Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak has defended contestants on the show after a viral clip showed the players making numerous incorrect guesses while attempting to solve a puzzle.
On Tuesday night’s episode of the show, the contestants were tasked with solving the puzzle: “Another feather in your cap.”
While the board was mostly filled out except for a few key letters, the contestants failed numerous times to guess the phrase correctly, prompting many to describe the viral clip as “agonising” and “difficult” to watch.
Others found the six failed attempts “amusing,” with one person claiming that the TV moment was “the funniest thing [they’d] seen in a long time”.
The show’s longtime host has since addressed the “online ridicule” on Twitter, where he defended the contestants and acknowledged the stress placed on them in that moment, which he noted viewers at home cannot comprehend.
“It always pains me when nice people come on our show to play a game and win some money and maybe fulfil a lifelong dream, and are then subject to online ridicule when they make a mistake or something goes awry,” Sajak wrote. “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.”
Sajak, who has been hosting the show since 1981, then recalled how contestant Laura first attempted to solve the puzzle with the guess “feather in your hat,” which he noted is a commonly used variation of the phrase - and that the guess likely threw all of the players off.
“The first attempted solve was ‘feather in your hat’ which, by the way, is how a lot of people say it. So all three players thought it was a good solve, and were stunned when I said it was wrong,” he continued.
The Wheel of Fortune host then urged social media users to “imagine you’re on national TV, and you’re suddenly thrown a curve and you begin getting worried about looking stupid”.
“And if the feather isn’t in your hat, where the heck can it be? You start flailing away looking for alternatives rather than synonyms for ‘hat,’” he wrote, adding: “And, of course, when it’s solved, you want to crawl in a hole.”
Sajak then addressed the comments from those who praised him for “keeping it together” during the show and “not making fun of the players,” with the host noting that the “truth is” all he wants to do is help the contestants get through the round “and convince them that those things happen even to very bright people”.
“But mocking them online and calling them names? These are good people in a bad situation under a kind of stress that you can’t begin to appreciate from the comfort of your couch,” Sajak continued in the lengthy Twitter thread, before urging viewers to “cut them some slack”. “Unless you’re there, you have no idea how different it is in the studio.”
The game-show host noted that he likes to have fun with the players and “tease them occasionally,” and that “good-natured laughter is one thing,” but that when things go wrong on the show, he feels for the contestants.
He concluded the tweets acknowledging that “it was an oddly entertaining puzzle” and that it’s “okay to laugh,” before reminding viewers to “have a little heart”.
“After all, you may be there one day. And no one wants to be trending on Twitter,” he added.
The heartfelt response to the viral video has been met with praise on Twitter, where people have applauded Sajak for coming to the contestants’ defence.
“The social media civility lesson you didn’t know you needed to hear from Pat Sajak,” one person tweeted.
Another said: “This is a great example of humanity and compassion. Thank you, Pat. #WheelOfFortune.”
“The video was funny, but Sajak is not just right to defend his show’s contestants, he’s also right that people should not be needlessly cruel online to folks who went on a game show,” someone else wrote.
