Fans of Wheel of Fortune love to call out contestants for terrible guesses and hilarious mistakes, but there are plenty of instances when they’ve gone to bat for them, too. Ryan Seacrest began his second season hosting one of the best game shows of all time, with Season 43 premiering on the 2025 TV schedule this month, and already there has been controversy, as a contestant lost after Seacrest talked over her. Here’s what apparently went down.
Wheel of Fortune has been honoring educators on Teachers Week, and Pia Wilson from Dallas, Texas, was one contestant on the September 16 episode. During the last puzzle, she guessed the final consonant, but by the time Ryan Seacrest finished explaining that only vowels were left, her 3 seconds to solve the puzzle had passed. The next contestant immediately got it, and I’d say Wilson didn’t look too pleased:
Fans immediately hit up Reddit to complain that Wilson was “robbed,” and one person who claimed to have been in the audience that day said the incident did, in fact, cause some issues behind the scenes. As wheelycrazyeugene recalls:
Was at the taping for today’s show back in April. There was indeed controversy at the end of the Speed Up. Pia was taken aback by the only vowels left sound and appeared to be waiting for Ryan to finish explaining what it meant though she had the puzzle figured out. Ryan asked her after the cameras stopped rolling if she knew it and she indicated that she did.
Upon watching the episode back, you can hear that Pia Wilson does begin to solve the puzzle after Ryan Seacrest stops talking, but the buzzer cuts her off. The Redditor continued:
A group quickly gathered around her and after some discussion it was decided that they would play an additional $2500 [Top Dollar Value] spinning round that wouldn’t count in the standings where Pia would start and 3 consonants would be revealed before the first spin. In the end she won that round. Had never heard of anything like that happening before.
The person who was reportedly in the audience said that another round was played off-camera to make up for Pia Wilson losing out on the $10,200 she had accumulated in that Speed-Up round. While she apparently won that round, there’s no word on how much money she was able to add to the $4,000 she had earned on previous puzzles.
I think it’s absolutely wild that a whole different puzzle was played to make up for the faux pas. Why couldn’t they have just given the teacher the amount she would have earned? This also begs the question of whether, going forward, the contestants’ three seconds will start after Ryan Seacrest finishes speaking.
I do hope Wheel of Fortune makes that change for future games, but either way, I’m glad they did something to make up for Pia Wilson not being given her fair chance. Check your local listings to see when the game show airs in your area, or you can stream the episode discussed above and others with either a Hulu subscription or Peacock subscription.
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