As a frequent consumer of the Game Show Network due to a lot of childhood illnesses, one of my lifelong dreams has been to appear on Wheel of Fortune — but a minor technicality on the show just deprived a contestant of a brand-new Audi Q3, and I’m thinking the magic of the game show may have just died this Christmas season.
Charlene Rubush headed into the Bonus Round with $16,500 and a chance to win the aforementioned Audi. The puzzle in question was part of the “What Are You Doing?” category. Rubush tried to answer “choosing the right card,” which was incorrect. She changed that answer to “choosing the right... word” just before the buzzer sounded.
That pause before “word” is what denied her a new car.
Host Pat Sajak told Rubush, “You know, this one’s tough, because you said all the right words, including the word ‘word,’ but as you know, it’s gotta be more or less continuous. We’ll allow for a little pause, but not four or five seconds. I’m sorry. You did a good job in getting it, but we can’t give you the prize, and it was the Audi.”
Imagine losing out on a new car because of a few seconds. I, for one, would be irate — though perhaps not as irate as I could have been, considering Rubush still walked away from the show with $16,500 in cash and a nice vacation. A nice Audi Q3 SUV, with a starting price over $35,000, would have been quite a solid addition to an already-handsome prize package.
You can watch the full clip below:
Folks on social media are demanding that Audi send Rubush a car to make up for Wheel of Fortune’s error, which would certainly be a nice gesture from the German company this holiday season.