Wheel of Fortune viewers were left ‘screaming’ at their TVs after a contestant made a very unfortunate blunder this week.
On Monday’s episode of the iconic gameshow, Connecticut resident Will Jordan was playing for the jackpot alongside Kitina Thomas and Chantel Toran, and has managed to go down in TV history with his gaffe.
After filling the board up with three Us, Will felt confident enough and announced that he would ‘like to solve the puzzle’.
With huge gusto, the veteran police officer declared: ‘Treat yourself a round of sausage.’
It seems as though Will realized his mistake almost immediately as he could be heard uttering: ‘No’.
‘I’m sorry that’s not it,’ host Ryan Seacrest replied before turning his attention to Kitina, who correctly solved the clue with ‘give yourself a round of applause’.
‘Yeah, that’s it!’ the presenter said, quipping: ‘Although, Will, I kind of like yours better. That sounds better than just clapping right now.’
Will ended the show in third place but he didn’t leave empty-handed, winning whopping $8,000 – which is more than enough for a round of sausage or two…
Kitina finished as runner-up with $10,500, while Chantel won the episode with $13,000.
In a video on the program’s official Instagram page, Maggie Sajak – daughter of longtime Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak – caught up with Will to unpack his infamous error.
“Alright Will, we had a little missolve in the first game,’ she said. ‘That’s okay! Could you walk me through how you’re feeling?’
‘I tell you, when the lights are on, and the stars and Ryan Seacrest, Vanna White… I just went blank,’ he replied.
‘But, if your dad, in retirement, is watching this show, maybe cracks a beer and gets a laugh, it was worth it.’
After Maggie promised they would tune in for the episode, he added: ‘Awesome. And I’m sure I’m going to have sausages in my locker and police car when I get back. So we’ll try and have some fun with it.’
Those watching on from home couldn’t get enough of the blunder and flocked to the comments below the Instagram post, making light of his answer.
Teresastebbins wrote: ‘I was SCREAMING at the TV!! That wasn’t the only ridiculous flub he made!!!’
Bkroady said: ‘So funny! I bet it’s hard when the cameras and lights are on you.’
‘Happens to everyone, but that’s funny. The way he held back a laugh too. Whoops,’ Jennythesleepypanda agreed.
Felice_Paden commented: ‘He made my day! I can’t imagine the stress of playing but still cracked me up!’
As Adamstabelli added: ‘What a good guy. I hope Pat got a good laugh out of it.’
Pat bowed out of the gameshow earlier this year following more than four decades on our screens, with his final episode airing in June.
He replaced Chuck Woolery over as the US version of Wheel of Fortune’s frontman in 1981, with co-host Vanna White joining the following year.
After more than 8,000 shows, he bid farewell with an emotional instalment, telling fans: ‘The time has come to say goodbye’.
Five best quiz errors of all time
University Challenge
Things went a little haywire during an episode of University Challenge when host Bamber Gascoigne offered up a relatively easy question in one competition, asking: ‘What was Gandhi’s first name?’
One contestant panicked under the pressure and quickly responded: ‘Goosey?’
Unsurprisingly, they did not get the point.
Wheel of Fortune
Things got a little X-rated on one episode of Wheel of Fortune when one star’s answer left the audience gasping in shock.
They were asked to fill the gaps in a well known phrase, with the clue: ‘ _ _ _ _ _N T_E _ _ _T!’
Full of confidence, a player immediately buzzed to offer up: ‘Right in the butt!’
The answer left the crowd – and fellow contestants – completely shocked, while the contestant quickly realized that he was way off, leaving his co-star to correctly answer: ‘This is the best!’
The Chase
In 2021, Bradley Walsh was beside himself during an episode of the Chase, when a question came up about fictional soap pubs.
A quizzer was seriously stumped after being asked: ‘Which pub serves Betty’s Hot Pot?’
You don’t have to be a soap fan to know about the dish, which has been a staple of the Rovers Return menu for years in Coronation Street – but that particular contestant suggested the hearty meal was actually on another menu entirely.
Clearly struggling, he instead answered: ‘Wetherspoons.’
Betty would definitely have barred him…
The Chase
Another Chase classic saw the Beast, aka Mark Labbett, give a rare wrong answer when Bradley asked him what year the Balfour declaration was written in.
He appeared confused and answered 1918, but was informed by the host that he was wrong.
However, it appeared that the hopefuls themselves weren’t quite paying attention either as they conferred, blurting out the exact same answer.
They tried to change their answer to 1917 but sadly it was way too late…
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?
It hasn’t been smooth sailing Down Under either as two contestants found out during an appearance on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Australia’s spin-off, Millionaire Hot Seat.
The pressure of winning a fortune clearly got the better of two players when they managed to fluff a question that nearly anyone could answer with ease.
When host Eddie McGuire asked which of the following is not a dinosaur, offering a multiple choice of ‘Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Brachiosaurus and Thesaurus’, viewers across Oz yelled the answer at their TV pair.
Sadly, the contestants couldn’t quite hear them as they ended up passing on the question entirely…
‘I want to start with all of you watching out there. It’s been an incredible privilege to be invited into millions of homes. Night after night, year after year, decade after decade.
‘I’ve always felt that the privilege came with a responsibility to keep half-hour a safe place for family fun. No social issues, no politics, nothing embarrassing, I hope. Just a game.’
Ryan was announced as the new host in September, and previously told People Magazine of his role: ‘The good thing about this game show is that you get to be yourself.
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‘It has a little looseness to it. It doesn’t have to be so strict and so formatted. It has those moments of real life and humanity.’