‘Wheel of Fortune’ contestant suffers epic fail: ‘The easiest puzzle’

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Wheel of Fortune fans were in meltdown mode this week after one contestant flubbed a seemingly easy answer and missed their chance at $40,000 on Monday night’s episode.

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Superfan Candace, a die-hard New Orleans Saints fan from North Carolina, needed to guess the three-word response to solve a bonus round puzzle in the “Phrase” category.

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With the board revealing the letters “P___ _N F_LL,” Candace guessed in vain, saying out loud, “Pain in Full” and “Pushing Full.”

After the 10-second timer ran out, the puzzle displayed the correct answer was “Paid in Full,” with host Pat Sajak teasing her: “You talked all around it.”

As Candace saw the answer — and her missed opportunity at $40,000 — she let out a groan of disappointment. “It helps when we put the letters up there,” Sajak said.

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Predictably, Candace’s answer drew jeers on social media, with one person chiding her blown opportunity: “They are really trying to give it away on Pat’s final season.”

“SUPER EASY solve,” another wrote on YouTube. “C’mon now. REALLY?”

“Homegirl on Wheel of Fortune had: P A _ _ I _ F _ LL It’s a phase. She didn’t get it. I was in here yelling the answer at the TV. Missed out on $40k,” one watcher wrote on X [per The US Sun].

Another viewer was left in disbelief. “How?” they asked. “The easiest puzzle.”

“That wasn’t a very hard puzzle,” one other chided on YouTube.

“Really? She couldn’t guess ‘paid in full’ for the final Wheel of Fortune? Huh?” a sixth person wondered in disbelief.

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Candace’s miss comes just days after fans flew into a rage after a contestant was “robbed” of $40,000 on the game show last week.

Megan Carvale, a married California high school choir director, needed to guess the two-word answer to solve a bonus round puzzle in the “Living Thing” category.

With the board revealing the letters “P_N_ _RC__D,” many viewers thought they heard Megan giving the correct answer — “Pink Orchid” — on her first guess. But she didn’t stop there blurting out several incorrect guesses, including “Pony Orchid.”

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The judges didn’t award her for her first guess, with Sajak saying, “You might have been overthinking a type of orchid. I’m sorry that didn’t work out for you.”

As he displayed Megan’s missed chance at $40,000, Sajak continued, “That would’ve been awfully nice, but you had a good night — $14,007.”

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But Wheel fans flooded social media with many viewers at home convinced that Megan was right all along.

“I am FUMING!! She got it she said pink orchid! Wtf?!” one X user wrote.

“Hey @WheelofFortune, I definitely heard the contestant say ‘pink orchid’ at the beginning of the final puzzle and I rewound it to make sure,” another fan added. “You owe her some $$$.”

But during an appearance on Good Morning America, Carvale set the record straight on her final answer.

“You know, I wish I said ‘pink’ because I would have been $40,000 richer,” Carvale said. “But I said ‘something.’”

Carvale said that she replayed her loss the entire way home after leaving the studio.

“My son, the entire way home, because my 8-year-old son was in the audience with me and the whole way home — we live in Orange County — the whole way home from LA, [he said], ‘Mom, I can’t believe you didn’t get pink. I can’t believe you didn’t get pink,’” Carvale recalled. “That word has already been haunting me and now all of America believes that I said it but I didn’t.”

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X: @markhdaniell

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