Did Pat Sajak cheat a Wheel of Fortune contestant out of a win? That’s what his critics are saying.
Pat has been under scrutiny in recent weeks for allegedly costing Wheel of Fortune competitors a chance at winning some big cash.
After watching a recent episode of the weeknight game show, Pat’s naysayers fear that he is a repeat offender.
Recently, players competed in the NFL Superfan Tournament, donning their favorite football team’s jerseys to show their support.
Opponents Cleo, Jill, and Tiffany went up against each other during one of the first toss-up puzzles of the evening.
Cleo was confident he knew the answer to the puzzle when he was left with the letters “_ E _ R E T / H A _ D _ H A _ _” on the board in the “Thing” category.
Wheel of Fortune contestant Cleo utters an incorrect answer that sounds oh-so-close to the correct one
Cleo rang his buzzer, prompting host Pat Sajak to call on him to deliver his guess.
“Secret Head Shake,” Cleo guessed, initially getting him the greenlight from Pat before Pat realized that he was oh so close, but no cigar.
“That’s it … oh no, no, that’s not right,” Pat responded after realizing that although Cleo’s answer sounded very close to the correct answer, it was, in fact, incorrect.
At first, it sounded as though Cleo got the correct response, but upon close inspection of the video’s audio (seen below), it’s clear that he actually told Pat his answer was “Secret Head Shake,” not “Secret Handshake.”
It’s easy to see why Wheel of Fortune viewers at home were disconcerted when Pat revoked Cleo’s win.
Unable to clearly hear Cleo’s response, they headed to X (formerly Twitter) where they sounded off, questioning why Cleo wasn’t deemed the puzzle’s winner.
Pat Sajak’s opposers are convinced he robbed Cleo of a win
“He didn’t say ‘secret handshake?'” asked one Wheel of Fortune viewer.
In response, many more Wheel of Fortune viewers agreed that Cleo gave the correct answer and declared their disagreement.
“He definitely said secret handshake!” proclaimed one fan of the show who believed Pat Sajak got it wrong.
Another X user expressed their confusion after hearing what they believed to be “Secret Handshake.”
“He clearly said handshake and everyone knows he meant handshake,” @busted_chard chimed in. “Wtf Pat!? Lol.”
Others were curious what Cleo may have said if not “Secret Handshake” and continued to insist that Pat Sajak got it wrong.
However, there was one Wheel of Fortune viewer who called Cleo’s incorrect guess a “Wheel of Fortune FAIL” because they heard him correctly.
“Phrase was ‘Secret handshake,'” they posted. “Why did this Cowboys fan on there just guess ‘Secret headache??????'”
Pat has been under scrutiny for ‘cheating’ Wheel of Fortune contestants out of big wins
As we mentioned, this isn’t the first time Pat Sajak has come under fire for denying players a win due to incorrect answers, which Wheel of Fortune viewers strongly disagreed with.
In fact, who could forget the recent episode in which a contestant named Megan Carvale lost out on $40,000 when she couldn’t come up with “Pink Orchid” during her bonus round puzzle?
The clip from Megan’s episode went viral and caused quite a stir on social media.
However, despite what Wheel of Fortune viewers believed they heard on their televisions, Megan admitted that she didn’t utter the correct response, as Monsters and Critics recently reported.
Rather than say, “Pink Orchid,” Megan’s answer was “Something Orchid,” and admittedly, it’s been “haunting” her ever since.
“You know, I wish I said ‘pink’ because I would have been $40,000 richer,” Megan told Good Morning America. “But I said ‘something.'”
Megan continued to confess, “That word has already been haunting me, and now all of America believes that I said it, but I didn’t.”