‘Wheel of Fortune’: Pat Sajak Reacts to Contestant’s $100K Loss

Seeing a contestant lose out in the bonus round is always tougher when it’s one of the bigger prizes, such as the case was in the March 18 episode of Wheel of Fortune.

Cairo Hunter (from Fontana, California) made it to the bonus round after winning $28,267. His options for his bonus round category were: Phrase, Thing, and Living Things. He chose Phrase. The letters he then chose were the three consonants H, M, and G and the vowel A. That gave him the board pictured above (THE_ HA_E G___ __AL_T_ES.

With the 10 seconds to try to figure it out, Hunter got as far as “They Have Good…” Then, time ran out. “You got three-quarters of it,” host Pat Sajak told him. “They have good something.” The correct answer was “They Have Good Qualities.” Sajak then opened the envelope, and without reading what was inside aloud, noted, “Wow, so the important thing is that he’s won $28,267. I guess there’s no putting this off.” Sajak then winced as he showed that Hunter had lost out on $100,000.

“Well, how do you think I feel?” the host asked the camera. “And him. You had a big night. You should be very pleased. Twenty-eight thousand plus, nice going.” He turned and shook Hunter’s hand.

This loss came after Hunter had a couple notable solves. For Same Letter, after an incorrect guess (“Galactics Gadgets Gizmos”), he solved when it was his turn again that round and was right with “Galaxies Gadgets Gizmos.” After that, Sajak remarked, “if at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again. Although, that could be our next puzzle. I may have screwed that up.” And in Fun & Games, with the board showing the below, Hunter correctly solved “Performing in a Talent Show.” Sajak called that “very nice.” With that, Hunter won a Disney Cruise Line vacation to the Caribbean featuring Marvel Day at Sea, worth $11,667.