Charlene Rubush was a contestant on the famous Wheel of Fortune. She lost the chance to win an Audi. She figured out the puzzle but missed out on a small technicality.
Audi decided to gift Charlene the same model if she had won. Several days after the episode aired, Audi found Charlene and gifted her the car.
Wheel of Fortune’s special holiday episode had Charlene guessing a puzzle. With 10 seconds left on the clock, she had to guess what she was doing. She first guessed that she was choosing the correct card, which was incorrect. On her second attempt, she guessed that she was choosing the correct word. Charlene was correct.
Wheel Of Fortune Not So Kind
Charlene lost because she remained silent for more than 4 seconds before she said “word.” The host, Pat Sajak, explained that the sentence should be continuous.
Charlene won $16500 on Wheel Of Fortune. The Audi for the bonus round was the luxury SUV model, Q3. It is priced at nearly $40000.
The video of Charlene losing was shared on Twitter, where it exploded. Alex Jacob, Jeopardy winner, shared his disappointment with the show. He even messaged the official Audi account. A few hours later, the official Audi account made a tweet saying that Charlene was a victor and that they would gift her an Audi Q3.
This is not the first instance where Wheel of Fortune participants lost out due to a small technicality. Earlier this year, a contestant guessed all the words correctly but added an extra “and”, thus losing. The Wheel of Fortune fans were extremely displeased. The contestant, however, was later sent a car.