Unearthed Wheel of Fortune Clip Reveals Heartwarming Reason Behind Player's Loss - Fatherly

An old clip from Wheel of Fortune is going viral for the best possible reason, as people discovered that one contestant intentionally made hilariously bad guesses in order to help their opponent go home with a nice chunk of change.

During an episode that aired nearly six years ago in 2015 as a part of Veterans Week, three contestants are facing off in the final spin with the category “What are you doing?” And for Nura Fountaneaux, the answer to that question was making the most ridiculous guesses possible.

During her turns, she guessed the letters Z, Q, X, and two times not even guessing a letter in time. Anyone familiar with Wheel of Fortune (or the English language in general) would know that these are the worst letters you can guess. So why did she do it?

Well, we aren’t mind readers but context helps in this case. Nura was already pretty much guaranteed to win, as she had earned nearly $14,000, which was more than Troy and Steve, her two opponents, had put together. So it looks like she decided to be a good samaritan and sit out the last round to let them battle it out and make some extra money.

And her unconventional strategy paid off. Steve ended up solving the final spin (“Following Footprints”) and walked away with a cool $6,400. Host Pat Sajak couldn’t help but notice that Nura basically didn’t participate in the last round and asked her about it.

“You called some unusual letters in that round,” Sajak noted.

“That’s what I saw,” Nura explained.

Sajak called it an unsatisfactory answer but seemed to understand that Nura had thrown the last round to give her opponents the chance to win some extra money.

The video continues to be a favorite among fans, as the heartwarming clip has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.