'Wheel of Fortune' contestant stuns Ryan Seacrest by solving $45,000 puzzle in a second
The player, Aimee Ursitti won nearly $65,000 in one night.
Dec. 4 2025, Published 9:09 a.m. ET
"Wheel of Fortune" contestants may not have been doing well in the bonus round lately, but one of them left the host, Ryan Seacrest, stunned after winning $45,000 by solving a puzzle in less than a second. The player, Aimee Ursitti, who put up a fighting performance to make it to the show's finale, solved the bonus round puzzle despite getting just a few clues on the board for the seemingly challenging puzzle. While the host was praising her, viewers at home, too, couldn't believe how she pulled it off.
In the episode, Ursitti, a marathon runner from Wheaton, Illinois, went up against Tim Schrader, a foster dog dad from Hudsonville, Michigan, and Pras Murthy, a basketball lover from La Jolla, California. She got off to a bumpy start as Murthy took the early lead with $3,000 in the bank. While she followed him closely, she finally took the lead in the Express Round by cracking the prize puzzle to win a Disney cruise to the Bahamas, worth $12,204, according to Andy Nguyen's blog.
With this, she had $15,204 in the bank and looked already set to win the game. She went on to stretch her lead a bit more in the Triple Toss Up round by getting one of the three puzzles right. In the end, she emerged as the big winner of the night with $19,204 in cash and the trip to the Bahamas. Advancing to the Bonus Round, she had to choose from the list of categories, "Living Thing", "Thing", and "Phrase", and she picked the first one for her final puzzle.
Joining Seacrest at the wheel, she brought along her husband, Joe, and her two sons, Andrew and Alex, to the stage. Ursitti then spun the wheel and picked out her Golden Envelope.
She then faced a three-word puzzle on the board, which did not get many clues from the show's standard letters, "R, S, T, L, N, E." She picked "G, B, P," and "O" as her additional letters after which the puzzle read, " _ B _ _ _ _ N G _ L O _ E R". As soon as Seacrest kicked off the ten-second timer, Ursitti guessed, "A Budding Flower," which was correct. "That's it. Wow! I'm impressed!" Seacrest exclaimed, before revealing that she had won an additional $45,000, which took her total to $64,204.
Even viewers at home were stunned. "I would have never guessed/gotten that. Good 4 her!!" @loveforeignaccents commented on YouTube. "A budding flower, huh? I've never heard of that before, but that's the right puzzle," added another user, @anthonywalker1044.
You can watch the thrilling game and the victory here.
More on Market Realist: