‘Wheel of Fortune’ Sparks Outrage After Repeating a Puzzle From a Month Ago
ABC
Wheel of Fortune fans are never shy about calling out puzzles that read as questionable or unfair to them on social media. However, after November 25’s episode, something they felt was truly egregious bubbled up to the surface. A puzzle aired for the third time that was first used a few years back and again just last month during the now-airing Season 42.
The most recent occurrence involved the players solving three “Fun and Games” toss-ups near the end of the game (above). The second puzzle consisted of two words. It was correctly solved as “Ocean Kayaking.”
When it aired, a shocked fan took to the WoF subreddit to share the three instances in which the contestants had gone “Ocean Kayaking.”
“Dear Wheel of Fortune, stop with the recycled puzzle redundancy,” the user titled their post, sharing three photos of the same puzzle (below).
The puzzle initially aired on December 21, 2017, as a bonus puzzle. But what’s worse, fans said in the comments, was that it was also used as a triple-toss up on October 18, 2024:
One fan replied defending it’s bound to happen, “There’s not an unlimited amount of viable puzzles out there. If Wheel never repeated any, they become borderline nonsensical after a while.”
However, additional users agreed that the recency was the real issue, a third writing, “I’m more than ok to reuse a puzzle that’s at least 2 years old. I’d say OP’s point is kinda valid tho for using “Ocean Kayaking” twice in the same season.”
“Pretty sure they tried that years ago with some overly specific new puzzles, and it was received poorly, so they went back to recycling previous puzzles and just had to try and space them out properly so that it wouldn’t be overly repeated,” wrote a fourth.
A fifth quipped, “I thought it was treat yourself a round of sausage.”
But a sixth agreed, “That’s pretty bad they repeated a puzzle just a little more than a month later.”
“There is no way they used “Ocean Kayaking” twice in a season,” echoed another.
“To be fair, OCEAN KAYAKING is sort of an infamous puzzle because it caused a million dollar loss,” wrote an additional fan referring to its first use.
“Wheel Watchers know this very well,” wrote a ninth user along with an eye-roll emoji.
Meanwhile, WoF viewers are warming up to Ryan Seacrest, who became the official replacement for Pat Sajak after four decades this season. 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.
There was a spelling mistake in a Thanksgiving puzzle and a few on-screen “glitches,” including Vanna White appearing to separate from her body at the puzzle board with her reflection strutting away. Earlier this week, fans called out the host for not reminding a player to pick a letter, leading to him losing the game by $147.
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