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Wheel of Fortune/Youtube

That was quite impressive.

Listen, while we all love a hilarious Wheel of Fortune fail, watching an epic win can be just as entertaining. And that’s exactly what recently happened on The Wheel when a contestant named Traci Demus-Gamble made a winning puzzle solve so out-of-nowhere that it made host Ryan Seacrest jokingly check her for a hidden earpiece.

In a clip posted to the show’s YouTube account Friday, Jan. 17, Demus-Gamble waved to her husband who was standing on the sidelines before going up to the stage for her next challenge: guess a four-word “phrase.”

Demus-Gamble wasn’t off to a great start, as only two of her given letters (“T” and “E”) made it to the board. And the odds didn’t improve much after Demus-Gamble, admittedly “nervous,” gave the letters “M,” “C,” “D,” and “O” and only two of those letters showed up once on the board.

“Again, not too much more, but who knows, you’ve had a lot of good luck tonight,” Seacrest said. “Maybe it’ll strike you.”

Then, all in under ten seconds (more like in 1.5 seconds), Demus-Gamble correctly guessed, “They go way back” like it was nothing.

Watch the incredible moment below:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"How in the world did you solve that last one?" Seacrest asked.

"I just dug deep, I dug deep," Demus-Gamble said.

Yeah, you dug real deep," Seacrest replied. "Congratulations, great, great work."

“Now THAT was an amazing solve.”

“Wow! That was impressive!”

“I couldn't solve that one to save my life, but Demus-Gamble got it like it was nothing.”

“There's only one way to describe this to me: 😦”

At the end of the clip, Seacrest opened the envelope to reveal that Demus-Gamble’s puzzle solve won her $50,000, earning her a total win of $78,650. Certainly not chump change.

As for her winning strategy—Demus-Gamble assured no cheating was involved. “I just dug deep," she told Seacrest. We’ll say.

This article originally appeared in January

@ACinPhilly/X

He'll never eat poultry again.

It’s hard to say which is more entertaining—epic game show wins…or hilarious game show fails. Wheel of Fortune has provided us plenty of both over the years, and this time, it delivered a funny defeat that just so happened to be holiday themed.

During the beloved game show’s Dec. 17 episode, a contestant named Phil McManus hailing from Palmer, Massachusetts, attempted to solve a puzzle in “Same Letter” category, with the board reading “Chocolate Chestnuts & Chi_ne_s.”

Declining to buy an "I," McManusdecided to go for gold and guessed “Chocolates, chestnuts and chickens.” And while I suppose you can enjoy chicken on Christmas, this was not the correct answer. Not to mention the “E” and “N” would have to be in a different spot. But hey, our eyes play tricks on us when under pressure!

This set up another contestant to name the correct answer (“Chocolates, chestnuts & chimneys”) and for Wheel of Fortune fans to have a field day.

It ain't a proper Christmas without poultry!, one person joked.

Another quipped., “That was my shopping list last weekend,” someone

Still another person said.“When I think of chocolates and chestnuts, the next word I think of is chickens.”

Meanwhile, someone on Instagram shared, “I laughed so loud that my deaf dog jumped out of her bed,”

Someone else asked,“Love Wheel of Fortune but where do these contestants come from?”

But again, we all make silly mistakes when we’re nervous. This moment actually harkens back to another puzzle solving mishap that happened only a month prior. Instead of guessing “Give yourself a round of applause,” the contestant, named Will, guessed, “Treat yourself a round of sausage.”

In a postmortem interview, he shared, “I tell you, when the lights are on, and you know, the stars and Ryan Seacrest, Vanna White, I just went blank."

Still, he was able to have a good laugh about it, and hopefully McManus was too. And of course, it’s not gonna keep us from screaming at the TV at home.

Henry leaps in excitement after winning Bonkers.

It has to be exciting to be a contestant on the “The Price is Right.” First, the chances of being called by the audience on stage are about 1 in 36. Secondly, of the approximately 9 people called from the audience to play the game, only 6 make it past Contestant’s Row.

So it’s not surprising that someone would get a little excited after making it on the stage with Drew Carey and winning their first game. But a contest named Henry, who appeared on the Thursday, June 15 episode, took things to the next level.


After winning a game of Bonkers, he jumped up and down with his arms stretched over his head and dislocated a shoulder.

But the injury didn’t disqualify Henry from securing his spot in the Showcase Showdown. The judges allowed his wife, Alice, to spin the wheel for him. “Let me explain what happened,” Carey said. “This is Alice, Henry's wife. Henry was celebrating and going 'Woo,' and he dislocated his shoulder. So, he's not going to be able to spin the wheel, but Alice is going to spin the wheel for him,” Carey added.

Alice did a great job at the wheel, spinning 95 cents (intending to get as close to $1 as possible). As Alice cheered, Carey joked, "Don't hurt yourself!" In the end, Henry and his wife won a trip to Hawaii, and he has recovered from the injury.

“He won a trip to Hawaii and the ER,” the gameshow joked on its Instagram page.

Vanna White appeared on "The Price Is Right" in 1980.

Vanna White has been a household name in the United States for decades, which is kind of hilarious when you consider how she gained her fame and fortune. Since 1982, the former model and actress has made millions walking back and forth turning letters (and later simply touching them—yay technology) on the game show "Wheel of Fortune."

That's it. Walking back and forth in a pretty evening gown, flipping letters and clapping for contestants. More on that job in a minute…

As a member of Gen X, television game shows like "Wheel of Fortune" and "The Price is Right" send me straight back to my childhood. Watching this clip from 1980 of Vanna White competing on "The Price is Right" two years before she started turning letters on "Wheel of Fortune" is like stepping into a time machine. Bob Barker's voice, the theme music, the sound effects—I swear I'm home from school sick, lying on the ugly flowered couch with my mom checking my forehead and bringing me Tang.

This video has it all: the early '80s hairstyles, a fresh-faced Vanna White and Bob Barker's casual sexism that would never in a million years fly today.


Vanna White on The Price Is Right (June 20, 1980)www.youtube.com

Vanna was clearly not skilled at guessing prices. In fact, she was pretty terrible at it. But as it turned out, she didn't need to know how much things cost since she ended up basically winning the lottery with her job at "Wheel of Fortune."

Vanna White has made a 40-year career out of wearing dresses, smiling and clapping. That's it. She only works four days a month—not four days a week, four days a month—doing what is arguably the world's easiest and least necessary job. And she earns $10 million a year doing it.

Sometimes this world we humans have created just makes no sense.

Not that I blame Vanna White. If someone offered to pay me $10 million a year to look fabulous in a gown and heels and touch letters and clap for four days a month, I'd do it in a heartbeat. (The clapping is a bigger part of the job than you might think. She actually holds a Guinness World Record for clapping. Seriously.)

I'm sure she's very nice. And she has a charitable yarn line, so that's neat. It's great that she's still going strong and looking amazing at age 64.

I just can't get over how much she makes for how little she does at a superfluous job. I'm not sure who even watches "Wheel of Fortune" these days, but clearly someone does because that's the only way to possibly justify Vanna White's existence in the working world. (Sorry, "working" world.) Are "Wheel of Fortune" viewers all people older than me? They must be because until recently I didn't even know these game shows were still running on network television.

Congrats on being the luckiest human on the planet, Vanna, despite your not making it past the first round of "The Price is Right" in your 20s. May all of our fates be met with such fortune.