Pat Sajak Defends ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Contestants Who Repeatedly Flubbed Puzzle Solve

usmagazine.com:

It could happen to anyone? Pat Sajak spoke out after Wheel of Fortune viewers criticized contestants who repeatedly failed to solve a recent puzzle.Fans called out players from the Tuesday, March 1, episode of the game show after the trio — Laura Machado, Christopher Coleman and Thomas Lipscomb — guessed a litany of incorrect phrases for a puzzle.

The answer turned out to be “another feather in your cap,” but the group struggled with the seemingly simple solve.Machado, for her part, guessed “another feather in your hat,” “another feather in your lap” and “another feather in your map,” never figuring out the correct answer.

Coleman, meanwhile, repeatedly failed to select any letters that were in the puzzle. Lipscomb finally solved it after initially landing on “bankrupt” and “lose a turn” when he spun the wheel.God help us all pic.twitter.com/rnQbkNvT7j— Josh Gad (@joshgad) March 2, 2022Fans poked fun at the contestants via Twitter after the episode aired. “God help us all,” Josh Gad wrote, while another social media user called the segment “the dumbest two minutes in Wheel of Fortune history.”Amid the backlash, Sajak, 75, came to the players’ defense. “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,” he tweeted on Wednesday, March 2. “Last night’s ‘Feather in your cap’ puzzle was a case in point.

Sitting at home, it seems incredible that they couldn’t solve it, but I knew in real time what was happening.”The game show host noted that the contestants were “stunned” when “feather in your hat” was incorrect.“Now imagine you’re on national TV, and you’re suddenly