'Wheel of Fortune' fans upset after three straight bonus round losses in the new year
"Wheel of Fortune" New Year's edition has yet to see a successful Bonus Round winner. After witnessing three consecutive losses, die-hard fans have labeled the special segment on the game show as an 'unhappy new year'. It was another low victory of the season when contestant, Joanna, took home $17,108 after failing to guess the correct answer in the final prize round.
Joanna won the "Egglund's best mystery round" with the quirky solution "My patience is wearing thin socks". She then took the lead in the "prize puzzle round" by solving "thousands of islands," earning an EF Go-Ahead tour to Greece, adding over $13,000 in cash and prizes. She then dominated the "triple tossup" by correctly guessing "Knocking on Heaven's Door" and "Stairway to Heaven". She added $17,000 to her total and entered the coveted Bonus Round filled with excitement.
"We're just glad she didn't fall in the wheel, right?" Joanna's best friends chuckled while they were introduced to the host, Ryan Seacrest. She also had her mom cheering from the backstage. After a quick spin, Joanna chose the "Event" category. As per the norm, she then received the standard letters R, S, T, L, N, and E. She then chose D, H, M, and O as her additional letters. The puzzle board looked like an easy win with O, _, T, D, O, O, R, _, _, _, N, _,_, on display.
"Outdoor catch? Outdoor...Outdoor...Well, outdoor-," Joanna tried to figure out the answer but failed miserably. She couldn't guess "Outdoor Picnic" in time. She lost $40,000 and walked away with a luxurious trip to Greece and $17,018 cash. Fans thought it was the "worst way to start 2026". "Happy New Year" is the theme for this week, but for bonus rounds, it should be Unhappy New Year," @momof2wifeof179 complained. "Last season, we didn’t get our first bonus round skunking until late April/ early May. We’ve already had 2 skunkings this season, and it’s only January 2nd. Oh boy," @UmbreonTheDarkKnight added in remorse.
"I hope we didn't have this, but we did. No Bonus round winners for the 2nd time this season. UGH!! Not the way to start the year,"
@dannyblock-q4r chimed in. "While it was a skunked bonus round, for me I got the bonus round puzzle right again with Outdoor Picnic & as a result clean sweep bonus round for me. Now, one letter that Joanna needed to add and that would've a key letter & that would be "Cs", now "Os" was actually the right vowel to pick, and she wouldn't needed to add a "D", so the two letters would've done it in the Bonus are Cs & Os," @jacobwilson6192 pointed out.
You can watch the moment here.
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