Listen, while we all love a hilarious Wheel of Fortune fail, watching an epic win can be just as entertaining. And that’s exactly what recently happened on The Wheel when a contestant named Traci Demus-Gamble made a winning puzzle solve so out-of-nowhere that it made host Ryan Seacrest jokingly check her for a hidden earpiece.
In a clip posted to the show’s YouTube account Friday, Jan. 17, Demus-Gamble waved to her husband who was standing on the sidelines before going up to the stage for her next challenge: guess a four-word “phrase.”
Demus-Gamble wasn’t off to a great start, as only two of her given letters (“T” and “E”) made it to the board. And the odds didn’t improve much after Demus-Gamble, admittedly “nervous,” gave the letters “M,” “C,” “D,” and “O” and only two of those letters showed up once on the board.
“Again, not too much more, but who knows, you’ve had a lot of good luck tonight,” Seacrest said. “Maybe it’ll strike you.”
Then, all in under ten seconds (more like in 1.5 seconds), Demus-Gamble correctly guessed, “They go way back” like it was nothing.
Watch the incredible moment below:
“How in the world did you solve that last one?” Seacrest asked.
“I just dug deep, I dug deep,” Demus-Gamble said.
Yeah, you dug real deep,” Seacrest replied. “Congratulations, great, great work.”
“Now THAT was an amazing solve.”
“Wow! That was impressive!”
“I couldn’t solve that one to save my life, but Demus-Gamble got it like it was nothing.”
“There’s only one way to describe this to me: ”
At the end of the clip, Seacrest opened the envelope to reveal that Demus-Gamble’s puzzle solve won her $50,000, earning her a total win of $78,650. Certainly not chump change.
As for her winning strategy—Demus-Gamble assured no cheating was involved. “I just dug deep,” she told Seacrest. We’ll say.
This article originally appeared in January
