Vineland Teacher’s ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Moment Goes Viral

A South Jersey woman was a contestant on Wheel of Fortune last week and won over $26,000.

Congratulations to Linda Rivera, an art teacher from Vineland.

But what people seem to be focusing on about Linda's appearance on Wheel is what happened during her bonus round of the game..

Vineland Woman Wins Wheel of Fortune Episode

Linda Rivera was competing with Rachael Simpson, a tarot card reader, and animal whisperer Joey Packo.

Rivera won the first round, giving her $4,650.

After Packo came back to take the Mystery Round and won $9,300, Maria was a winner again in the Express Round, figuring out the Travel Tips puzzle to pocket another $8,500 in cash and a trip worth $9,376 to Aruba.

The game continued, and when Round 4 finished, Rivera came up with the final puzzle and won the episode with a total of $26,026.

Local Contestant Stumped in Bonus Round

In the Bonus Round, Rivera chose the "What Are You Doing" category.

Host Ryan Seacrest introduced the puzzle and gave  Rivera her given letters. "R S T L & E". Linda then picked her three additional consonants and a vowel "M B C and I".

That gave Lnda a three-word puzzle board that read "MI_IN_/T_IN_S/__".

It was at this point that the game changed for Linda Rivera.

She seemed to know that the last two words were "things up", but she couldn't come up with the first word.

After the 10-second timer ran out, co-host Vanna White revealed the correct answer. "Mixing Things Up".

Linda shook her head and made a mixing gesture as the prize envelope showed she had lost the bonus prize of $45,000.

Oh, Linda!

I know from playing the Alphabet Challenge how disappointing losing like this is, and how difficult it can be to quickly give the correct answer when you're under pressure and in the spotlight.

Congratulations to Linda on winning over $26 grand!
See her Bonus Round on Wheel of Fortune, in a video entitled " It's on the tip of her tongue".