‘Wheel of Fortune’ Player Dubbed ‘Best Ever’ After ‘Amazing Solve’ & $66,000 Win

On By Littum

Wheel of Fortune viewers have a new favorite contestant after lovable Geoffrey Smith appeared on Monday’s (January 13) episode and proved to be an excellent puzzle solver.

Smith, of Saint Cloud, Florida, told host Ryan Seacrest how he grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and used to watch Wheel of Fortune on his neighbors’ black-and-white TV, as his family was so poor they never had a color TV. He also said he was surprised to see Vanna White “in living color.”

On Monday’s episode, Smith faced Kaitlyn O’Keeffe, a high school social studies teacher from Deer Park, New York, and Sonja Hughes, an obsessed beauty pageant from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Smith proved to be a force from the start, immediately capitalizing on a mistake made by Hughes (where she left the ‘S’ out of her answer) and cracked the first puzzle of the episode. He went on to land the Round 1 and Mystery Round puzzles, giving him a strong early total of $7,500.

From there, Smith took full control of the game, answering all three puzzles in the Triple Toss-Up round and the final puzzle in the Speed-Up round. This gave him an episode winning total of $26,000 compared to Hughes’ $7,300 and O’Keeffe’s $1,000 goose egg.

Heading into the bonus round, the tall Smith towered over Seacrest as he took the often difficult “Phrase” category. Smith took a moment to study the board before choosing his extra letters, “C, F, M, and I.” This gave him a four-word puzzle that read: “_ _ ST / _ L _ RT / IT / _ _ T.”

“Take your time, it’s a sentence, you have ten seconds,” said Seacrest, perhaps realizing that Smith had a tough slate ahead of him.

But as soon as the ten-second timer started, Smith confidently replied, “Just blur it out.”

“Yes! Wait a minute…come on!” a shocked Seacrest said before opening the prize envelope and revealing that Smith added an extra $40,000 to his total winnings.

White came over to congratulate Smith, who danced and celebrated his victory. Meanwhile, Seacrest added: “You looked down at me like, ‘I don’t need you to talk anymore, Ryan, I just want to say it.’

“I got it eventually,” Smith replied.

Fans loved Smith and his incredible bonus round puzzles, with one X user writing: “Geoffrey is the best #wheeloffortune player ever. Holy smokes.”

Another agreed, saying: “#Geoffrey on tonight’s @WheelofFortune might be my favorite contestant ever!!!! Love him!!!”

One Wheel of Fortune Reddit the user described Smith as a “legend”, while another agreed, writing: “The Jamaican guy here tonight is a legend.”

“With the letters he chose, I thought he wouldn’t have got it, but Geoffrey has proven me wrong! Well played Geoffrey, well played!” added a YouTube commenter.

“Wow this is perfect!! Great solution by Geoffrey!!!” said another.

“Well done Geoffrey! That was a tough one, but you got it right anyway!” wrote a fan.

However, many others did not get to see last night’s episode because it was scheduled for the NFL after the playoffs. In fact, Smith himself might have missed his own episode because, as one Reddit user pointed out, “He’s from St. Cloud, FL, which is in the Orlando area. WOF didn’t air on WFTV channel 9 because of the NFL pregame , but they will air his episode on Saturday at 12:30.”

Another Reddit user explained, “ABC is televising an NFL Wild Card game tonight at 8 ET, with pregame at 7:30 PM, which means WOF will not be able to air in many cities where it airs on ABC. Also, since most stations prefer Jeopardy! over Wheel of Fortune, some cities where WOF normally airs will replace it with Jeopardy!

Did you catch Monday’s episode? What did you think of Smith’s big win? Let us know in the comments section below.

Wheel of Fortuneweeknights, check local listings