Wheel of Fortune fans are wondering if something fishy is going on over at the game show, after five different contestants landed on the same exact BMW car prize wedge on five consecutive nights. According to one mega-fan, the odds of that happening are “astronomically'' impossible. So, is it pure coincidence, or is the longstanding TV show rigged? Several viewers seem to believe the latter.
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Things reached a boiling point during last Friday night’s episode, when LaVonda Sharp from University Park, Illinois, advanced to the Bonus Round, where a brand-new BMW worth $44,000 was at stake. All she had to do was successfully solve the “Make a Wise Choice” puzzle.
As originally reported by The U.S. Sun, Sharp wasn’t the first—or second, or third—Wheel of Fortune guest who competed for the shiny new BMW that week. In the four nights leading up to Sharp’s episode, each contestant spun the wheel and randomly landed on the BMW prize. Out of the board’s 24 wedges, that specific wedge was selected five times in a row.
Because contestants couldn’t figure out the puzzle, the car remained one of the potential Bonus Round prizes throughout the week. That is, until Sharp was able to put together the puzzle during the Jan. 12 episode—and then drive off the lot in her brand-new car.
“This is Friday; for four nights, we have tried to give this car away, and we did it,” host Pat Sajak joked, per The U.S. Sun.
Shortly after Friday’s episode aired, X was lit up by fans, with many alleging that Wheel of Fortune is messing with viewers and possibly even rigging the prize wedges.
“I firmly believe that every prize on the wheel in the bonus round is a BMW. #wheeloffortune,” one person wrote.
A mechanical engineer even broke down the math to explain why the odds of landing on the same exact prize wedge that many times is “too unlikely to be a coincidence.”
“There is a conspiracy going on right now at Wheel of Fortune,” he began.
His thread continued, “5 nights in a row the prize landed on for the final puzzle has been a car, specifically a BMW. The final wheel has 24 prizes. If we assume one card contains the car, the odds of hitting that spot 5 times in a row is 1/7.96 million. Those odds are astronomically bad."
The user went so far as to allege that Wheel of Fortune might have been under pressure to give the car away “by a certain date.”
“So let's assume they're putting more BMW cards on the wheel. Let's say they make half the cards say BMW. At 50% of the wheel, the odds are still only 1/32 to hit 5 in a row. You need to have 21 out of 24 cards be the car before you even make 50/50 odds. SOMETHING IS UP!”
RELATED: Pat Sajak Slams Wheel of Fortune Fans Who Think the Show is "Fixed."
This isn’t the first time fans have theorized that the game show is rigged. In 2022, there was a similar occurrence when Wheel of Fortune contestants won the same prize on three consecutive nights. The online speculation eventually got out of hand, and host Sajak jumped in.
"A quick reminder to conspiracy theorists: thanks to the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, fixing a TV game show is a federal crime," Sajak previously said, per Good Housekeeping. "I really like our players, and I’d like them all to win, but I draw the line at serving prison time."
As of this writing, Sajak hasn’t commented on last week’s BMW conspiracy.
