“Wheel of Fortune” contestants are having a challenging ‘Secret Santa’ week lately. A dedicated and passionate doctor, Amanda Blue, reached the Bonus Round but couldn’t gather her wits to solve the crafty puzzle in time. The mother of two could have won the coveted $100,000 but walked away with $22,878 instead. Fans couldn’t hide their disdain for the unexpected puzzle and complained that Blue was close to becoming the winner if it hadn’t been for bad timing.

Blue’s lovely family caught the attention as they cheered her from backstage. “You got a beautiful family over here. Introduce them,” Seacrest said. “So I have my awesome husband, Joe, my wonderful mother, Crystal, and my beautiful daughters, Alexis and Jordan. And Stitch,” the contestant introduced in a light-hearted move. Meanwhile, Seacrest joked and asked the little girls to beware of “troublemaker Stitch”. “Let’s try to make you $100,000 winner with an envelope,” Seacrest encouraged as Blue spun the Wheel. She then chose the “Food and Drink” and got the traditional letters  R, S, T, L, N, and E  displayed on the board.

After a thoughtful moment, the contestant chose P, M, H, and A. The puzzle board looked easy to solve with “M, A, P, L, E, T, A,_,_,_.” As the ten-second buzzer started ticking, Blue’s made several attempts to guess the right answer. “Maple Take? Maple Take? Maple tazzy. Maple tacky. Taffy. Maple taffy,” she said. Unfortunately, she couldn’t clock the answer in time. Did she get it in time? We’re going to the judges on that one. No, not until- well, you got- It is maple taffy. Not quite in time in the 10 seconds.Nice effort,” a disappointed Seacrest reacted.

Seacrest then reached out for the golden envelope reveal and stated that Blue had lost the $40,000 Bonus prize. “You talked it out. And here’s what was in the envelope,” he said. “But you’re walking away with $22,878,” he added as Blue stood visibly disappointed yet tried to appear cheerful. Fans called it unfair and wished the game had given her a grace chance to win. “W** is Maple taffy?? I think we all lost with that answer. Canadian thing?” a fan @alexsnell8177 asked in disbelief.

“They should have went to the commercial & check to see if the buzzer or her solve came first.” @chris.twentynine pointed out. “Ooh, she was that close, but she couldn’t even solve that puzzle on time!” @anthonywalker1044 lamented. “She started ON the buzzer. Legal solve in Wheel’s rulebook, she was robbed. She should appeal. ‘Moving Company’ solve was equivalent, and Wheel gave him the good solve,” @J_NoNamesLeft73 complained. “She was THAT close to win the bonus round, just ran out of time. That’s gotta hurt,” @zaidarodriguez8455 shared.

You can watch Amanda Blue failing to answer here.