‘Wheel of Fortune’ contestant ‘hard’ misses $100,000 Jackpot – Viewers react

On By Littum

ONE Wheel of Fortune contestant could have walked away with a massive $100,000 on Tuesday’s (Jan. 14) episode if not for a tough bonus round puzzle that viewers called “borderline impossible.” He also said something that made Ryan Seacrest laugh that just might spark a family feud.

The participant in question was Nick Isadori, a New York sports obsessive from Emerson, New Jersey. In fact, Isadori loves the New York Football Giants so much that he told host Ryan Seacrest that he lists them above his family and breathing in terms of priority.

“I think you need to look up the definition of ‘priority,'” Seacrest said.

Isadori went up against Barbie Swiger, a part-time church HR worker from Overland Park, Kansas, and Dionne Dixon, a former assistant coach for the Long Beach Poly Cowboys from Spencer, North Carolina.

It was a hot start for Isadori, who answered the first two riddles of the episode to give herself a strong early lead of $7,500. However, Dixon made a comeback in the Mystery Round, landing the puzzle and taking the lead with $15,050.

Isadori got back on track in the Express round, hitting another $6,500 puzzle and winning himself a cruise. He also landed the first puzzle in the Triple Toss Up round, giving him a total of $25,000, enough to win the episode despite Swiger’s late game surge (she finished with $14,000, while Dixon ended up with $15,050).

Heading into the bonus round, Isadori chose the “Place” category and introduced Seacrest to his girlfriend and father, who were in the audience cheering him on.

“So who’s going on the cruise?” the American Idol asked the host.

Isadori looked over at her father and boyfriend and said, “Well, they’ll have to fight it out.”

“I don’t know if that was the right answer,” Seacrest replied, laughing at the answer that could start a family feud.

Faced with a two-word puzzle, Isadori chose the extra letters “C, P, G, and A” to go with the already given “R, S, T, L, N, and E.” This gave him a puzzle board that read: “C _ _ _ / _ _ _ EA _ A _.”

As the ten second timer started, Isadori clenched his jaw and looked completely oblivious as he studied the board. After time ran out, Vanna White revealed the correct answer as “Cozy Hideaway.”

“I had no shot,” Isadori said when he saw the response.

Seacrest then opened the prize envelope to reveal that Isadori lost an additional $75,000, which would have given him a whopping grand total of $100,000.

Viewers jumped on social media, with many agreeing that the final puzzle was nearly impossible to figure out.

“I couldn’t have guessed this in any way,” wrote one YouTube commenter.

“This was borderline impossible,” said another.

“It was a difficult puzzle to solve,” added another.

Another wrote: “These last puzzles seem to yield very few initials lately.”

“He’s right. He had no shot,” said one commenter.

“This was tough,” added another.

Did you figure out this tricky bonus puzzle? What did you think of Tuesday’s episode? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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