While Toni Perrotta didn’t land on the big prize, she got to drive home a Toyota sports car
Amidst a spate of disappointing performances, one contestant on “Wheel of Fortune” won over the host, Ryan Seacrest, and the fans after pulling off a stunning win in the Bonus Round. Toni Perrotta, who made it to the finale with the million-dollar wedge, probably became the happiest person to not win the $1 million prize because she won a brand new Toyota sports car. The player is now set to come back to compete for even bigger prizes later this week.
Perrotta got off to a flying start as she got the very first Toss Up puzzle and got the Million Dollar Wedge right after it, along with over $10,000. She carried the momentum into the Express Round, where she cracked the prize puzzle to win a trip to Antigua, worth $9,200, according to Andy Nguyen’s blog. In the Triple Toss-up round, Perrotta solved one of the three puzzles, and she cracked the very last one in the Speed Up round as well, to emerge as the big winner of the night with $33,350 in cash, the trip, and the million-dollar wedge.
Advancing to the Bonus Round, Perrotta chose the category “Thing” for the final puzzle. While she didn’t bring any of her family and friends to the stage, the audience cheered her name in support as she joined Seacrest at the wheel. “They love you. You’ve got fans everywhere!” the host exclaimed before reminding the player that the $100,000 envelope on the wheel was replaced with a $1 million prize, which she could very well take home. After spinning the wheel and picking out her Golden Envelope, Perrotta was faced with a short two-word puzzle.
With the show’s standard letters “R, S, T, L, N, E,” filled in, she chose the additional letters, “C, F, D,” and “A”, only the latter of which showed up at two spots on the board. However, luck favored Perrotta as the puzzle, “A E R _ A L _ _ E _,” seemed quite easy to solve. After Seacrest kicked off the ten-second timer, she started with the guess, “Aerial Wire,” which wasn’t right. She then guessed “Aerial View,” and the host had to jump in and stop her as her answer was correct. As the player shrieked with joy, Seacrest revealed that it wasn’t a million dollars in the envelope but a brand new Toyota GR86 Premium worth $37,222. This took her total prize money to $70,572.
As she made her way to her new car, Perrotta joked, “Oh my god! My car’s old enough to vote. It’s almost old enough to drink!” implying that it was indeed the perfect prize for her. As she sat in her new car and waved at the fans, Seacrest revealed that the million-dollar prize was just 11 places away from the one the player landed on.
Watch the thrilling game in the video here.