Why 'Wheel Of Fortune' Contestant's Win Sparked Outrage On Twitter

"Wheel of Fortune" fans are upset over a win that took place on Thursday night's episode.

Contestant Steven Page was solving the puzzle "Quality Craftsmanship" when he appeared to leave out the "s" in "craftsmanship," Yahoo Entertainment reported.

Page received $9,000 for the puzzle and advanced to the bonus round.

"Wheel of Fortune" viewers were quick to notice the apparent mistake, with some taking to Twitter to claim that Page's answer should not have been deemed a win because it was technically incorrect and that it was unfair to competitors Lisa Volivitch and Christina Maril.

"#WheelOfFortune why was Steven's response on 'Quality Craftsmanship' rules correct tonight?? He said 'quality craftmanship'—without the 's'! That's incorrect! Lisa deserves another $9k, as she would have got that on the next turn," one person tweeted.

"The man on 'Wheel of Fortune' today shouldn't have won. The last puzzle he said, 'Quality craftmanship.' He missed the 's' is craftsmanship. You can hear it if you listen closely. He should have gotten the buzz and the lady beside him should have gotten it," another wrote.

While some fans pointed out that pronunciation can be subjective, many argued that the show did not tolerate some past answers that were not pronounced correctly.

One Twitter user wrote, "Last night, Steven left out the 's' in craftsmanship. For a show that says the word 'and' is wrong in a crossword puzzle, leaving out the s is worse. It’s the wrong word. Exactly why did he win? The other two should be brought back for another shot."

"How did you let this guy win by not saying the 'S' in craftsmanship but [not] this lady [whom] you said didn't pronounce the letter 'G' in swimming," another person tweeted, along with a video of former contestant Renee Durette, who was passed over for mispronouncing a word. "Is he privileged?"

In a 2012 "Wheel of Fortune" episode, Durette was trying to solve a puzzle based on a lyric from "The Twelve Days of Christmas" when she answered, "Seven swans a-swimmin.'" It initially appeared that she had answered correctly, but not pronouncing the 'g' at the end of the word "swimming" cost her the puzzle.

Host Pat Sajak said he couldn't accept Durette's answer, costing her the $3,850 she had accumulated. According to the judges, the answer violated the rules because it was spoken in vernacular.

"That's kind of how I speak, you know, being from Florida and I asked for the 'g' so I knew it was there," Durette later explained.

However, other fans defended "Wheel of Fortune" and Page.

One fan wrote, "I don't often weigh in on the sister show, but 'Wheel of Fortune' is much like 'Jeopardy' in that the judges are very much able to isolate audio of contestants and ascertain exactly what was said. If the 'Wheel' judges are satisfied that the contestant said, 'craftsmanship,' so am I."

"God forbid any person with a speech impediment or lisp ever play this game and you are watching. But craftmanship is not even a word, therefore what he said or sounded like was correct," another commented.

"A check of the pronunciation of craftsmanship online yields an example of saying craftsmanship with a silent 's' by a British speaker. Sometimes you can't hear the 's', sometimes it is simply spoken with a silent 's.' In this case, Pat called it right," a third added.

"Wheel of Fortune" rules have long been a topic of debate among fans, but it is usually the restrictions that draw criticism from viewers.

In 2019, a contestant lost thousands of dollars for a slight mistake. Kristen Shaw answered a puzzle by saying "right, football, left and Sally."

But the words that appeared in Shaw's puzzle were "right," "football," "left" and "Sally," so the addition of the word "and" into her answer made it technically wrong, causing her to lose around $10,000.