Pat Sajak couldn’t bear to open the envelope at the end of Wednesday’s (November 15) Wheel of Fortune as a lovable mother-and-daughter team lost out on a massive $100,000 bonus prize.
The long-running game show is in the middle of its Home for the Holidays week, which sees teams of two competing on the show instead of the usual three individual contestants.
One of the pairs on Wednesday’s game was Jordan Dear and her mom, Debbie Dear, who quickly won viewers over with their sweet personalities and impressive puzzle-solving skills.
In the opening introductions, Jordan revealed she is the youngest of Debbie’s four daughters, and they live together on a farm in Virginia Beach, VA, where they look after six dogs, five chickens, two horses, and a mini donkey.
The Dears led the competition every step of the way, finishing regular play with $26,550 cash and a trip to Panama. Good fortune seemed to be on their side as they went into the Bonus Round, where they chose the “Place” category.
Jordan and Debbie were faced with a three-word puzzle and selected “HMDO” as their additional letters, which were added to their already given letters of “RSTLNE.”
The board read, “O _ R _ S _ _ L H _ N _ O _ T,” and the two ladies had just 10 seconds to figure it out.
They came close, whispering to each other, “Our something hangout,” but couldn’t figure out the middle word in time.
“You were right there,” Sajak said as Vanna White revealed the correct answer as “Our Usual Hangout.”
“Darn,” Debbi replied.
Things only got worse from there when Sajak opened the bonus prize envelope and took a sneak peek. “Oof,” he said as he closed the envelope back up and tucked it under his arm.
“I don’t wanna see it,” Jordan said as her mom exclaimed, “Oh no!”
Sajak cautiously reopened the envelope and showed the ladies that they’d lost out on $100,000.
“Oh god!” Debbie said as the audience groaned.
“I know, I know, you were darn close. You did a good job,” Sajak assured them. “You had a great night. Don’t let this distract you from the fact you won 26,550 dollars. Nice job.”
“Darn, a 100,000 loss, I’m shocked and speechless,” one fan commented on YouTube.
“Boy if they would’ve chose a “U” instead of an “O” then they would’ve got it because for the very first time in the Bonus Round they were four U’s. Wow,” said another.
“Yikes this sucks. I would have said a G and that would have helped out tremendously. That 100k was a heartbreaker,” added another viewer.
“That’s an epic oof again,” said one fan, while another simply added, “Ouch.. that stings.”