Since Ryan Seacrest took over the hosting duties from the legendary Pat Sajak, he has produced many great moments and quite a few goof-ups on "The Wheel of Fortune." Most recently, a snafu from the host nearly cost a contestant named Keith Upton $100,000. Luckily for the player, the judges of the show stepped in to save the day.
In the March 27 episode, Upton, from San Diego, California, went up against fellow participants Clare Antoine and Dhaina Grubb. Upton bonded with the host early on over their shared love for coffee and clothing. The player started off with a flyer, solving the first puzzle and earning a Wild Card right off the bat. While his fellow competitors tried to catch up to him, Upton maintained his lead by solving more puzzles, winning money and a grand trip to Barbados.
By the end of the initial rounds, Upton emerged as the big winner with $20,730 in cash. Meanwhile, the other two contestants could only get $18,000 and $1,000 after the initial rounds of the game. Thus, Upton went on to play the "Bonus Round" with a chance of winning a brand new Ford car or up to $100,000.
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For the final puzzle, the player picked the “Event” category. He was joined by his wife, Havilah, on stage, who cheered him on as he took on a three-word puzzle. However, the game did not start off smoothly for the player, as the host encountered a problem early on in the round. As Upton spun the wheel, the marker landed on the edge of the apostrophe and A, and the host couldn't decide which envelope to pick. “Well, that’s interesting. It has never happened to me. Do I go this way or this way, judges?” the host asked. He finally got the message to go with the apostrophe, which turned out to be crucial for the game in the end.
“That was a first for me," Seacrest noted before proceeding with the game. With the standard letters "R, S, T, L, and E" filled in, Upton chose “C,H, D, A," as his additional letters and a "B” as his Wild Card consonant. With everything on the board, the three-word puzzle read, “THE B_ _ _ _NALE.”
Before the ten-second timer kicked off, the player looked quite confident. Without wasting a second, he yelled out “THE BIG FINALE” as his answer, which turned out to be correct. To add to the player's delight, Seacrest went on to reveal that he had won an additional $100,000 from the golden envelope, which essentially the judges picked out for him. As confetti fell from the ceiling, the player celebrated the win by hugging his wife. “That was incredible! When did you know it?” Seacrest asked Upton, who shared that the "ALE" in "FINALE" gave away the answer for him.
In the end, Upton walked home with a grand total of $120,730 from the show. As the total showed up on the screen, he got quite emotional, and Seacrest told him that everyone understood why.
