It’s tough watching a Wheel of Fortune contestant struggle to complete a puzzle when the answer is painfully obvious. Watching a contestant miss out on a prize because he can’t properly pronounce the words in an already completed puzzle is a different story altogether. Unfortunately for a college student on Friday night’s episode of the popular game show, he found himself in both of these embarrassing situations.
This past week was “College Week” on Wheel of Fortune, so all of the contestants were from various colleges around the country. Julian, a freshman from Indiana University, appeared on the show on Friday and had quite a few chances to take home some serious cash and prizes to help offset any tuition and boarding costs. Unfortunately for the Herbert Presidential Scholar, a few brain flubs cost him some major dough, including a shot at winning $1 million. Check out Julian’s miscues in the video above.
Julian’s first–and biggest–flub came about when he had to solve a puzzle in the “Character” category. After plugging in all of the letters and having a $1 million game card in his possession, Julian only had to speak “Mythological Hero Achilles” for the win. Julian nailed the first two words while solving the puzzle, but pronounced Achilles as “Ay-chill-us.” Since Wheel of Fortune doesn’t give credit for mispronunciations, Julian lost his turn (and a chance at $1 million) and the next contestant solved the puzzle.
Messing up Achilles was bad enough, but Julian went on to make sure that no one who watches Wheel of Fortune religiously would forget him anytime soon. After racking up $11,700 through another round, Julian has the chance to solve a puzzle in the “Person” category. “The World’s Fastest _a_” is already filled in. Easy right? Not so much for Julian, who guesses a “C” (for “car,” we assume) and loses the round. He missed out on just over $12,000 and a car with that loss.
Despite the flubs, Julian has a chance to add $7,500 to his total in the last regular round by completing a puzzle with the letters “_n-Th_-Sp_t D_c_s__n” in place. Rather than guess a letter to fill out the puzzle more, Julian opts to solve the puzzle with “On-The-Spot Dicespin.” Yes, “Dicespin.” Ouch.
While some people are calling Julian the worst Wheel of Fortune player ever, the young man did win the most in cash and prizes and made it to the Bonus Round. “I don’t think anyone has ever taken a more circuitous route to victory,” host Pat Sajack said. Even though Julian wasn’t able to add more to his total, he did leave the show with just under $12,000 in winnings.
Now that we’ve watched a Wheel of Fortune contestant mess up in the most embarrassing way possible, check out a contestant that absolutely wowed Sajak and the audience with a wild correct guess last month.
Image via YouTube