‘Wheel of Fortune’ player celebrates huge win after solving the perfect puzzle with just 0.9 seconds left
'Wheel of Fortune' contestant Matt Benton expressed his joy after winning a major jackpot on the popular game show. In the Bonus Round, Benton came close to losing while solving his final puzzle. During an episode of 'Wheel of Fortune,' which originally aired on February 5, Benton, a Navy veteran and realtor from Blythewood, South Carolina, competed against Myrna Joy Pilot, from Los Angeles, California, and Bruna Valente-Bua, from Revere, Massachusetts. In the episode, Benton emerged as the big winner of the night after winning $22,148 in cash and a trip to Iceland. He then advanced to the Bonus Round.
When the game show host Ryan Seacrest asked Benton to pick a category for his final puzzle, he chose "Place." Soon after, Benton was joined on the stage by his wife, Stephanie. The couple has three children: Josiah, Leia, and Gibson. As per the norm of the show, Benton was given the standard letters, "R, S, T, L, N, and E.” Soon after, Benton picked the letters “F, D, G, and O" to round out the puzzle, which looked like "_ F_R_ _ _ _ L_ND.”
As the ten-second timer began, the high school golf coach made his first guess and said, "A Foreign Land." Shortly afterward, Benton made a few more guesses, including “A Fairytale Land” and “A Forbidden Land.” At the very last moment, Benton guessed, "A Faraway Land,” which turned out to be the correct answer. According to TV Insider, Seacrest said, “Yes! That’s it! With 0.9 seconds to go, you got it in time!” Then, Seacrest opened the Golden Envelope and revealed that Benton had won an extra $40,000 and a trip to the Canadian Rockies, taking his total to $78,148. After Benton's big win, Seacrest told him, "Congratulations! You went through all of the lands, and you got the right one!”
During an interview with ABC 25 Columbia, Benton candidly spoke about his win on the beloved game show 'Wheel of Fortune.' While recalling his entire experience, Benton shared, “It’s extremely gratifying. I’ve dreamt of being on Wheel of Fortune since I was a kid. I probably watched it 90% of the nights it was on and watched it with my mom. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to be on it. And if you’re gonna be on it, you want to win it."
Later on, Benton revealed what was going through his head during the Bonus Round and explained, “I tried to give myself a break even before filming began. I kind of said, ‘You know what? This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If you win or lose, it’s gonna be a great day, and so by the time I made it to the bonus round when I’d won the main part of the game, I was like, ‘You know what? It can’t get much better than this.'”
When the Navy vet was asked about his future plans, he stated that he would like to appear on 'Jeopardy!' someday. While gushing over his time on 'Wheel of Fortune,' Benton continued, "Next is just enjoying what we have, I’ll probably ride this high for a little bit. This is really exciting, and so I really try to live in the moment, these couple of trips that I won are gonna be incredible, and I try to be smart with the money I won."
