‘Wheel of Fortune’ Fans Beg Ryan Seacrest to Change His ‘Forced’ Bonus Round Move

Wheel of Fortune’s most prized tradition is the bonus round, where each episode’s winner is faced with one last puzzle and a mere 10 seconds to come away with an even bigger bundle of cash (or not). But fans want a word with host Ryan Seacrest about how he’s presenting the prizes after giving a puzzling amount of build-up to a player’s $40,000 win.

On Friday, November 22’s episode, Brittany Brock, a kindergarten teacher from Chicago, Illinois, was the player to proceed to the coveted bonus round. By then she had won $17,300 in cash, a trip to Kauai, and selected “Living Thing” as her category. With the savvy additional letters of “DPBI” the two-word puzzle read as, “‘_ _ DDL_’ ‘P_PP_’”. Near-instantly, she correctly solved it as “Cuddly Puppy.”

The broadcast cut to Seacrest and an excited Brock, and it was time to reveal how much she won from the prize wedge she picked. Seacrest opened the gold prize card and glanced at the figure. “And…” he told her with a surprised grin (below). After a few seconds he added, “Ready?”

Broke clasped her hands over her mouth in anticipation as Seacrest then revealed she won an extra $40,000, the least one can win in the bonus round. “$40,000!” he exclaimed. This brought her to a grand total of $57,381 and she was overjoyed nonetheless, embraced her husband.

On Social media, many fans celebrated the big win while left wondering why Seacrest presented the prize with such a prolonged rollout that it seemed like a bigger value and as if the confetti was about to overflow onto the Sony Pictures Studios parking lot.

“Ryan acting like it’s $75,000 or $100,000 with the slow way he shows the amount,” one fan wrote when the game show shared the clip to YouTube.

Over on the WoF Reddit, a fan dedicated a discussion thread to the moment titling it, “Bonus Reveal… lolz.” They continued, “I like Seacrest, but gotta admit, I’m not a fan of the dramatic 40K reveals lol.”

“Agreed…” a second user wrote, arguing that a contestant in the future could be “disappointed” it’s not more.

“The Mrs. and I commented on that last night. He presents it like it’s something more than the minimum prize amount! One of these days, the contestant is going to react disappointedly.”

A third wrote, “He also contorts his body awkwardly and bounces around to just flip the card open. Then says ‘it was this much’ as if he can’t say the amount. Kind of weird. But the lack of higher amounts lately is noticed. I’m glad it’s been all cash so far. A lot of the cars prior were 30k, which is nice, but they were lowest prize.”

“I agree, feels like he’s forcing it,” wrote a fourth.

A fifth was even more critical, “I’m sorry I know a lot of people are going to get mad at me but I just don’t like him. There’s something about him, that I just don’t enjoy watching him in anything at all.”

Meanwhile, Seacrest, of course, had huge shoes to fill replacing the legendary Pat Sajak alongside the iconic Vanna White after four decades for Season 42. His debut month was the strongest ratings month for WoF in the past three years, and viewers were already treated to a viral moment (via a round of sausage). That said, there have been some other questionable moments according to fans.

In September, Seacrest suffered what fans dubbed his “first blooper”, involving a prolonged reaction to rewarding a bonus round. Fans also called out the host for ruling against another player before the timer was up. There have also been a few on-screen “glitches,” and a minor spelling error in a Thanksgiving puzzle. Many fans also blamed a lack of experience on Seacrest’s mishandling of a contestant’s $1million wedge, which she instantly forfeited.