X got hit with a major tweetstorm from fans calling out the shady contestant.
Wheel of Fortune host, Pat Sajak, 77, didn’t miss a beat when a contestant was trying to pull a fast one on him.
In the episode that was broadcasted on Tuesday, November 28, the esteemed host of the long-running game show called out contestant, Oxford graduate and married mother of three, Lindsey Ziegenfuss, after she tried to change her answer on the sly.
On Wheel of Fortune, the rules are common knowledge. Contestants take their shot at unraveling a phrase by guessing letters. They can buy vowels to help, and sometimes, in certain rounds, they’re allowed to buy just one vowel.
The former police detective with an 11-year tenure, stunned everyone after she was caught lying on national television. During the bonus round, she picked three consonants and a vowel to add to the phrase that hadn’t been solved yet. The letter “S” was one of her choices, even though it had already been pre-solved thanks to “RSTLNE” being provided. An obvious mistake.
Later, Sajak, soon to retire, paused the game to clarify Ziegenfuss’ choices:
“Okay, that third letter was, you said H, D…?” the host asked.
“H, D, C…,” the sneaky player replied, taking back her initial guess of the letter “S.”
But the quick-witted Wheel of Fortune host, was not easy to fool.
“But you did say S, right?” he asked.
The guilty contestant smiled out of guilt, but amazingly, she did not come clean.
“No? Hold on,” Sajak continued. “Earlier, did you say S or F? You said H, D…”
“C,” she repeated, still not accepting that she was caught in a lie.
Sajak paused for a moment before as he got word from production. A poor and confused Vanna White waited for clarification on what do to next.
“Oh, so it wasn’t either S or F?” he said. “I think I got it—alright.”
The audience erupted into laughter.
Ziegenfuss had already been doing well for most of the episode. Her opponents, Anthony Jones and Leigh Wang, were working hard to catch up to her.
Ironically, not a single one of her chosen letters were correct, causing her miss out on a $40,000 win. Still, she managed to leave with $23,000, with national embarrassment to add.
Of course, annoyed fans were quick to patronize the dishonest player.
“UNREAL cop behavior on Wheel of Fortune tonight,” said one fan on X.
“She said ‘S’!!!!” urged another.
“This lady just lied on Wheel of Fortune about what letter she said,” wrote another fan. “Pat tried to correct her and asked her to repeat what she said. I rewound to confirm the lie. None of her other letters worked though and she couldn’t guess it, so instant karma for her.”
Cheaters never win! Pat Sajak and Vanna White handled the situation perfectly. We’re sure that Ziegenfuss will think twice about lying to get her way.