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'Wheel of Fortune' player who said he 'never gets lucky' walks away with $60K after controversial ruling

'Wheel of Fortune' Season 42 contestant Travis McGaney was long overdue for luck after a dramatic, last-minute win

'Wheel of Fortune' is a game that one may think is based on sheer skill, but luck also has a part to play. Without lady luck, one can only go so far. Such was the case with Travis McGaney, from Los Angeles, California, a contestant with a towering height yet gentle demeanor who told Ryan Seacrest, the host, “I never get lucky; I guess I’m due.” From a controversial ruling to a dramatic $60,000 win, it seemed like Lady Luck was truly on McGaney's side during his Wednesday, March 26, appearance. 

With already $20,000 in his pocket, McGaney spun the wheel and as the wheel slowly came to a halt, it stopped on ‘S.’. Since McGaney had picked the category “Phrases,” he was provided with the usual R, S, T, L, N, and E, revealing the unfinished phrase: “__N T T_E __RE.” With the unfinished phrase on the screen, it was time for McGaney to select his own set of vowels and consonants. He chose H, C, M, and O and immediately the puzzle started making more sense as the unfinished phrase now became “_O_N TO THE __RE.”

Sure, the phrase looked easy to solve. But McGaney only had 10 seconds to solve it and the pressure was mounting. With only a couple of seconds remaining, he kept mumbling words to himself, hoping he would figure it out. And just when the time was about to run out—boom!—got it. He blurted it out in a hurry: “Down to the wire.” The moment was so sudden and unexpected that even Vana White, the co-host, cheered a little cheer. Finally, McGaney hugged Seacrest with a warm smile as he knew he was taking home a whopping amount of $60,598.

However, this wasn’t the only time McGaney’s luck was on his side. Since this was the bonus round, McGaney had already been playing with two other players before, Serena Sahadeo and Frank DiGangi. Proclaiming himself to be a language and geography nerd, McGaney continued to dominate this round. During the 'Triple Toss-Up' round, as the second puzzle rolled in, Sahadeo quickly said the word “economist.” The game went silent for a few seconds as that was the obvious word, but as Seacrest looked to the judges, their answer was no. McGaney, being the opportunist he is, made use of this chance and quickly said the word “economist” again but with the proper pronunciation.

What had happened was that Sahadeo had pronounced the word “Echo-no-mist,” which is the wrong pronunciation of the word. Many fans of the show initially believed that she deserved to win the game prize, but a Reddit user cleared this out, stating that “one of the rules of ‘Wheel of Fortune’ is when a contestant tries to solve a puzzle, they must pronounce it using the generally accepted pronunciation,” a spokesperson for the game show told TODAY,” according to TV Insider. This earned McGaney $2000, which ballooned up to a total of $20,598 by the end of the round, along with a trip to Finland as a cherry on the cake.