Pat Sajak gets ‘testy’ after contestant blames him for loss

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Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak ended the year on a frosty note after he got into a testy exchange with a contestant who blamed him for her loss this week.

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During her bonus round of play, contestant Jill tried to guess the answer in the “What Are You Doing?” category.

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With the puzzle board reading, “_ _ _ C _ N _ _ _ R _ _ _ N _ _ N,” Sajak goaded Jill by saying, “It looks tough for me. But What Are You Doing? is the category. Sometimes just talk, look at the used letter board. Maybe something will pop into your head.”

Jill then gamely tried to solve the puzzle, guessing, “Blocking our … score … hmm … Working our… ahh no!”

As the buzzer sounded, indicating her time was up, Sajak, 77, bluntly told her, “Yeah, you weren’t going to to get it.”

As Jill read aloud the answer, “Voicing Our Opinion,” she exclaimed, “Come one.”

“Just a little late,” Sajak chided.

After failing to get the answer right – and losing her chance to win $40,000 – Jill whined, “What kind of puzzle is that?”

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Quick on his feet, Sajak raised his index finger before firing back, “It’s a puzzle you didn’t solve.”

Perhaps owing to the fact that he doesn’t let contestants have the final word, Sajak added, “It’s getting testy here on Christmas.”

But in the run-up to her bonus round gameplay, Sajak recapped Jill’s roller-coaster appearance, revealing that she tried to blame him when she failed to guess a previous answer correctly.

“I’m going to tell a tale on you because early in the show you did, which sometimes happens here, you called a letter that had already been called,” Sajak said. You were so down about that. You were worried about messing up the show. Then you had a puzzle that you think you should have solved and you didn’t, and then she blamed me, during [the] commercial [break].”

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Sajak, who is retiring at the end of this 41st season next year, has a reputation for being snarky with contestants.

In November, Michael Colen said his over-the-top gameplay rubbed Sajak the wrong way. “He came up to me and just told me, ‘Hey, Michael, you know, this is my show, right?’” Colen told Fox News. “And I politely said, ‘Yes, sir, it is your show for 41 years. So, it was funny, of course.”

The month before, Sajak had Wheel fans in stitches after he bluntly told a player that they weren’t going to be able to complete the Bonus Category and answer to the question: “What Are You Doing?”

Jack had $71,700 going into the Bonus Round, but was stumped as the clock ticked down and the puzzle only read “_ _R_IN_ _ _NDS.”

“Bonds, wands, bands,” Jack said as he tried to work through the answer, which was revealed as “Forming Bonds,” but the buzzer quickly sounded to let him know his time was up.

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“The first thing out of your mouth was right, it was actually bonds” Sajak said. “Sorry that didn’t work out for you, but you needed another letter or two to have any chance of winning.”

Meanwhile, in May, he snapped at another contestant who kept answering incorrectly, asking them, “Why are you bothering?”

Last year, Sajak was lambasted online after after he mocked a player’s introduction story.

“That may have been the most pointless story ever told. And you told it … Congratulations to you,” he said.

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But Sajak doesn’t just take potshots. Earlier this year, during the show’s Teen Week, Sajak defended 10th grader Khushi as she tried to finish a phrase in the “Food & Drink” category, with the answer being “Fresh Tropical Fruit.”

With the puzzle almost solved, Khushi just needed the “S” and “H” to complete the answer. After guessing “H”, the teen was stumped with the final missing letter.

Clearly stumped and confused, when it came time for Khushi to give her answer she said, “I’ll go with a … ‘G’,” which would have spelled “FREGH.”

“What?” someone in the audience could be heard yelling in response after the buzzer squawked.

“You know when that happens and you’re sitting at home, you’re saying, ‘How in the world can that (not be solved)?’” Sajak said as he tried to defend Khushi. “But, you know, sometimes it’s a word that just doesn’t want to come into focus for you.”

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X: @markhdaniell

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