'Wheel of Fortune' player loses $40,000 to tough puzzle — fans accuse producers of saving money
The player, Shaunica Amantine missed out on taking home over $82,000 over the seemingly tough puzzle
Oct. 18 2025, Published 9:45 a.m. ET
Too many "Wheel of Fortune" contestants have been facing heartbreaking losses in the past few months, and puzzles that are too tough to solve have been blamed for this. The show's producers were recently slammed after a player named Shaunica Amantine, who aced the initial rounds of the game to win over $42,000, was stumped by the Bonus Round puzzle and lost $40,000. While the player smiled after the loss, fans called out the show for trying to save money with a tougher-than-usual challenge.
The contestant got off to a great start after solving a Toss-Up puzzle. However, her competitor Chapman took the lead by solving the third puzzle. Amantine then mounted her comeback in the Express Round, where she solved the puzzle to win a trip to Pensacola, Florida, and $14,600. She further cracked the prize puzzle as well to win another trip to Pensacola, and landed at a total of $40,145. While her rival Edathil tried to fight back in the Triple Toss Up, Amantine emerged as the night’s big winner with $42,145. Her performance impressed host Ryan Seacrest, who said she was “really good at this game,” and that he was excited to see how the Bonus Round would go, as per CBS19.
Advancing to the Bonus Round, Amantine chose the category “Event” for her final puzzle. After spinning the wheel and picking out her Golden Envelope, she was faced with a two-word puzzle on the board. With the show's standard letters “R, S, T, L, N, E,” up on the board, she chose “V, M, D, and I" as her additional letter. With this, her puzzle read “_ _ _ _ _ESTIV_L.”
After Seacrest kicked off the ten-second timer, it was clear that Amantine had figured out the second word, “Festival,” but she couldn’t guess the first one. While she yelled out guesses like “Love Festival,” “Fall Festival,” “Junk Festival,” none of them were correct. “When you got to the ‘J’, I thought you might get there,” Seacrest said before co-host Vanna White uncovered the answer, "Jazz Festival." Adding to the heartbreak, Seacrest revealed that Amantine lost out on an additional $40,000.
While Amantine still took home over $42,000, fans weren't happy with the Bonus Round puzzle. "This was definitely a budget-saving Bonus Puzzle. That first word was the pits," one fan @richardhernandez4490 wrote in the comments on YouTube.
"Failed once again with the letters often doesn't call for double rare! J with the Z, that was hell! My first thought is, BOOK instead of jazz festival. Book festival makes sense," added another fan, @robertclimate1563.
Watch her full game in this video.
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