‘Wheel of Fortune’ player gets close to solving Bonus Round — but one outdated word ruins her chances
A 'Wheel of Fortune' player experienced a huge loss during the Bonus Round. In a Season 42 episode of 'Wheel of Fortune' that aired on May 21, Amy Johnston, from Schertz, Texas, faced off against Jon Reinink, from Indianapolis, Indiana, and Misha Graves, from Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the beginning of the episode, Graves, a mother of seven, solved the first two toss-up puzzles and earned $3,000. Soon after, Graves also solved the first puzzle, “Hula Hoops and Happy Hour,” which gave her a big lead on the scoreboard.
Johnston, who once opened for an Elvis impersonator at a Chinese restaurant, finally got on board by solving the Mystery Puzzle, which said, “Ice Cream in a Waffle Cone.” Johnston took the lead by solving the Prize Puzzle, “Shake off the Winter Blues,” after guessing most of the letters. She won a trip to Lake Tahoe, bringing her total to $13,739. Johnston bagged another $10,000 in her bank after guessing all three Triple Toss-Ups. Ultimately, Johnston advanced to the Bonus Round after solving the final puzzle, “Wellness Spa.” In the end, Johnston's total was $28,539. Graves finished with $5,000, while Reinink received the standard $1,000 consolation prize after failing to win any money.
During the Bonus Round, Johnston selected “What are you doing?” Then, Johnston was joined by her parents and her middle daughter, Kayla, on the stage. After receiving the standard letters “R, S, T, L, N, and E,” Johnston selected “G, C, M, and O.” At last, the puzzle looked like “_ _ _ _ NG _T O_ER NO_.” As the clock counted down, Johnston first guessed, "Something's over now." While making a few guesses, Johnston quipped, “Picking it over now, Making it over now, Taking it over now, Watching it over now, I got nothing."
The correct answer to the puzzle was “Faxing it over now.” As per TV Insider, after losing out on an additional $40,000, Johnston said, “Of course. I don’t even know what faxing means." After the episode aired, fans of the show shared their reactions to the puzzle online. One social media user stopped by the comments section and wrote, "OK, that one really didn’t seem fair because who on this planet uses a fax machine anymore??”
Followed by a second user who penned, "The person who is making these final puzzles should be fired. These are impossible.” Another user went on to say, “Pretty sure until now, a lot of people forgot at one point, things could be faxed over. This puzzle seemed a little cruel." A user chimed in, "Seriously? Faxing? Who’s going to guess that? Also, since it was pretty obvious O and G were in the puzzle, it would be wise to not pick those." One user remarked, "Such a dumb puzzle."