{"id":201585,"date":"2025-10-04T13:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/201585\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T13:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:04:13","slug":"wheel-of-fortune-contestant-has-heartbreaking-car-loss-after-cracking-up-viewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/201585\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Wheel of Fortune’ Contestant Has Heartbreaking Car Loss After Cracking Up Viewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Wheel of Fortune<\/a> contestant wasn\u2019t cracking up when he lost a car in the bonus round, but he made fans laugh throughout the episode. The game show<\/a> contestant said letters with the phonetic alphabet, which is when you say a word after a letter to make sure the right one was heard.<\/p>\n

Rodney Flippen, from Calumet City, Illinois, played against Sharon Skolnik, from Suwanee, Georgia, and Lauren Hernandez, from New Brighton, New Mexico, on Monday, September 29. Flippen said he had been a fan of Ryan Seacrest<\/a> since he hosted Gladiators 2000, and a fan of Vanna White<\/a> since he was three years old.<\/p>\n

Skolnik, a woman who needs money for her adult children\u2019s weddings,\u00a0 solved the first Toss Up, and Flippen solved the second. He cheered very loudly for his solve. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a long way to go. Don\u2019t run out of celebration yet,\u201d Ryan Seacrest said.<\/p>\n

Flippen solved the first puzzle, \u201cIf These Walls Could Talk Trash,\u201d and every time he spun the wheel, he said, \u201cCome on! Big money.\u201d He also hyped up his opponents every time they spun the wheel.<\/p>\n

On the second puzzle, when Flippen asked for an O, he said, \u201cI\u2019d like to buy a vowel. \u2018O\u2019 as in Octopus.\u201d He also yelled out for the Bankrupt wedge to \u201cstay away from him,\u201d and it worked. He also said, \u201c\u2018H\u2019 as in Hello,\u201d \u201dF\u2019 as in Flippen,\u201d and \u201c\u2018N\u2019 as in Nancy.\u201d Flippen solved \u201cCornucopia of Fresh Produce\u201d for $20,050, after getting three \u201cCs\u201d on $3,500.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

During the Prize Puzzle, Flippen shouted out, \u201cCome on, one million!\u201d but landed on \u201cBankrupt\u201d instead. Hernandez, a mother of three, finally got on the board when she solved the puzzle \u201cWhere, Oh, Where, Is That Grizzly Bear?\u201d and won a trip to Anchorage, Alaska, for a total of $14,589.<\/p>\n

Flippen cheered loudly when he got the first Triple Toss Up, but he also cheered really loudly when his opponents got the others. By the final puzzle, Flippen had his teammates saying \u201cS\u2019 as in Sam,\u201d and \u201cT\u2019 as in Tom.\u201d Flippen solved \u201cGreat Punch Line\u201d for $27,150. Skolnik left with $3,000. Hernandez\u2019s final total was $16,589.<\/p>\n

Flippen shook his opponents\u2019 hands before going to the Bonus Round. During the Bonus Round, he said he needed $7,000 to pay off his bills, so he was happy he won enough to do that. As he spun the wheel with force, Flippen shouted, \u201c$100,000!\u201d<\/p>\n

He picked \u201cK,M,B, and O\u201d after being given \u201cR,S,T,L,N, and E\u201d by Wheel of Fortune. Flippen\u2019s puzzle then looked like \u201c_ _ _ _T_N_\u00a0 M_\u00a0 \u00a0_ _ONE.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the clock timed down, Flipped guessed \u201cWaiting My Phone,\u201d \u201cWatching My Phone,\u201d \u201cVisiting My Phone,\u201d among others. The correct puzzle was \u201cUpdating My Phone.\u201d He lost out on driving home in the Ford. Fans were heartbroken for him after being such an entertaining contestant on the show.<\/p>\n

Reddit<\/a> users thought Rodney was so funny. \u201cRodney \ud83d\ude2d This man is cracking me up tonight. That\u2019s it, lmao,\u201d one fan posted.<\/p>\n

\u201cF AS IN FLIPPIN,\u201d another fan commented. \u201cO AS IN OCTOPUS,\u201d someone responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also liked how the other contestants started saying as in when guessing closer to the end of the show,\u201d a third wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI taped with him in May. Was my favorite dude to hang out with backstage and had me in tears during his game,\u201d a contestant commented.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband and I both said we thoroughly enjoyed watching him and loved his enthusiasm,\u201d one last fan said.<\/p>\n

Wheel of Fortune, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Wheel of Fortune contestant wasn\u2019t cracking up when he lost a car in the bonus round, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-201585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}