When it comes to word puzzle challenges, you might want to steer clear of Matt DeSanto, who won more than $90,000 on Wheel of Fortune with a one-letter answer.
This was the game show equivalent of a checked-swing home run.
Matt DeSanto took home a record $91,892 for his win on the Wheel of Fortune episode that aired on Friday.
The coup de grace for DeSanto was nailing a 13-letter, three-word puzzle with just one letter exposed.
He correctly guessed “The Lone Ranger” for the puzzle with just the “e” at the end of the second word showing.
But that wasn’t all DeSanto did on the day. He won every other puzzle in the game.
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“The wheel definitely worked in my favor,” DeSanto told Today.com. “I was extremely fortunate.”
He missed out on the $1 million final jackpot, but his winnings were the most ever for the main part of the game.
DeSanto is from Malvern, Pa., and joked that he did nothing special to prepare.
“Maybe some extra crossword puzzles,” DeSanto said. “I tried not to overthink it too much.”
Wheel of Fortune has been around since September 1983, with host Pat Sajak and hostess Vanna White in place since the dawn of time (1981 and 1982, respectively), with a few breaks for Sajak.
TV Guide said in 2008 that Wheel of Fortune is the top-rated syndicated series and in 2013, the magazine ranked it No. 2 on its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever, trailing only Jeopardy!
I’ve seen the show here and there over the years, but I know the habit of people buying unnecessary vowels always bothered me. It’s like, “Dude, they’re giving you money and you’re going to just give it back to them?”
Seriously, I remember watching an episode years ago where the board read “_ MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DRE_M,” and the idiot with the wheel asked to buy an “A”. Really? Were you torn between that and a “Q”?
But I suppose, in the end, that’s part of the entertainment value of such shows—you can sit at home feeling superior to the people who actually got off their butts and went through the audition process to be selected for the show.
While it might be fun to be on a game show, I’d be worried that if something went wrong, my native tongue would slip out and I’d be bleeped to oblivion.
Tom Brady’s got nothing on me.
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