‘Wheel of Fortune’ Contestant Has ‘Tough’ Bonus Round Loss in Drama-Packed Episode

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Monday’s (February 3) episode of Wheel of Fortune had its fair share of drama, including a controversial mispronunciation ruling and a Bonus Round puzzle that some fans called “impossible.”

The episode saw a three-way showdown between Brian Nelson, a high school football and basketball official from Longview, Texas, Arzice Salonga, a former Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader from Medina, Ohio, and Krystal Adams from Kenosha, Wisconsin, who told host Ryan Seacrest she has a dog named Buttercup who barks along to the show’s puzzles.

Adams proved to be a force from early on in the episode, solving the $2,000 Tossup and the Round 1 puzzles, giving her an early lead with $5,900. Meanwhile, Nelson trailed closely behind with $3,700, and Salonga had yet to get on the board.

Salonga fought back in the Express Round, taking the lead with $13,698. However, Adams regained the lead in the Triple Tossup and Speed Up rounds, giving her an episode-winning total of $17,600.

Heading into the Bonus Round, Adams selected the “Person” category, along with the additional letters “C, H, P, and I.”

Unfortunately, this didn’t give her much to work with, leaving her with a two-word puzzle that read: “_ _ _ _ / _ _ I T _ R I S T.”

As the ten-second timer counted down, Adams struggled to even come up with a guess. Vanna White then revealed the answer as “Jazz Guitarist.”

“I don’t know how you were gonna get there,” Seacrest added as he opened the prize envelope to reveal Adams missed out on an extra $40,000 and a trip to the Canadian Rockies.

Fans jumped into the comments to commiserate Adams’ loss, with many noting how the puzzle was nearly “impossible” to figure out.

“Totally impossible, at least for me, with the little help she had,” wrote one YouTube commenter.

“Wow that’s really tricky,” said another.

“I knew Guitarist but didn’t know the first word at all. That was a tough one,” another added.

Another wrote, “Tough puzzle, but good attitude anyway.”

“This was hard,” said one fan.

What did you think of Monday’s episode? Did you figure out this Bonus Round puzzle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.