The show may have a new host, but it’s clearly still up to some of its old, familiar tricks.
Wildly popular and enduring game show “Wheel of Fortune” went viral again (as it often and bizarrely does) after Monday’s show ended with a crestfallen contestant.
That Monday show, which returned from an offseason hiatus on Sept. 9 — and with Ryan Seacrest replacing the legendary Pat Sajak as host — saw a woman named Vivian making it to the bonus round with Seacrest.
In short, the woman had a shot to win a million dollars.
In shorter, she did not.
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You can watch the entire, agonizing three-minute clip below:
After spinning the wheel and having Seacrest pluck a mystery envelope, the new host got to work laying out the word puzzle for Vivian.
With the category chosen (“What are you doing?”), Seacrast had co-host Vanna White select the following letters: R, S, T, L, N and E.
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Vivian than selected an anagram of “chimp,” by choosing, in order: C, H, M, I and P.
That left Vivian with the following puzzle to suss out: “_ _ _ ERIN _ / S _ ME / HELP.”
With the latter two-thirds of the phrase clearly “SOME HELP,” Vivian set about to try and solve the first word — with her incorrect answers getting worse with each passing attempt.
“Wondering some help, answering some help, um, finding some help, looking around for some help, um, boundering for help, uh …” And that’s when the buzzer hit.
The correct answer turned out to be “offering some help,” which is an agonizing miss on its own, given the simplicity of the verbiage.
But then Seacrest showed Vivian the amount she would’ve won, had she correctly answered.
The longtime television personality opened the envelope and showed Vivian that she missed out on “one million” dollars.
âYou were so close to that million dollars,â Seacrest said.
A visibly shell-shocked Vivian appeared to almost be on the verge of tears, causing Seacrest to check in with her.
It’s all a very painful (or at least awkward) moment that will go down in the annals of the show’s history, but it’s hardly the first such moment.
As missed as he is, former host Pat Sajak was no stranger to controversy.
Sajak’s old school sensibilities found him often offending swathes of liberal-leaning viewers with his quirkiness.
And even when Sajak was largely held in-check, the show still found ways to upset viewers and contestants alike.
Given the viral nature of this show, it should be little surprise that it’s still around nearly 50 years after its original run in 1975 with then-host Chuck Woolery.
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