Two friends nearly win $40K on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ but mess up final puzzle — and we felt the sting too
Two 'Wheel of Fortune' contestants experienced huge heartbreak after losing a whopping $40,000 by a small margin in the Bonus Round. During a 2024 episode of 'WoF,' Hanna Chung and Laura Tarpley were seen competing in the show's 'Girlfriend Getaways' week, and they made it to the finale. However, their luck ran out in the Bonus Round when they were faced with a two-word puzzle. Following their big loss, Chung and Tarpley tried to remain in good spirits, but the fans couldn't believe that they had lost after getting so close to solving the puzzle.
In the episode, Chung and Tarpley battled it out against Jennifer McKee and Lucy Gutierrez, and Rebecca Labarba and Kendra Soucy. Chung and Tarpley kicked off the game on a high note by cracking the very first Toss Up puzzle. In the Mystery Round, Chung and Tarpley increased their lead by figuring out the prize puzzle, winning a trip to the Pineapple Beach Club in Antigua, worth $8,460, according to Andy Nguyen's blog.
In the end, Chung and Tarpley secured the top position on the leaderboard with a total of $20,460 in cash. On the other hand, McKee and Gutierrez walked away with $17,200. Meanwhile, Labarba and Soucy went home with $4,500. Eventually, Chung and Tarpley advanced to the Bonus Round. When the game show host Ryan Seacrest asked the duo to pick a category for their final puzzle, they chose, "What are you wearing?"
After spinning the wheel, Chung and Tarpley picked a Golden Envelope, and they were asked to solve a two-word puzzle. After 'Wheel of Fortune' gave the friends the standard letters, "R, S, T, L, N, E," they selected "P, G, D, and A" as their additional letters to round out the puzzle. However, their choice of letters didn't help them much, as they got only a series of the letter 'A' on the board. With everything on the board, their Bonus Round puzzle looked like "_ A S _ A L A _ T _ _ E _ E A R."
As Seacrest began the ten-second timer, Chung and Tarpley started discussing what the correct answer to the puzzle could be. At that point, they made several guesses, including "Casual attire, and Casual attirewear." However, they failed to get the right answer. Soon after, Vanna White disclosed that the answer was "Casual Activewear." Following that, Seacrest flipped the Golden Envelope and revealed that the contestants missed out on winning an extra $40,000.
Once the episode dropped, several fans of the show expressed their honest thoughts on Chung and Tarpley's tricky puzzle. One fan wrote on the show's clip on YouTube, "Oh man! That was a tough one! I would've said the exact same thing." This was followed by a second user who expressed their frustration and said, "Oh, no!! So close!!! Ugh!!!!" Another went on to say, "I guess they chose 'P' because they thought pastel, but 'C' would have clinched it." A 'Wheel of Fortune' fan commented, "You guys are just trying to hard to fit words together just to make a category. Holy smokes. I get it you don’t want the contestants to win but geez overkill much."
