‘Wheel of Fortune’ fans baffled by obscure puzzle: ‘WTF is that’
“Wheel of Fortune” fans are angry at the longtime game show for using an uncommon action as the answer to a contestant’s bonus prize.
On Tuesday night’s episode, a contestant named Angela was just seven letters away from completing and correctly guessing the bonus round puzzle, which ultimately would have sent her home with an extra $45,000.
After guessing the letters “M, H, D and O” to add to the “What Are You Doing?” category, she had 10 seconds to solve the puzzle, which read “_ O _ N _ N _ THE _ R _ _.”
“Joining the cramp, joining the cra-, oop!” she finagled, almost saying “crap.”
“Joining the brag?!” she guessed as her final answer.
“Oop!” host Pat Sajak, 76, reacted to time running out. “Joining the fray,” he revealed the correct response.
“You got joining … that was a really nice try,” Sajak encouraged Angela, revealing that she missed out on the $45,000 grand bonus prize.
“Not a problem,” she said, keeping her head held high when Sajak showed her the large sum she missed out on.
Oyster English claims the idiom “join the fray” means to “participate in a fight or argument that had already started.”
While Angela still took home $20,563 in winnings from the show, fans on social media slammed the program for choosing the phrase to begin with.
“#Angela on @WheelofFortune got a piece of CRAP bonus round. I have NEVER heard of ‘joining the fray’ before in my ENTIRE life. Can we get some kind of #Sponsor to give this woman a #prize ??????? What the hell kind of puzzle was that??? Come on now. #ridiculous!! Let’s get this,” one passionate viewer tweeted.
“Exactly!! I needed to get on Twitter and make sure I wasn’t the only one going “wtf is that!!” someone else responded.
“Whatever snooty ny times crossword puzzle doing harvard grad that yall got to come up with JOINING THE FRAY needs to take his expectations down a peg.. #wof #WheelOfFortune, another reacted.
One added: “@WheelofFortune WHAT THE HECK IS ‘JOINING THE FRAY?’ I’m intelligent, but that is stupid.”
Meanwhile, one viewer claimed the puzzle was “valid.”
“@WheelofFortune just because some viewers never heard of ‘joining the fray’ doesn’t mean it’s not valid. Those that complained, ‘Joined the fray’ whether they knew it or not. What’s with all the ridiculous haters? There are judges behind the camera double checking answers,” they wrote.
Another agreed: “I had to come and check out the outrage to be sure, people have really never heard the word “fray”. Do people not read anymore? Shakespeare? LOTR?”
The Post has contacted reps for “Wheel of Fortune” for comment.
In more recent “Wheel” shenanigans, co-host Vanna White, 66, visually scolded Sajak on a recent episode after he revealed that he plays a morbid trick on his wife every year on her birthday.
