‘Wheel of Fortune’ Player Misses Out On $40,000 After Failing To Solve This ‘Tough’ Puzzle

“Wheel of Fortune” fans are running out of patience. For months, the game show has been racking up headline after headline over bonus-round failures — and Monday night’s episode added one more to the pile.

Contestant Cherie Noisette fought her way to the final stage with more than $21,000 already secured, only to watch a possible $40,000 payday evaporate on a puzzle many viewers blasted as “unfair.” The clue was a three-word phrase — and she never cracked it.

Even new host Ryan Seacrest didn’t bother masking his reaction. Viewers at home went straight to social media to vent.

Strong run — until the final board

Noisette started hot, taking the opening toss-up. Her rival, Hapka, briefly jumped ahead after the second puzzle, but Noisette came roaring back, sweeping multiple rounds and stacking more than $17,000 along the way. She even pocketed a Wild Card — then lost it on a bankrupt. After a tight Triple Toss-Up sequence, she sealed the night with $21,350, beating Hapka, who still walked with $15,680.

That momentum evaporated instantly when the bonus round began.

The board fills — and the clock crushes her

Noisette selected “Phrase” as her category. She drew her envelope and watched the automatic letters drop: R, S, T, L, N, E. Then she called D, M, H and A. The board landed at: “_ _ND _ _ A_ _ _ARD.”

Ten seconds. Silence. Then a wrong attempt: “Something awkward.” Time expired. Vanna White flipped the missing letters — “Kind of Awkward.” The $40,000 vanished.

Seacrest let out a sympathetic laugh and told her the bad news: her night would stop at $21,350 instead of $61,350.

Noisette simply smiled and said, “That’s alright.”

Viewers did not share that peace.

Fans unload: “Hard puzzles every night”

The YouTube comments and X posts came at once.

“Another tough puzzle tonight,” one viewer wrote. Another user called it “an awkward streak of bonus-round ambushes,” noting that this kind of puzzle “has been happening since Thursday.” Others admitted they were completely lost until the last letters dropped. One summed up the mood bluntly: “Not even surprised anymore.”

Pattern or coincidence?

The anger is not about one night — it’s about a growing belief among fans that the show is deliberately tightening the screws in the final round, handing out near-unsolvable phrases after contestants have already played a strong game. Since Pat Sajak’s exit and the format adjustments around Ryan Seacrest’s debut, the bonus-round frustration has been a recurring talking point on fan forums.

Whether that is intentional strategy or random variance, viewers are clearly reading a pattern — and they are loud about it.

Meanwhile, the contestant who actually lost the money seemed to take it better than the audience watching her do it.