUV. Nevertheless, Seacrest made things a bit better for Ostrow as he gifted him the very watch he tried to steal.
Ostrow started off well by tripling his $1,000 prize in the first Toss Up round. However, in the next round, another contestant, Jean, swooped in to take the lead from him and went on to amass over $5,000 going into the Mystery Round. Ostrow then put up a great show in the Express Round as he solved the prize puzzle to win a trip to the Pineapple Beach Club in Antigua, worth $9,216, as per Andy Nguyen's blog. Going into the Triple Toss Up round, all three contestants failed to get a single puzzle right, while Ostrow stretched his lead a bit further in the Speed Up round to emerge as the big winner of the night with $14,916 in cash and the trip.
Advancing to the Bonus Round, he chose the category, "Fun & Games" for the final puzzle, and joined Seacrest, who was missing something on his wrist, at the wheel. "Oh. Where's my watch?" he exclaimed as Ostrow pulled it out from his vest. He then introduced his wife of 44 years, Marianne, who was on the stage to support him. After picking out his Golden Envelope, he was faced with a long three-word puzzle.
With the show's standard letters on the board, Ostrow picked "G, C, H," and "A" as his additional letters, which gave him good help as the puzzle read, " _ E _ A L _ N G A _ N _ C _ C L E." However, when the host kicked off the timer, the player struggled to utter a single word. After guessing, "Dealing A..." and "Feeling a Pinochle," he ran out of time. Co-host Vanna White then uncovered the answer, "Pedaling A Bicycle." Adding to the heartbreak, Seacrest revealed that he lost out on driving home a brand new Toyota RAV4.
However, to keep the contestant's heart, Seacrest decided to gift him the watch that he had previously tried to steal. "Hey, you can have this. It's a Wheel of Fortune watch. Enjoy!" the host said in the end, as the magician looked closely.
You can watch the touching turn of events here.
More on Market Realist: