Former Kentucky Hoops Star Falls Victim to Yet Another ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Technicality

Iconic game show Wheel of Fortune has been making a lot of headlines recently, many for the wrong reasons, even though it TECHNICALLY isn't doing anything wrong.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE -- DON'T SAY 'AND'

Last April, Twitter lit up with viewers expressing their dismay and, in some cases, outright anger over a technicality that cost a contestant a good deal of money he'd earned in that round. The puzzle's category was a crossword-type puzzle with the title Catch of the Day. The answer was "sole, flounder, cod, catfish." When David Pederson solved it, he slipped the word "and" in between cod and catfish. It's an understandable thing to do, but it was an error that Wheel of Fortune says is unacceptable. Since the word "and" was not a part of the puzzle, Pederson lost that round.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE -- NO AUDI FOR YOU

More recently, contestant Charlene Rubush made it to the final round in which her category was "What Are You Doing?" Well, the answer was "choosing the right word." And Charlene SAID that phrase within the allotted 10-second time frame contestants are given to solve the last puzzle. However, host Pat Sajak told her she did NOT win because she took four or five seconds to say the final word of the puzzle, informing her that while a short pause is allowed, the solution must be said in a somewhat continuous fashion. WHAT?!?

Despite the fact, she got the phrase right within 10 seconds and didn't add any words, she lost a new Audi because she took too much time between the last two words. Outrage ensued and Audi stepped in and gave her a car anyway.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE RULE TRIPS UP FORMER UK HOOPS STAR

Sunday night, another incident involving a Wheel of Fortune technicality cost former University of Kentucky and current Minnesota Timberwolves forward Karl-Anthony Towns a round when, while answering a "Before and After" puzzle, he said "Martin Short, Short Circuit." Well, the puzzle was "Martin Short Circuit." Since there wasn't a second appearance of the word "short" in the puzzle, he lost out and black-ish star Anthony Anderson won the round. Towns ended up doing just fine for his charity, but he still became another statistic in an increasingly nitpicky series of Wheel of Fortune occurrences.

And yes, they DO seem nitpicky, but those rules are on the books at WOF and none of those decisions--plus many I didn't include here--have ever been reversed. So word to the wise...if you're going to be a contestant on Wheel of Fortune, ONLY say what is on the board and, by all means, don't take four or five seconds (apparently, an ETERNITY at WOF) between words.