‘Wheel of Fortune’ Contestant’s $83,000 Heartache After Stunning Puzzle Solves

Wheel of Fortune YouTube

What To Know

Anastasia Armitage impressed viewers with a series of rapid and skillful puzzle solves on Wheel of Fortune, winning over $38,000.
Despite her strong performance, Armitage was unable to solve the Bonus Round puzzle.
Fans and social media users praised Armitage’s exceptional puzzle-solving abilities, calling her one of the best contestants they’ve seen on the show.

Wheel of Fortune kicked off its week of “Happy Halloween” shows on Monday (October 27), but it wasn’t such a happy ending for one contestant who failed in the Bonus Round despite several incredible solves throughout the episode.

The contestant in question was Anastasia Armitage from Chicago, Illinois, who told host Ryan Seacrest she enjoys visiting apple orchards and taking home the best donuts, pumpkins, and apples. She also admitted she had never tasted coffee in her life, despite loving its smell.

Armitage was up against Tony Ambrose, a teacher from Rochester, New York, and Kym Adams, a former motorcycle rider turned pool shark from Houston, Texas. Things started slowly for Armitage as Ambrose and Adams nailed the first two puzzles of the episode.

However, the Chicago native soon took control, pulling out some of the most impressive puzzle solves in recent memory. After solving the Same Letter puzzle, Armitage bagged herself a spooky trip to Salem worth $7,020. She then widened her lead in the Mystery Round, solving the Pet Peeve puzzle to bring her total to $14,820.

Her success continued in the Express Round, where she solved the What The Fun! puzzle, winning another trip —this time to London, where she’ll take part in the Jack the Ripper walk.

Despite her substantial lead over her opponents with $23,374, Armitage did not let up in the Triple Toss-Up round, where her puzzle-solving skills became scarily impressive. While the contestants had a leg up knowing each puzzle began with the word “Be,” it was still incredible how quickly Armitage figured them out.

This included “B E / _ _ E P A _ E D,” which she quickly solved as “Be Prepared,” “B _ / P _ R _ _ _ _ _ _ T,” which she nailed as “Be Persistent,” and, most impressive of all, “_ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ E _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ D,” which she solved as “Be Afraid Be Every Afraid.”

She then put the cherry on top by solving the tricky Speed-Up puzzle, which read, “C H _ _ N / S _ _ S / _ N D / L _ _ N / M _ _ _ R S.” Armitage correctly answered “Chain Saws And Lawn Mowers,” giving her an episode-winning total of $38,324 cash.

Heading into the Bonus Round, Armitage selected the “People” category along with the additional letters “B, D, P, and A,” to give her a two-word puzzle that read, “_ _ _ A L / _ P P _ N E N T S.”

Even though she’d proven to be a puzzle-solving savant throughout the episode, Armitage wasn’t able to work out the Bonus Round puzzle. She quickly solved the second word as “Opponents,” but struggled with the first word, guessing “Coral, Moral, and Jural.”

After the ten-second timer ran out, Seacrest opened the prize envelope to reveal that Armitage had missed out on an extra $45,000.

Armitage still walked away with over $38,000 and clearly loved the experience, as she told Wheel‘s social media correspondent Maggie Sajak after the show. “I had a really lucky time on the Wheel, and I’m just so happy to be with all the contestants and you, Ryan, Vanna [White], everybody.”

While Armitage called it “luck,” viewers disagreed, with many taking to social media to praise her puzzle-solving skills.

“I need her puzzle-solving abilities. She is one of the best I’ve seen,” wrote one user on the Wheel of Fortune Reddit forum.

Another added, “I dropped my jaw at some of the answers. Sad she couldn’t get the final.”

“Impressive solves! 🙌,” added another.

“Great puzzle solver! Well done!” said one Instagram commenter.

Another wrote, “Be proud, Anastasia! You had a great game!”

What did you think of Monday’s episode? Did you solve the Bonus Round puzzle? Let us know your thoughts below.

Wheel of Fortune, Weeknights, check local listings