It was a terrible moment on Wheel of Fortune. Tuesday night, a player messed up a win that should have been easy. It was one of the most memorable mistakes in recent game show history.
One of the contestants was Nikol Gamble, who owns an escape room in Houston. The other two were Dustin Whittern, a skilled black diamond skier from Oklahoma City, and Rachael Traywick, a longtime Wheel fan from Kapaa, Hawaii.
Everything was going well for Gamble—until the Mystery Round. With the category set as “Song Lyrics,” contestants worked through a massive 12-word puzzle, gradually filling in nearly every blank.
By the time it was Gamble’s turn, the puzzle read:
S E E / T H E / L I N E / W H E R E / T H E / S _ Y / M E E T S / T H E / S E A / I T / C A L L S / M E.
All she had to do was pick the right letter.
But despite host Ryan Seacrest reminding her there were no vowels left, Gamble confidently guessed “O”—declaring, “See The Line Where The Soy Meets The Sea It Calls Me.”
The audience gasped. The incorrect buzzer sounded. And in that moment, she realized her mistake.
Traywick quickly jumped in and solved the puzzle correctly: “See The Line Where The Sky Meets The Sea It Calls Me”—a lyric from the hit Moana song, How Far I’ll Go.
Viewers at home couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed.
One Instagram user summed it up: “This is quite literally my worst nightmare ”
Another added: “Omgeeee!!!! Painful to watch!!!!! 
”
Over on X (formerly Twitter), the reaction was just as brutal. One user wrote:
“May be the worst Wheel of Fortune arrangement of ALL time. My 3-year-old niece can’t even read, and even she knew the answer.”
Another joked: “I would immediately leave the stage. Thank you for the opportunity, but I don’t want any money anymore. I’ll go cry in bed.”
Others, however, appreciated Gamble’s ability to laugh at herself.
“Love it! I have a feeling she’s laughing at herself!” one fan wrote.
It was so long that even Wheel of Fortune star Vanna White said it was the longest 12-word puzzle in the show’s history.
But the mistake cost a lot. Gamble never got back on track, and at the end of the show, he had no money, which would have been terrible for any participant. Whittern, on the other hand, stole the show by making it to the Bonus Round and winning an amazing $68,880 in cash.
Wheel of Fortune history will remember that night, but Gamble would rather forget it.
TV Insider is one source.
