'Wheel of Fortune' fans slam Ryan Seacrest for his blunder as player loses $40,000 in bonus round
"Wheel of Fortune" fans have been unhappy about the new host, Ryan Seacrest, on a lot of occasions during his first season, and now they have one more reason to complain. This time, he has seemingly cost a contestant a $56,000 win in the Bonus Round because of his blunder. Fans took to Reddit to blast the show's host as he failed to explain the rules of Crossword Puzzles to one of the contestants. As for the Bonus Round, the tough puzzle "Whoop It Up" further upset the viewers as it cost her $40,000.
The contestant was off to a flying start after solving the first and the second toss-up puzzles to win $3,000 and take an early lead. She then went on to solve a few more puzzles to bag a wild card, along with $6,600 in cash. Then a problem occurred because of a rare crossword, where all of the words in the puzzle related to the category are crossed over. Usually, the host explains how the players must solve the puzzle, but this time, Seacrest did not do so. One of the players guessed the four words, “Party Time,” “Party Animal,” “Party Decorations,” and “Party Bus,” but Seacrest said it was incorrect.
Corder then swooped in and answered with “Time, Animal, Decorations, and Bus,” and won the round. Only then did Seacrest explain that the contestants must say exactly what is on the board. This upset the fans, who took to Reddit to call out the mistake. "Ryan Not Reminding the Contestants About Crossword Solves. Makes me mad every time!" a user posted. Several users chimed in to complain about the same issue, calling out the host.
Corder went on to solve the final puzzle, “Dancing in the Dark,” to end the initial rounds as the winner with prizes worth $16,600. She then proceeded to the Bonus Round and picked the popular "Phrase" category.
To make things easier, Corder had the wild card, which gave her one extra consonant to choose for the final puzzle. With the show's standard letters, “R, S, T, L, N, E," filled in, she chose “C, D, M, I, and the extra letter P,” as her additional clues. With everything on the board, the puzzle read, “_ _ _ _ P IT _P.”
Despite the extra letter, it seemed like Corder didn't have much on the board. When Seacrest kicked off the ten-second timer, Corder tried to guess several phrases, with the most common one being "Wrap It Up". However, that wasn't the correct answer, and she couldn't get the puzzle in time. The show's co-host, Vanna White, then revealed that the answer was "Whoop It Up". To add to the heartbreak, Seacrest told the contestant she lost out on an additional $40,000 from her Golden Envelope.
Fans once again blasted the show's producers for the tough puzzle in the comments section of the YouTube clip. "I swear to God, since Ryan has come to the show, Wheel is creating their own words or using slang words," @Loloferenc wrote. "I’ve never heard of this phrase before, let alone hear it being used in conversation," @scottleung9587 added.
While fans weren't happy with the host's performance, a player revealed that the host was still great and personable on the set. Speaking to TV Insider, former contestant Kylene Foster shared a few secrets from behind the scenes.
