This Technicality Made A ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ Contestant Lose Thousands Of Dollars

On Thursday night, Kristen Shaw was a contestant on “Wheel of Fortune.” She now has fans advocating on her behalf because of a slight mistake she made while solving the “crossword puzzle” challenge.

The rules of this particular challenge make contestants reveal the answers in a list to complete the puzzle. Shaw did just that and solved the puzzle correctly but she added one word, making the judges rule her answer wrong.

Yahoo Entertainment reported that the words that appeared in Shaw’s puzzle were “right,” “football,” “left” and “Sally.” Shaw answered the puzzle by saying “right, football, left and Sally.” By adding the word “and” in her answer though, she was technically wrong.

Shaw ended up losing around $10,000, which broke down to $1,950 in cash and a trip to Nashville that was valued at over $8,000.

Pat Sajak did express sympathy for her but, he did warn her about the rules before she answered.

“Most time I caution people not to add anything, and you maybe didn’t even hear yourself but you threw an “And” in there with the last thing and we have to go by the words,” Sajak said to Shaw.

Fans of the game show went on Twitter to tell the show that this technicality is "garbage" and should be changed.

“Utterly ridiculous that you didn't give credit to Kristen for the ___ field puzzle because she said "and" before the last word of the list. Functionally no different from the pauses you allow. You know she knew the puzzle @WheelofFortune Not cool,” someone tweeted at the show.

“The ‘and’ rule is garbage. She deserved Nashville,” one person added.

“I don't watch Wheel of Fortune much, but I hate their "crossword" puzzles. They're unfairly picky about how you answer it. Read each word as a list, don’t say “and__” like a normal person or it doesn’t count. They had each word right! Who cares they said “and”?” someone else said.