Pat Sajak Boldly Told A ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ Contestant He Didn’t “Have Any Chance Of Winning” After He Failed To Solve A Puzzle

Pat Sajak had a rather blunt reaction to one Wheel of Fortune contestant’s massive loss during a recent episode.

Contestant Jack Zhou, who competed on Friday’s (Oct. 13) show, successfully made it to the bonus round, where the category was “What Are You Doing?” but his luck seemed to end there.

The letters “R, S, T, L, N, E” were already on the board. At Sajak’s urging, Zhou guessed “three more consonants and a vowel,” namely “D, C, H, and I.”

Unfortunately, that guess wasn’t enough to cinch the win for Zhou.

“Do your best with it,” Sajak urged Zhou when there were just ten seconds left on the clock.

Zhou ran through all of the possibilities with the letters on the board: “Bonds, wands, bands?” But he eventually ran out of time to correctly guess the puzzle.

“The first word out of your mouth was actually right, it was bonds,” Sajak said when the timer ran out. The audience gasped in response when the puzzle was revealed to be, “Forming Bonds.”

“Sorry that didn’t work out for you,” he then told Zhou as he opened up the golden envelope to reveal what his prize would have been. “You needed another letter or two to have any chance of winning.”

If he had gotten it right, Zhou would have went home with an additional $75,000 on top of his earnings.

The audience groaned when they saw the prize money he missed out on. But Sajak offered him some consolation, reminding Zhou and the audience, “This is a just a number printed on cardboard. He has actual money.”

Zhou made it to the Bonus Round because he was the top-earning contestant on the episode with $71,700. Though he got the final puzzle wrong, he still got to take his winnings home.

Sajak has become known for his rather blunt nature on the show.

Last season, he frustratedly lashed out at a contestant after she buzzed in multiple times with incorrect guesses. “Why are you bothering?” he asked them after they guessed their third incorrect answer in a row.

Wheel of Fortune airs on weeknights at 7:30/6:30c PM. Check out your local listings on the Wheel of Fortune website.