A Wheel of Fortune contestant has criticized the game show for the "tricky" puzzle she faced that saw her losing out on winning a car in the Bonus Round.
Elizabeth Sanchez, whose episode aired on March 6, beat her competitors with $19,100 in earnings. She then advanced to the final round, where she was faced with attempting to solve a word puzzle under the category "Around the House."
After being prompted, mother-of-one Sanchez picked the letters J, Y, O, and H, which left her with a two-word puzzle that read: "_ _N_Y J_R."
Sanchez struggled to guess the answer. She offered up "funny jar" and "phony jar" instead of the correct "Candy Jar" before her 10 seconds were up.
Host Pat Sajak then revealed that Sanchez, who is based in Pembroke Pines, Florida, missed out on winning a Chevrolet. The news stung all the more as Sanchez had said earlier on in the episode that her 2-year-old daughter wanted her to win a car.
In an interview with U.K. newspaper The Sun, Sanchez was asked if she thought the puzzle fairly fit the category. She responded: "I personally don't think so. I know a lot of people that don't necessarily have candy jars at home.
"That's why I automatically thought it was either 'honey or money.' But once I saw the H and O didn't light up, I didn't bother to say 'money.' I mean, when I think of a Candy Jar, I think of a convenience store that used to sell 10-cent candy or even a pharmacy or a doctor's office.
"But even then a doctor's office is like a candy dish—you don't necessarily have a Candy Jar," Sanchez added. "I have mixed feelings about it. I honestly for me did not think that was going to be the final puzzle.
"When it lit up, I was like, 'It's so easy why didn't get that?' but I also did tell myself, 'Well, who has a Candy Jar in their house? Are they trying to be tricky?'
"It was an actual object, and you've seen this show long enough to know they're very descriptive about an adjective and then a noun. I could have seen it being fancy jar or even dandy jar," Sanchez said.
Sanchez taped the episode two months before it aired. She said that other people reached out to say that they agreed with her questioning of the puzzle.
Despite her loss, Sanchez added that she thoroughly enjoyed taping her appearance on the long-running game show. She recalled meeting co-host Vanna White ahead of taping, while Sajak appeared once it was time to start shooting.
"Vanna White was super cool—when she came in, she was dressed in jeans, in a T-shirt. She had a hat on," Sanchez said. "She was like, 'Hi guys!' and we were like, 'Oh my god, it's Vanna.'"
She added: "I told them this was the best day of my life, but don't tell my husband because he thinks our wedding was the best day of our lives."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
