'Wheel of Fortune' contestant misses out on $40,000 prize — fans say he 'needed one more second'

"Wheel of Fortune" fans have often slammed difficult puzzles for losses in the bonus round. That's why it isn't surprising that they had a lot to talk about after not one but two puzzles on the same episode went wrong. The contestant Gregg Liebgold emerged as the big winner, but fans were upset over the contestant's poor choice of letters. The other puzzle that ruffled the feathers featured in the final round of gameplay, where the fans were baffled by the phrase, "Feeling Transported." In the end, the misery continued as Liebgold missed out on winning $40,000 in the finale.

In the episode, Liebgold, who confessed that he was once kissed by a camel in Mexico, started the game with a flyer by taking an early lead. After playing through the Toss Up rounds, things got tricky with just a single phrase. During the speed up, under the category "What are you doing?" the puzzle, "Feeling Transported" left the viewers in splits. Taking to Reddit, one fan wrote, "How is 'Feeling Transported' something you’re doing?"

“‘Feeling transported’ — what the hell does that mean?” added another viewer, @Ok-Scientist3601. Nevertheless, Gregg somehow cracked the puzzle to win $8,500 and advanced to the Bonus Round with a total of $21,300 in cash prizes, as per Andy Nguyen's blog. He then chose the category, “Around the House,” for his final puzzle, and was joined by his husband, Eddie, on the stage before he spun the wheel alongside host Ryan Seacrest. After picking out the prize envelope, he was faced with a two-word puzzle. With the show's standard letters "R, S, T, L, N, E," on the board, Liebgold went on to choose "C, P, M, and A" as his additional letters. Unfortunately, none of his letter picks yielded any clues on the board, as co-host Vanna White stood still, and the puzzle read,  “_ _ S E      _ _ _.” 

After Seacrest kicked off the ten-second timer, Liebgold struggled to guess even a word. As the time ran out, he figured out the first word, "Fuse," but couldn't get the second one. "Well, you were on to it there at the end. So close!" Seacrest said before revealing the answer, "Fuse Box". "Needed, like, one more second," the host added. To add to Liebgold's misery, Seacrest went on to reveal that he had lost out on adding $40,000 to his total. 

While the player took the loss on the chin, fans had a lot to say about the final puzzle as well. "Fuse Box is not around the house... it is inside the house. That is a miscategorization, and Gregg should be invited back," complained @erikdraven1731 in the comments on YouTube. "Definitely not enough letters to get this even if it’s only 2 short words," added @zaidarodriguez8455.

While the loss was tragic, at least it wasn't a result of Seacrest's goof-up, unlike what happened on his other gig, "American Idol." Recently, Maddie Poppe, who won Season 16 of the show, revealed that Seacrest had accidentally leaked the result to her before the big announcement.

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