Viewers of Wheel of Fortune were left shouting at their TV screens on Thursday as a contestant missed out on the chance to win $1 million not once, but twice. Tara Brown, a guest on the popular game show, managed to land on the top prize on two separate occasions, but unfortunately, her luck ran out there.
On the American version of the show, contestants have the opportunity to win $1 million in a bonus round if they land on the special wedge, guess a letter correctly, and solve the final puzzle. Tara's first chance came in a 'Let There Be Light' category that was only two letters away from completion. The puzzle read: "BULB, BEA__N, SUN, STARS." Host Pat Sajak asked her for one of the missing letters, and after hesitating, she chose "H."
The audience gasped in horror as Tara's competitor stepped in to correctly spell out the word 'BEACON' after Tara's mistake. Despite being given a chance to redeem herself, Tara once again answered incorrectly and left the show empty-handed.
Zoe Tsongalis emerged as the winner of the episode, taking home a more modest sum of $28,000.
After Tara's disappointing performance on X (formerly Twitter), one user questioned, "Who is responsible for selecting these contestants?"
Another user exclaimed, "She really messed up by guessing 'H' for that puzzle!"
A third user was in disbelief, asking, "Did she really guess 'H'?"
And a fourth user commented, "But she managed to recover! She landed on a million again and nailed it!"
Last month, the show faced controversy when a contestant appeared to give the correct answer but was "robbed" of $40,000. This week, California resident Megan took her turn at guessing the two-word answer for the category of 'living thing'. Host Pat revealed the puzzle board which displayed '__N_’’_R____’' and with a few correct letter guesses, Megan had 'P_N_’ ‘_RC__D’ to work with.
As the timer counted down, Megan started guessing frantically before finally settling on "pink orchid", which sounded like "something orchid". When the timer went off, the answer was revealed to be pink orchid, leaving fans outraged.
