'Wheel of Fortune' player goes berserk after winning a car — then his brother tackled him on stage
The player, Gabriel Berkowitz pulled off a perfect night winning over $45,000 and a car.
Sept. 15 2025, Published 12:45 p.m. ET
Winning a car on "Wheel of Fortune" is a big deal, but sometimes people react in a manner that is a bit too much even for such an achievement. One such player had quite a unique celebration after scoring the first car win of the 43rd Season. Gabriel Berkowitz had every right to go berserk as he pulled off a perfect win, winning over $45,000 in cash, and to top it off, he drove home a brand new Mazda convertible. As he got overwhelmed with emotions and ran over to check out his car, the host, Ryan Seacrest, may have been feeling a bit left out.
Berkowitz got off to a great start as he solved both of the Toss Ups to amass a big early lead. He got the Crossword puzzle right to put a whopping $15,000 in his bank.
In the Mystery Round, he cracked the prize puzzle to win an UnCruise Adventure to Baja California worth $14,500 and bagged $29,500 in cash, according to Andy Nguyen's blog. Berkowitz didn't seem to slow down as he kept solving puzzles left and right, and by the end of the Toss Up rounds, Berkowitz pulled off a clean sweep to emerge as the big winner of the night with $45,500 in cash and the cruise.
Advancing to the Bonus Round, chose the category “What Are You Doing?” for his final puzzle and joined Seacrest at the wheel. He brought along his brother, Jake, and best friend, Grace, on the stage for support. With the show's standard letters, "R, S, T, L, N, E," on the board, Berkowitz went on to choose “J, G, Q, and U” as his additional letters. This was special as the letter 'Q' is rarely picked by the players, but for Berkowitz it worked out perfectly as he got several clues on the board with the puzzle reading, “J _ U R N _ L _ N G.”
As soon as Seacrest kicked off the ten-second timer, Berkowitz took just a second to crack the puzzle, "JOURNALING". After the win, Berkowitz jumped around, and his brother rushed the stage even before Seacrest could reveal the prize. After the player pushed his supporters away, Seacrest revealed that he had won a Mazda. His brother then tackled him running, and the three of them embraced in a big hug. They then completely overlooked Seacrest and ran over to check out the car.
The player screamed, "Oh my God!" as co-host Vanna White held the car door open. "Hey, Gabriel, it’s time to drop the top with 4 wheels of fun in your brand-new Mazda convertible," the show's announcer said.
In the end, a lonely Seacrest announced from the stage that Berkowitz was going home with a grand total of $86,560 worth of prizes.
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