'Wheel of Fortune' firefighter loses out on $40K — and fans blame Bonus Round puzzle that made no sense
'Wheel of Fortune' fans were left disappointed after a contestant lost a huge cash prize during the Bonus Round due to an unusual puzzle. In a May 2025 episode of 'Wheel of Fortune,' three North Providence firefighters competed against each other. The show's 'Bragging Rights' week episode showed Darrin Gallagher from Narragansett facing off against Tim Stebenne from Lincoln and Melissa 'Missy' Porter from Johnston. After acing the first few rounds of the beloved puzzle game, Gallagher was baffled by the Bonus Round puzzle. At that point, the veteran firefighter failed to solve it and lost $40,000.
Gallagher may have had a rocky start, but he got back into the rhythm in the Express Round and managed to solve the Prize Puzzle, winning a trip to Panama. Shortly afterward, Gallagher cracked some more puzzles in the Triple Toss Up round, adding $10,000 to his bank. In the end, he was the big winner of the night with $20,150 in cash. On the other hand, Stebenne went home with over $12,000, and Porter left with $7,000.
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Eventually, Gallagher advanced to the Bonus Round. When the game show host, Ryan Seacrest, asked Gallagher to pick a category, he chose 'What are you doing?' As the player spun the wheel, his colleagues Stebenne and Porter stood behind him on the podium in second and third place. After selecting his prize envelope, Gallagher had to solve a three-word puzzle. After 'Wheel of Fortune' gave Gallagher the standard letters, R, S, T, L, N, and E, he went on to choose K, D, G, and A as his additional letters to round out the puzzle.
At last, Gallagher's Bonus Round puzzle looked like "TAK_NG A _ _ _ _ _," with one word completely missing. As Seacrest began the ten-second timer, Gallagher started trying to work out the puzzle. He was able to guess the first part of the puzzle correctly, but he had no clue about the last word. Before the time ran out, he could only say, "Taking a..." Before revealing the answer, Seacrest quipped, "Taking a cue could go a lot of different places." The correct answer to the puzzle was revealed to be "Taking a whiff."
According to Market Realist, after learning the right answer, Gallagher went on to say, "I would not have gotten that. Maybe if I got an F, maybe I don't know." Soon after, Seacrest flipped the Golden Envelope and informed Gallagher that he just missed out on a whopping $40,000. Following his loss, Seacrest told him, "Well, great to meet you. I think you did alright, my friend," to which Gallagher responded, "I'm not complaining."
Once the episode dropped, several fans of the show expressed their honest thoughts on Gallagher's final puzzle. One social media user stopped by the comments of the YouTube video and wrote, "That was a hard one, surprisingly. I knew the first parts were “Taking A” without the letter selection, but that last word was odd because there was no T or R. I’ve heard of Take A Whiff, but not Taking A Whiff." This was followed by a second user who penned, "Boy, that was a tough puzzle, taking a Whiff, really, really? What is that puzzle? That one was a horrible bonus round puzzle." Another netizen commented, "What a dumb puzzle. Plus, that was impossible without any letters in the last word."
