Wheel of Fortune viewers seriously divided over scandal that saw contestant lose $40,000

Wheel of Fortune viewers are split after some believe a contestant was 'robbed' out of a whopping $40,000 in prize money.

Tuesday's episode (30 January) was certainly an eventful one as contestant Megan Carvale's final round on the Wheel of Fortune ended in chaos.

As host Pat Sajak span the wheel, the brain teaser read: "_ _ N _ / _ R _ _ _ _."

After Megan guessed the other letters she was down to: "P _ N _ / _ R C _ _ D."

Watch below as things got a bit messy:

As the high school choir director started to frantically guess the five remaining letters, some viewers pointed out that Megan actually said the correct answer, but the host didn't pick it up.

Amongst her many guesses, the contestant said 'pink orchid', which was in fact the correct answer.

But as time ran out, Sajak said: "You might have been overthinking a type of orchid. I’m sorry that didn’t work out for you."

Instead of winning the $40,000, she was left with $14,007.

Social media erupted after the episode, as some were totally in Megan's camp.

ABC

Taking to X (Twitter), one viewer wrote: "The woman got screwed on #WheelOfFortune bonus puzzle tonight, she totally said 'PINK ORCHID' right at the start."

Another added: "I questioned the judges from the first thing she said!!

"I’m deaf in one ear, and half remaining on right, so I use captions and lip read. She said 'Pink Orchid'!! No question!!"

However, others thought Meghan wasn't clear enough, as one person tweeted: "I easily hear “something orchid”, not pink. The ‘s’ sound at the start is unmistakable."

"Ok. Totally a retract. I thought she said 'Pink Orchid', but she said 'Something Orchid'. Literally 14 rewinds. Sorry, lol. @WheelofFortune," a second added.

Addressing the controversy on Thursday, the contestant from California told Good Morning America: “You know, I wish I said ‘pink’ because I would have been $40,000 richer.

“But I said ‘something'."

ABC

She added: “My son, the entire way home, because my eight-year-old son was in the audience with me and the whole way home – we live in Orange County – the whole way home from LA, [he said], ‘Mom, I can’t believe you didn’t get pink. I can’t believe you didn’t get pink'.

“That word has already been haunting me and now all of America believes that I said it but I didn’t.”