He grew up watching ‘Wheel of Fortune’ — but this college dean’s Bonus Round guess cost him $50K
A 'Wheel of Fortune' contestant lost a whopping $50,000 during the Bonus Round. During an episode of 'Wheel of Fortune' that dropped on May 8, Kyle MacDonald, an associate dean of enrollment at Brown University, from Boston, Massachusetts, was seen competing against Jeanette Cothron, from Tuscola, Illinois, and Kiran Makhani, from Portland, Oregon. While having a conversation with the host, Ryan Seacrest, MacDonald revealed that he enjoys visiting grocery stores while traveling to learn what locals eat. Along with this, MacDonald also revealed that while growing up in Canada, he used to watch 'Wheel of Fortune' with his grandmother.
MacDonald kicked off the game by solving the first toss-up and adding $1,000 to his bank. Soon after, Cothron, who has been a teacher for 28 years, solved the second one and bagged $2,000 in her kitty. Then, Cothron took the lead after cracking the first puzzle. Following that, MacDonald took the lead with $9,850 after figuring out the second puzzle, “Listening to the sound of the ocean.” Then, MacDonald won a trip to Vanna White's hometown, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. MacDonald deciphered the prize puzzle, taking his total to $20,850. Shortly afterward, Makhani made her way to the scoreboard by solving one of the Triple Toss-Ups. Cothron and MacDonald solved the other two, earning $2,000 each.
Then, MacDonald added another $5,100 to his bank when he cracked the final puzzle, “Cool Customer," giving him a final total of $27,950. In the end, Cothron went home with $5,550 and Makhani ended with $2,000. Eventually, MacDonald, who was the big winner of the night, selected “Person” for his Bonus Round puzzle. 'Wheel of Fortune' gave MacDonald "R, S, T, L, N, and E," he chose "D, M, P, and O" to round out the puzzle, which looked like “_ _ _OMPL_S_ED _ _ _ _TOR.” As the timer ticked, MacDonald said, "Accomplished Author," but the correct answer was “Accomplished Aviator.” Subsequently, Seacrest informed MacDonald that he had lost out on an additional $50,000.
Once the episode dropped, many fans reacted to MacDonald's big loss. One social media user stopped by the comments section and wrote, "Wheel of Fortune is turning into a disaster." Followed by a second user who penned, "Another $50,000 loser. This has to stop!” Another netizen went on to say, "I swear to god if we don't have a bonus round winner again. Then I swear I'll not be happy about Wheel of Fortune turning into Wheel of Disaster."
Later on, MacDonald shed light on his whole experience after his loss and stated that filming the show was the fastest and slowest day of his life. As per TV Insider, before the episode aired, MacDonald shared his thoughts on Instagram by writing, "I’m so excited to share that I’ll be spinning the Wheel of Fortune on Thursday, May 8! We flew out to California to film this a few weeks ago, and I still can’t believe it’s real. It was the experience of a lifetime and was the fastest 22 minutes of my life! I’ve been a fan of Wheel forever – I’ll always remember sitting with my Nana as a kid watching Pat and Vanna while learning about my ABCs, ampersands, and apostrophes. She instilled in me a (slightly obsessive) love of game shows, and I wish that she could’ve been here to see my dream turn into reality.”
