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Student nails bonus round but still loses $100K — and fans (us too) think ‘Wheel of Fortune’ did her dirty

Alexa Hoekstra accepted the loss, but fans believe she had the right answer and slammed the show for 'robbing' her

'Wheel of Fortune' has been on the air for over four decades, giving millions of people a chance to make their dreams come true. But for college student Alexa Hoekstra, the dream didn't turn into reality even after solving the Bonus Round puzzle correctly. On April 6, 2023, Hoekstra, from Texas, earned a cash prize of $19,950 during the initial rounds of the competition, as reported by TV Insider. When the young student stepped into the Bonus Round, she selected the 'What Are You Doing?' category.

Hoekstra faced a three-word puzzle, which, after filling the standard R, S, T, N, L, and E and her chosen letters, read, "__ST _IN_IN_ IT." As the timer started, Hoekstra made a bold attempt to solve the puzzle and seemingly blurted out, “Just winging it,” but the letters didn't turn. She then made a couple of more attempts, but in vain. After the clock ran out, the correct answer was revealed to be "Just winging it." However, as reported by US Weekly, veteran host Pat Sajak believed Hoekstra said, “Just winning it.” And when he declared that the contestant had lost, Hoekstra exhaled with disappointment and said, "So close."

Though Hoekstra accepted defeat, fans believe that she gave the correct answer and slammed the show for robbing the player of winning a staggering $100,000 cash prize. To drive the point home, a viewer of the show posted a replay of the puzzle-solving scene on X and wrote, "Here is the replay. She said it!!!! Looks like Pat started to say “say it again” but stopped. You can tell she is confused it wasn’t right." Another viewer expressed their frustration and said, "She definitely said it right the first time! The 2nd time it sounds like "winning" because the judges didn't say yes. 1st time was "WINGING"!!! She deserved to win!"

Echoing the sentiment, another X user added, "She clearly said winging it. If you listen to her next answers about winning, they were completely different-sounding. It's sad. I'm from the south, I heard it loud and clear." Another agreed, writing, "Woah! @WheelofFortune owes that girl $100k! She clearly said it correctly." However, another netizen debated, "To me she says win-ning it, no hint of a G sound at all. They got the call right according to the rules. She should have repeated it with enunciation."

Though the contestant had not commented on the matter, she earlier told The Lasso that her entire family has been a big fan of the show. “My family watches game shows pretty religiously,” she said, adding, “We always play 'Jeopardy' together. My meemaw has always been an avid watcher of 'Wheel of Fortune'; every dinner we had with her, we were watching the show.” Hoekstra said that she had found a Facebook ad for the show looking for college students, and she thought of her grandmother and applied for it. "It was so cool getting to fill an item on her bucket list and have her travel with me to the show. She just turned 70 and has always wanted to see a taping of an episode," she said.