Wheel of Fortune viewers were left scratching their heads when a contestant who was doing quite well seemingly had her winnings disappear from the game.
Carla, who made an impression with her playing and memorable yellow shirt, had racked up $6,750 when all of a sudden her prize screen reset to $0 for no discernible reason.
But the next time she was on screen her winnings showed $1,450.
Carla had been trying to guess the puzzle in the “Thing” category and was looking for “A Warm Evening Breeze.”
After getting to $6,750, she incorrectly guessed “d” and lost her turn, giving her two competitors a chance for a turn. But they also couldn’t get any letters on the board.
When Carla’s turn came back, host Pat Sajak implied that she had $0 even though she had not landed on a bankrupt wedge.
Carla guessed “g” to get $700, and told her, “Well, you got some money back, $700.”
After buying the vowel “i” for $250, Carla landed on an express wedge. After she correctly guessed “m” for $1,000, she decided to use the express privilege to solve the puzzle.
But her combined winnings were shown to be only $5,200, significantly less than the $6,750 she had at the start of the round.
Fans watching at home were very confused after trying to work out the math and wondered if there had been an editing error by the team at Wheel of Fortune.
One viewer tweeted: “Was watching tonight with my daughter. Woman named Carla solved ‘A Warm Evening Breeze.’ On her 1st letter she spun $3500 & got 2 R’s for 7k & bought a vowel. She missed a letter. Then it came back to her. She got $1k express & solved but her $6,750 vanished.”
Another said: “What happened to that lady’s money in the yellow? She had already won 7,000 and then it was erased.”
A third commented: “What happened tonight with the woman-in-yellow’s money?”
And a fourth wrote on Wheel of Fortune’s official Instagram page: “I don’t understand tonight’s show… Where the heck did her $6750 go?… She should have had a total of $30,149. But because they wiped out her money in the evening breeze puzzle for no reason and only gave her the $5200 and trip amount winnings $7799, that put her at a total of $24,399.”
The viewer continued: “My mom thinks the editor screwed up and there must have been an entire round that wasn’t televised and created no letters put on the board because no additional ones went up that I didn’t see. My mom rewatched it several times. I rewatched it nine times thinking I had missed something. We’re on the West Coast (Pacific Standard time), anybody else catch this???”
@WheelofFortune Was watching tonight with my daughter. Woman named Carla solved “A Warm Evening Breeze.” On her 1st letter she spun $3500 & got 2 R’s for 7k & bought a vowel. She missed a letter. Then it came back to her. She got $1k express & solved but her $6,750 vanished. 🤔
— Game Hunter (@MrGameHunter) March 15, 2023