Additional Coverage:
- ‘Wheel of Fortune’ fans upset after three straight bonus round losses in the new year (marketrealist.com)
“Wheel of Fortune” Fans Declare “Unhappy New Year” After Triple Bonus Round Losses
Los Angeles, CA – The “Wheel of Fortune” New Year’s themed episodes have certainly started with a whimper, not a bang, for contestants vying for the grand Bonus Round prizes. After a third consecutive loss in the high-stakes final segment, dedicated fans of the long-running game show are jokingly-or perhaps not so jokingly-dubbing the special “Unhappy New Year” due to the streak of missed opportunities.
The latest contestant to experience the Bonus Round blues was Joanna, who, despite a strong performance throughout the main game, ultimately walked away with $17,108 in cash and a luxurious trip to Greece after failing to solve the final puzzle.
Joanna’s journey to the Bonus Round was nothing short of impressive. She skillfully navigated the “Egglund’s Best Mystery Round” with the quirky solution “My patience is wearing thin socks.”
She then took the lead in the “Prize Puzzle Round,” correctly guessing “thousands of islands” to snag an EF Go-Ahead tour to Greece, adding over $13,000 in cash and prizes to her winnings. Her dominance continued in the “Triple Tossup,” where she nailed both “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” and “Stairway to Heaven,” boosting her total to a comfortable $17,000 before entering the much-anticipated Bonus Round.
With her mother and two best friends cheering her on from the audience-her friends humorously quipped, “We’re just glad she didn’t fall in the wheel, right?”-Joanna selected the “Event” category. After receiving the standard R, S, T, L, N, and E, she chose D, H, M, and O as her additional letters. The puzzle board then displayed: O, _, T, D, O, O, R, _, _, _, N, _, _.
Despite the seemingly straightforward clue, Joanna struggled to piece together the solution. “Outdoor catch?
Outdoor… Outdoor…
Well, outdoor-,” she mused, but time ran out before she could land on “Outdoor Picnic.” The missed guess cost her a hefty $40,000, leaving her with her earlier winnings and the Greece vacation.
The string of Bonus Round losses has not gone unnoticed by the show’s ardent fanbase, who took to social media to express their disappointment and frustration.
“@momof2wifeof179” lamented, “Fans thought it was the ‘worst way to start 2026’. ‘Happy New Year’ is the theme for this week, but for bonus rounds, it should be Unhappy New Year.”
Another fan, “@UmbreonTheDarkKnight,” drew a stark comparison to previous seasons, noting, “Last season, we didn’t get our first bonus round skunking until late April/ early May. We’ve already had 2 skunkings this season, and it’s only January 2nd. Oh boy.”
“@dannyblock-q4r” echoed the sentiment, chiming in, “I hope we didn’t have this, but we did. No Bonus round winners for the 2nd time this season.
UGH!! Not the way to start the year.”
However, not all viewers were left scratching their heads. “@jacobwilson6192” confidently pointed out, “While it was a skunked bonus round, for me I got the bonus round puzzle right again with Outdoor Picnic & as a result clean sweep bonus round for me. Now, one letter that Joanna needed to add and that would’ve a key letter & that would be ‘Cs’, now ‘Os’ was actually the right vowel to pick, and she wouldn’t needed to add a ‘D’, so the two letters would’ve done it in the Bonus are Cs & Os.”
As the “Wheel of Fortune” New Year’s celebration continues, fans will be eagerly watching to see if a contestant can finally break the “Unhappy New Year” Bonus Round curse and bring some much-needed cheer to the puzzle board.