The Wheel Of Fortune Contestant That Had The Entire Internet Baffled
When an episode of "Wheel of Fortune" goes viral online, it is usually because of a contestant having a monster guess and winning it all or someone screwing up so badly that it is impossible not to share. The latter actually happened to co-host Vanna White when she accidentally revealed the wrong letter in an unfortunate mishap. But, during an episode from Veteran's Week in 2016, something very special happened on the show that had viewers scratching their heads.
A contestant named Nura was dominating the game throughout the show – accumulating $13,970 to her competition's $4,300 and $0 totals. That's when the final spin occurred and the contestants had one final shot at solving a puzzle and adding to their totals. It was relatively clear at that point in the game that it would be quite difficult for anyone to beat Nura unless they accurately guessed every letter while Nura and the other contestant failed at guessing any letters or solving the puzzle. But despite that fact — Nura's next move was about to send the internet into a frenzy.
Sorry, there aren't any of those letters in this puzzle
The middle contestant, Troy, kicked off the guessing with the letter "T" against a blank board with the clue "What are you doing?" Then it was Nura's turn and without hesitation, she guessed "Z" — host Pat Sajak was so shocked by her guess of one of the least-used letters in the alphabet that he had to ask her to repeat her guess — to which Nura confidently replied "Z, as in 'Zulu.'" How could someone who was so dominant in the earlier rounds of the show guess the letter "Z" on a nearly blank board?
But that wasn't the end of it — Nura would go on to miss her turn by not replying, guessing the letter "Q" on her next turn and the letter "X" on the following, and then would completely miss her last guess by responding with "uh." What was going on? One fan of the show tweeted the question, "Z? Then no letter? Then Q? Is Nura drunk?" Something was obviously up and it didn't start to become obvious until after Steve — the contestant with $0 accumulated — was able to solve the puzzle by guessing "following footprints."
Nura made sure that everyone was going home a winner
As the final puzzle was solved — Sajak congratulated all of the contestants for taking home cash and then said to Nura, "Now, you called some unusual letters in that round..." — Nura was quick to respond with "that's what I saw," which just deepened the mystery of her choices. That answer didn't satisfy Sajak either as he said, "Well that was an unsatisfactory answer, but ... she is not under oath and there is nothing I can do."
Nura was the big winner on the show that day and made it to the final puzzle where she was instantly back to her old self and playing the game at a high level with good guesses — and that's when it began to become clear what she had just done. Nura threw the final round of the game so that Steve — the contestant with no money and a fellow veteran — could have a chance to take home some cash as well. Twitter instantly blew up with praise for Nura, "Just saw the classiest move on 'Wheel of Fortune.' Nura threw the final puzzle to let a fellow military person win it. Much respect."
Sadly, Nura wasn't able to solve the final puzzle – but she was able to allow fellow veteran, Steve, to go home with some cash in his pocket.