The Most Frustrating Puzzle In "Wheel of Fortune" History

Tuesday night’s “Wheel of Fortune” episode has social media followers shouting about the show’s “dumbest moment ever.”

The frustrating episode featured three contestants taking 8 turns and 10 attempts to solve the puzzle: “Another feather _n yo_r _a_”

While the correct answer was simply “Another feather in your cap,” the players took several tries to get there — and it left viewers very frustrated.

Game player Laura Machado had three guesses to win as host Pat Sajak and legendary letter-tuner Vanna White looked on. However, Machado’s wrong answers included: “Another feather in your hat,” “Another feather in your lap” and “Another feather in your map.” 

Meanwhile, fellow contestant Christopher Coleman didn’t guess any of the correct letters and landed on Bankrupt when he twirled TV’s most infamous wheel.

Thomas Lipscomb also scored a Bankrupt and Lose a Turn for his first two times in the hot seat. But on his third try, he guessed “C” and correctly solved the phrase.

WATCH IT HERE!

Twitter had LOTS of thoughts. Not nice ones.

But in a Twitter thread Wednesday, host Pat Sajak came to the defense of the players. He suggested he “knew in real time what was happening” during the “incredible” episode.

He wrote, “The first attempted solve was ‘Feather in your hat’ which, by the way, is how a lot of people say it. So all three players thought it was a good solve, and were stunned when I said it was wrong.

“Now imagine you’re on national TV, and you’re suddenly thrown a curve and you begin getting worried about looking stupid, and if the feather isn’t in your hat, where the heck can it be? You start flailing away looking for alternatives rather than synonyms for ‘hat'."

Sajak alluded to contestants’ seeming embarrassment once the puzzle answer was revealed, suggesting they’d “want to crawl in a hole,” and saying that he felt it was his role to avoid chastising the players.

He said, “Truth is, all I want to do is help to get them through it and convince them that those things happen even to very bright people".

Sajak continued, “But mocking them online and calling them names? These are good people in a bad situation under a kind of stress that you can’t begin to appreciate from the comfort of your couch. Good-natured laughter is one thing. Heck, they laughed at themselves. But, hey, cut them some slack. Unless you’re there, you have no idea how different it is in the studio.”

He also suggested that while he may “have fun with” and “tease” players on occasion, things can — and do — “go wrong.”

“I feel for them, and I try to salve the wounds on camera and off. So, yeah, it was an oddly entertaining puzzle and it’s okay to laugh at the situation. But have a little heart..."

Sajak then closed his rant with a word of warning: “After all, you may be there one day. And no one wants to be trending on Twitter.”

Source: NY Post.

Photo Credit: David Livingston/Getty Images.