Wheel of Fortune contestant goes viral over cheesy blunder as fans all say same thing

A Wheel of Fortune contestant went viral after guessing the wrong cheese dish. Viewers at home quickly caught the moment and agreed it was one of the ‘worst’ answers

Wheel of Fortune contestant goes viral (Image: Wheel of Fortune)

A Wheel of Fortune contestant has gone viral over a blunder.

On the Monday, Dec. 30 episode of the game show, Gaelyn Nease from Tallahassee, Florida, Carmetta Wells from Los Angeles, California, and Mike Tomani from Rochester, New York, tried to figure out the letters in the word puzzle to try to win big at the end.

There was a moment when the three had to guess the letters to the ‘Food and Drink category. Gaelyn was on a roll, guessing multiple letters correctly, leaving the board with “NE _ / _ OR _ / _ HEESE _ A _ E.” When it was time to solve it, she thought of a different kind of cheese dish than the correct one.

Gaelyn guessed: “New York Cheesesteak.”

The contestant guessed the wrong answer
Carmetta quickly swooped in with the correct answer – “Cheesecake” – which helped her to win a trip to New York City, including a VIP ticket to Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve hosted by Ryan Seacrest. She also walked away from Wheel of Fortune with $68,250, while Mike won $17,700 and Gaelyn ended up with $2,000.

The moment went viral with viewers at home calling Gaelyn’s answer one of the worst in Wheel of Fortune history. One person on X, formerly known as Twitter wrote: “I was watching. Worst I’ve ever seen ‘live’ on tv. What a nerd.” Another posted: “I’ve never heard of a New York Cheesecake in my life.” A third user wrote: “I’ve heard of cheesecake, and I’ve heard of New York, but I’ve never heard of ‘New York Cheesecake.'” A fourth wrote: “A new all-time horrible answer.”

This is not the first time a contest has gone viral on the show. During the Thursday, May 23 episode, Tavaris, a contestant, had the audience laughing and shocked when he answered the “Phrase” category. The contestants were left to solve the puzzle and fill in the following missing letters, “_ _ _ _ I_ T_E B_ _T!”

Tavaris guessed and said: “Right in the butt?”

Not only was the audience laughing but people at home. Pat Sajak, former host of the show, was not amused and responded, “No.”