‘Wheel of Fortune’ Host Pat Sajak Defends Contestants Who Repeatedly Failed To Solve Puzzle: “Have A Little Heart”

Tom Tapp
·2 min read
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Three Wheel of Fortune contestants last night took a staggering 10 attempts to solve a puzzle that was missing only four letters: “Another feather _n yo_r _a_.”

One woman guessed “Another feather in your hat,” “Another feather in your lap” and “Another feather in your map,” to no avail.

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Another contestant guessed the wrong consonant twice and then spun “Bankrupt.”

The third person at the wheel, named Thomas, also spun Bankrupt — twice — before finally solving the puzzle with “Another feather in your cap.”

Some on Twitter were dubbing it the “worst two minutes in Wheel of Fortune history.”

None other than the show’s longtime host, Pat Sajak, came to the contestants’ defense in multiple Twitter posts..

“It always pains me when nice people come on our show to play a game and win some money and maybe fulfill a lifelong dream, and are then subject to online ridicule when they make a mistake or something goes awry,” Sajak wrote this morning.

“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,’ ” he continued.

“And, of course, when it’s solved, you want to crawl in a hole. I’ve been praised online for ‘keeping it together’ and not making fun of the players. 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 then addressed the armchair Twitter trolls making fun of the contestants.

“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.”

He ended with, “have a little heart. After all, you may be there one day. And no one wants to be trending on Twitter.”

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