‘Wheel of Fortune’: Pat Sajak Apologizes After ‘Terrible’ Puzzle Stumps Contestants

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All three contestants on Tuesday (October 31) night’s episode of Wheel of Fortune were left stumped by one particular puzzle, which even host Pat Sajak admitted was a “terrible Halloween prank.”

The moment came during the Crossword round, where the puzzle board displays a set of interlocking words that all have a thematic connection. In this particular case, the connecting theme was “Magical Words,” which was appropriate for an episode airing on Halloween.

Two of the words were pretty obvious, “Hocus-Pocus” and “Wish,” but the third word, which contained four letters, didn’t come easy.

Brandian Bufford (a mom-of-three from Hattiesburg, MS), Jamie Seaberg (a mom-of-two from South St. Paul, MN), and Miles Glasscock (a horror mystery fan from Austin, TX) were all left baffled trying to find the third answer.

Wheel of Fortune/YouTube

Glasscork was doing pretty well until he landed on a mystery wedge, which meant he could risk his winnings so far to see if he had $10,000 under there. “I gotta take it,” the horror enthusiast said before revealing a devastating Bankrupt wedge.

“Everything goes in the compost; I’m sorry,” Sajak said as Glasscock saw his total drop to zero.

Despite this setback, Bufford and Seaberg still couldn’t figure out the third word on the tricky puzzle, which meant the wheel soon came back around to Glasscock, who had a chance to redeem himself.

Glasscock correctly guessed the letter “J,” allowing him to solve the puzzle as “Wish, Jinx, Hocus-Pocus.”

“What a terrible Halloween prank to play on these nice people,” Sajak stated, seemingly admitting that Jinx was a confusing word to put in such a puzzle.

This Halloween episode isn’t over yet — Pat & Vanna still need to give out candy! pic.twitter.com/tDvmaZAYXF

— Wheel of Fortune (@WheelofFortune) November 1, 2023

It seemed at least a few others agreed, with one fan writing on X (formerly Twitter), “Jinx is NOT a magical word.”

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This isn’t quite right, though. While jinx is mostly used today to mean “bad luck,” it’s said to derive from a variant of jynx (wryneck), a bird that was commonly used in witchcraft. So, it does fit the spooky theme of “Magical Words.”

With the tricky puzzle out of the way, the contestants continued with the game, with Seaberg eventually taking the lead. The final scores ended up as Glasscock with $3,000, Bufford with $8,250, and Seaberg with $21,020.

Unfortunately for Seaberg, she wasn’t able to figure out the Bonus Round puzzle and add another $40,000 to her winnings.

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