High school best friends dominated ‘Wheel of Fortune’ — until one brutal puzzle crushed their $40K dream
Two best friends who appeared on 'Wheel of Fortune' to win some big bucks missed out on $40,000 after failing to solve a tough puzzle. During an episode of 'Wheel of Fortune,' which was aired on October 10, 2024, contestants Toya Johnson-Moore and Dionna Houston competed against Hallie Osborne and Nickie Yerman, and Jenny Bordelove and Alisa Berke. Then, Johnson-Moore and Houston impressed everyone with their incredible puzzle-solving skills, and they secured the top spot on the leaderboard. However, their luck ran out when they were faced with an outrageously difficult puzzle during the Bonus Round. At that point, the duo ended up losing the $40,000 cash prize, which left fans disappointed.
In the episode, Johnson-Moore and Houston kicked off the game by cracking the very first Toss Up puzzle, and they bagged an early lead. Following that, the high school best friends won an exotic Collette tour in New England, worth $9,198, according to a report by Andy Nguyen's blog. Soon after, Osborne and Yerman tried to make a comeback by winning a trip to the Oyster Bay Beach Resort in St. Maarten.
In the end, Johnson-Moore and Houston finished as the night’s big winners with $19,848 in cash and the trip, advancing to the Bonus Round. When the game show host Ryan Seacrest asked Johnson-Moore and Houston to pick a category for their final Bonus Round puzzle, the besties chose "Phrase." At that point, Johnson-Moore was joined on the stage by her boyfriend, Troy, and her mother, Lynn; meanwhile, Houston was accompanied by her boyfriend, Justin.
After "Wheel of Fortune" gave the duo the standard letters, "R, S, T, L, N, E," they selected "D, P, C, A" as their additional letters to round out the puzzle. With everything on the board, their final four-word puzzle looked like “_ T _ R _ S _ _ T _ _ _ T _ A _ L.” As soon as the ten-second timer began, Johnson-Moore and Houston began discussing the puzzle among themselves. They managed to guess the first word, "It," but they had no clue about the remaining three words. Shortly afterward, Seacrest's co-host Vanna White revealed that the correct answer to the puzzle was "IT WORKS WITHOUT FAIL." Then, Seacrest flipped the Golden Envelope and revealed that Johnson-Moore and Houston had lost the chance to take home an additional $40,000.
Once the episode aired, many fans of the show voiced their honest thoughts on Johnson-Moore and Houston's Bonus Round puzzle. One social media user stopped by the comments section and wrote, "Works without fail... but for them it didn't work and made failure. That was really tough this one. Needed another vowel as well." Followed by a second user who penned, "Just going to say another tough puzzle, but happy to see more Black women on Wheel of Fortune trying their very best!!!" Another netizen remarked, "They have the most obscured stuff now." A 'Wheel of Fortune' fan commented, "This was as hard as last night's Living Things puzzle."