Wheel of Fortune is, alongside Jeopardy!, one of America’s most beloved game shows. Part of the appeal of Wheel is how approachable it is in a way Jeopardy! simply is not, because the average American cannot run through a category on 18th century English literature, but you can guess some letters and solve a puzzle.
While the masses love to laugh at Jeopardy! contestants who can’t answer simple pop culture or sports questions most of us know, nothing brings the game show schadenfreude out quite like a Wheel disaster like we saw on Tuesday night. The two minutes of contestants getting railroaded by a vengeful wheel that kept landing on bankrupt, while also throwing out a few painful misses on “Feather In Your Cap” became a viral sensation, with plenty laughing at the pain of those poor souls who just could not get the answer right.
On Wednesday, Wheel host Pat Sajak took to Twitter to author a heartfelt defense of those contestants, saying it “pains me” to see when people online ridicule contestants, and while he’s all for good natured fun, he also wants people to understand that it’s much harder being a contestant in those situations than it seems on your couch at home.
It always pains me when nice people come on our show to play a game and win some money and maybe fulfill a lifelong dream, and are then subject to online ridicule when they make a mistake or something goes awry.
— Pat Sajak (@PatOnWheel) March 2, 2022
The first attempted solve was “Feather in your hat” which, by the way, is how a lot of people say it. So all three players thought it was a good solve, and were stunned when I said it was wrong.
— Pat Sajak (@PatOnWheel) March 2, 2022
And, of course, when it’s solved, you want to crawl in a hole. I’ve been praised online for “keeping it together” and not making fun of the players. Truth is, all I want to do is help to get them through it and convince them that those things happen even to very bright people.
— Pat Sajak (@PatOnWheel) March 2, 2022
Good-natured laughter is one thing. Heck, they laughed at themselves. But, hey, cut them some slack. Unless you’re there, you have no idea how different it is in the studio.
— Pat Sajak (@PatOnWheel) March 2, 2022
After all, you may be there one day. And no one wants to be trending on Twitter.
— Pat Sajak (@PatOnWheel) March 2, 2022
Sajak makes plenty of good points in this thread, and it’s nice to see him come out in defense of the contestants from his show. It is, undoubtedly, much easier to sit on the couch and yell things at the TV than it is to be on stage under bright lights with thousands of dollars on the line. He’s also right that “hat” not being the correct final word threw everyone for a loop and, coupled with some wheel chaos, it was a perfect storm for a painful sequence that just happened to be broadcast to millions on network television. He also knows not to completely wag his finger at fans for wanting to laugh at missteps, as that is truly one of the allures of watching Wheel, believing that if you ever got on that stage you’d nail every puzzle. Still, he makes a salient point that you might want to be careful laughing too hard at these, because if you get your chance on that stage, you might end up being the one trending for the wrong reasons.