{"id":18765,"date":"2025-05-14T19:37:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T19:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/?p=18765"},"modified":"2025-05-14T19:37:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T19:37:47","slug":"wheel-of-fortune-puzzle-turns-heads-after-fans-slam-how-hard-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/?p=18765","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Wheel of Fortune\u2019 Puzzle Turns Heads After Fans Slam How Hard It Is"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A recent episode of Wheel of Fortune ended in frustration \u2014 not just for the contestant, but for fans watching at home. Contestant Kyle MacDonald, an associate dean from Brown University, lost out on a $50,000 grand prize in the Bonus Round, marking the eighth such loss in a row on the long-running game show.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8887-300x183.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-18766\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8887-300x183.webp 300w, https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8887.webp 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\nShow hostess Vanna White in a \u2018Wheel of Fortune\u2019 episode, Photo Credit: Wheel Of Fortune\/Youtube<\/p>\n<p>The May 8 broadcast featured MacDonald playing against Kiran Makhani from Portland, Oregon, and Jeanette Cothron from Tuscola, Illinois. Throughout the show, MacDonald delivered a strong performance. He racked up a total of $27,950 in cash and prizes, including trips to both Costa Rica and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. But the final puzzle proved to be his undoing.<\/p>\n<p>In the Bonus Round, MacDonald, who brought his husband Andrew as his guest, selected \u201cPerson\u201d as the puzzle category. After being given the standard letters R, S, T, L, N, and E, he chose D, M, P, and O. The resulting puzzle: \u201c_ _ _OMPL_S_ED _ _ _ _TOR.\u201d<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8888-300x183.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-18767\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8888-300x183.webp 300w, https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8888.webp 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\nShow host Ryan Seacrest and contestant Kyle MacDonald in a \u2018Wheel of Fortune\u2019 episode, Photo Credit: Wheel Of Fortune\/Youtube<\/p>\n<p>With just seconds to solve it, MacDonald guessed \u201cAccomplished Author,\u201d getting the first word correct but stumbling on the second. The correct answer? \u201cAccomplished Aviator.\u201d That missed word cost him a staggering $50,000.<br \/>\nHost Ryan Seacrest, in his debut season, broke the news on-air with a sympathetic tone. The miss started an outpouring of reactions online.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8889-300x192.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"192\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-18768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8889-300x192.webp 300w, https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8889.webp 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Show hostess Vanna White in a \u2018Wheel of Fortune\u2019 episode, Photo Credit: Wheel Of Fortune\/Youtube<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnother Bonus Round loss? This is turning into a disaster,\u201d one frustrated YouTube viewer commented. Another joined in, \u201cThis is painful to watch. How many more contestants have to lose $50,000 before someone breaks the streak?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the loss, MacDonald remained upbeat. After filming wrapped, he reflected on the experience via Instagram, calling it \u201cthe fastest 22 minutes of my life.\u201d He added, \u201cIt was the experience of a lifetime, and I still can\u2019t believe it actually happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also shared how Wheel of Fortune played a part in his childhood, recalling nights spent watching the show with his grandmother in Canada. \u201cShe would\u2019ve been thrilled to see this,\u201d he wrote, noting how the show helped him learn his ABCs and sparked a lifelong love of game shows.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8890-300x178.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-18769\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8890-300x178.webp 300w, https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_8890.webp 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\nShow hostess Vanna White in a \u2018Wheel of Fortune\u2019 episode, Photo Credit: Wheel Of Fortune\/Youtube<\/p>\n<p>The episode\u2019s other contestants walked away with smaller prizes \u2014 Cothron finished with $5,550, and Makhani earned $2,000. But it was MacDonald\u2019s near-win that stole the spotlight \u2014 and left fans once again questioning the difficulty of the Bonus Round.<\/p>\n<p>As the Bonus Round drought continues, fans are wondering: is the wheel stacked a little too steep?<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kyle&#039;s Bonus Round! | S42 | Wheel of Fortune\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5LOCtvFQLBk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent episode of Wheel of Fortune ended in frustration \u2014 not just for the contestant, but for fans watching at home. Contestant Kyle MacDonald, an associate&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18770,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18765\/revisions\/18770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}