Wheel first?: "Pick a letter. Quickly. BUZZ!"

[Otm Shank]

I don't ever recall seeing this, and I'm sure someone will point to an instance of this happening before.

On Friday's (or was it Thursday's?) show, a contestant spun the wheel, and started to guess a "u", but it was was more like: "yuh.... ah, oh." But, they did not count that as a letter guess, because she pulled back quick enough. So Pat prompted her to pick a letter, and she was just too confused to guess a consonant. Eventually, she was buzzed before she could guess a letter.

I've often heard the warnings of guessing a letter before you get buzzed, but I never saw it happen. So is this a first?

[bandit_bobby]

No.

[Steve Gavazzi]

I'm pretty sure I've seen it happen once or twice, but it was so long ago that I don't remember much about it.

[That Don Guy]

It happened a few times in the Woolery era.  It usually happens when the puzzle is just about solved, but the player doesn't know the answer and can't figure out what letter should go into one of the few remaining openings.

It's about as common as someone trying to solve the puzzle but being called wrong for adding the word "the" (for example, saying "The Atlanta Falcons" for ATLANTA FALCONS).

-- Don