What did he actually say?

I'm guessing that they would claim he said "corner curio cabnet", which is a normal English pronunciation but technically not correct. (funny to me that on dictionary.com they say it should have been pronounced kab-UH-nit, not kab-i-nit as the second guy said, so they aren't consistent and prove it instantly.) Normally, from my limited experience watching WOF, they would ask you to say the word again if it was a matter of pronunciation, but for $1 million I guess they just say "whew!" and screw you.

I think his 'fault' was saying cruro rather than curio. I can hear an I in cabinet.

That's a proper asshole thing for the show to do though. Fuck them.

If I recall correctly, this is not the first time Wheel of Fortune has been extremely dickish and didn't award someone a big prize because of some issue with pronunciation or some pathetically trivial technicality.

Can't believe the show is still on the air.

To be fair pronunciation does matter, otherwise people could see a gap of letters, not know what the words is and slosh some syllables over the missing parts claiming dialect or some such shit. What he said sounded like pure garbage to me.

a million?

@arekin that would matter only if there were missing letters.
Here all but 1 letter were solved and he clearly pronounced the missing letter as B.
This is not a reverse spelling bee where perfect pronunciation matters.

Apparently the Wheel of Fortune producers saw a million things wrong with his answer.

Guess people on VS don't watch WoF? There's no conspiracy here.

He wouldn't have won $1 million instantly even if he had solved the puzzle. The way it works is that IF he has the most cash (the million doesn't count towards his total) when time runs out at the end of the show, then he goes on to the final puzzle. At the final puzzle he spins a wheel with 24 envelopes that each contain different prizes and one of those envelopes will be replaced with the million dollar prize . However, the contents of the envelope are not revealed until after the final puzzle round is over.

In the past five years the million dollar award has only been won twice (according to Wikipedia). Considering that the show airs daily, it tells you how incredibly unlikely it would have been for this guy to win the million even if they'd let him win the round.

Oh, and if you listen to the video more than once you can clearly hear him mispronounce "curio" as "kuro." He was nervous and he made a mistake. Sucks for him but they were right to buzz him.

That might be a valid point... if the word he mispronounced wasn't already fully spelled out on the board.

Last time I watched it, the winner's head was in the corner while the camera panned around a bunch of crappy prizes for them to choose from. So, it's been a while.

I used to watch it a lot when I was little. How is Vanna White still attractive all these years?

Remember when she was in Playboy and on Married with Children? Amazing how long ago that was.

I'm glad they were unable to fire her from the show and she's been on for all these decades still rocking those letters.

I don't remember.

Sounded like he said, "corn-O cur-O cabinet". He practically botched the whole thing.

I don't think most people from "aroun des here parts" would pronounce Curio correctly.

his meaning was obviously clear. This is no different than the southern servicewoman who got screwed because she said "swimmin'" instead of swimming.

all cracks about southern accents aside, it was OBVIOUS what her meaning was. the only reason they are harping on pronunciation is to have a convenient excuse to not pay out extra money.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Strict-Judging-on-Wheel-of-Fortune

Strict Judging on Wheel of Fortune has been added as a related post - related requested by VoodooV.

Generally, I would agree with you, but not in this context and not to this degree. Every region in American has their own little dialect and is commonly accepted.

The point of the game is to figure out what the phrase is. The parts of the phrase he supposedly mis-pronounced were already revealed so it's not an issue of him trying to "guess" his way through the game.

same with the southern woman. The G she dropped in swimming was already revealed on the board, so to harp on that particular part of the word was bullshit. gee she said "swimmin'" what other word could she have possibly meant?

had the contestants been trying to mumble their way through some part of the phrase that hadn't been revealed, I would be on WoF's side, but that clearly is not the case.

It was a dick move on their part, probably motivated by not wanting to award prize money. end of story.

What's next? They going to screw over someone with a heavy Boston accent? I guess they screen out anyone with a foreign accent if they are that anal about pronunciation. Guess Joe Pesci won't ever be a celebrity contestant.

A "Corner Churro Cabinet" is something you find at Disneyland.

I would agree if winning the puzzle meant he won a million, it doesnt, he has to win the puzzle to get the chance to spin for a million on the final wheel if he goes to that round, not hit a bankruptcy, and then solve the final puzzle, its not likely to happen. This would hardly make sense for them to screw him on those grounds.

He botched this one bad, and had it been worse and he said the complete wrong word should they give it to him because its already revealed? If that's the case why not just have them win when the last letter is revealed? No, I'm with them on this, if he had just botched curio, id have said "ehh ok, screwed" but honestly if you cant say corner, you deserve to lose.

What if they have a speech impediment or a stammer?

Here's your clue; A person who irritates you. N_GGER.

Now..........apologiiizze!

I would say reasonable requests should be made, but still within the rules. It this case it sounds like the guy rushed his answer in his excitement and that's what caused the problem. Even with a speech Impediment or stammer you can usually make a clear statement if you speak slowly and deliberately.

'Jeopardy!' Contestant Penalized For 'Elaine' Pronunciation has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579 on that post.

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Fixed and thanks.