WHEEL of Fortune host Pat Sajak has shaded a contestant for missing what fans deemed a “brutally easy” puzzle solve with one letter left on Monday’s episode.
Keke made a shocking selection, but the 75-year-old didn’t let her down gently.
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The Los Angeles-based caregiver landed on an “Express $1000” card mid-game on the wheel.
This meant she’d get $1000 per correct letter in the puzzle, but would go bankrupt if she missed one.
“Are you gonna do this Kiki?” Pat asked her, explaining: “There are no vowels left, if you miss a letter it will be a bankrupt.”
“Let’s do it!” Keke responded as she then confidently and correctly picked an “F,” and three “L’s.”
The board had just one letter missing in “Savor That Local Flavor” – only the “C” in “Local.”
“So you have one more letter you can call for $1000 bucks, which one would you like?” Pat encouraged as he seemed sure she’d get it.
Keke shockingly chose a “Y” – she seemed to think the solve was “Savor the Loyal Flavor” and didn’t realize “Y” was a vowel.
After Pat declared her incorrect and her $6K disapeared, Keke’s mistake dawned on her too late, she put up a hand and exclaimed “oh no!”
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Instead of comforting her, however, Pat simply shot her way: “Yeah, you have no money.”
He then moved on, and Keke simply looked so sad without any positive words from the host.
‘LOYAL FLAVOR!?’
Wheel of Fortune fans however couldn’t do so, they were left stunned – not so much by Pat’s lack of empathy, but more by the choice to go with a “Y.”
“Keke, no! Not the ‘loyal flavor,'” one viewer tweeted.
“She said the ‘y’ so confidently #wheeloffortune SAVOR THE LOYAL FLAVOR,” shouted another.
“Oh man a woman just totally blew it with one letter missing on Wheel of Fortune. That was brutal,” wrote a third.
“Savor the Loyal Flavor? Wheel of Fortune. Come on now. Even if there was only 2 seconds to solve I would of gotten that,” wrote a fourth.
“Never tried loyal local flavor .. hmm” wrote a stunned fifth as dozens had to express that “Savor That Loyal Flavor” was a tough way to go broke.
PAIN GAME
Pat is no stranger to awkward interactions with contestants – often making players feel bad instead of relating to them on-stage, win or lose.
Last week during an interview, Pat decided to mock a player named Val after she revealed her unusual wedding theme.
“… Speaking of funny things with my husband, we did a pirate sunset cruise – that’s how we got engaged,” Val shared with Pat at the time.
“So on the way back home we thought what if we had a pirate wedding?”
She continued: “And we told our parents that when we got home and [were] met with a lot of blank faces.
“But we did it! We had swords, helm wheels everything at the wedding.”
“Wow,” Pat replied, not showing much excitement. “Wedding party like [you] had a parrot on your shoulder?”
“No parrots” she answered. “No live animals.”
Pat then sarcastically concluded: “Good to have you here, I think.”
LACK OF PAT-IENCE
The tense moments between the two didn’t end there as later on in the episode Val ended up solving the final puzzle to add $40K to her total, which led Pat to call her a “show off.”
As Val celebrated he then continued: “Get out of here,” and she began to walk away unsure if he meant it given his tone so far.
“No, no, don’t actually get out of here I mean ‘get out of here’ ah never mind,” Pat veered off course, resulting in an awkward TV moment where Val didn’t know whether to stay or leave.
Earlier this month, he slammed a player named Katie for “making up claims that weren’t true” after she confessed that she used to tell people she was related to Pat’s co-host Vanna White.
The week before, he appeared to make another contestant uncomfortable after asking her if she was married and then telling her: “You’re a fine woman.”
END OF AN ERA?
While Pat seems to have lost his patience with some players, viewers may not see many of these moments for much longer.
Pat previously hinted at stepping away from the game he has hosted for four decades alongside Vanna.
He told ET back in September: “In most television shows by this time, you would have said, ‘That’s probably enough,’ but this show will not die.”
“It appears I may go before the show,” Pat added.
The TV star- who has received plenty of backlash– then said: “Years go by fast. We’re getting near the end. It’s been a long [time].
“We’re not gonna do this for another 40 years. The end is near.”
“It’s an honor to have been in people’s living rooms for that long. People were out there welcoming us. We’re happy and proud,” Pat concluded.
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