![\"'Wheel](\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wheel-of-fortune-73k-loss-irish-disco-dancer-1420x798.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSomething strange happened during the Bonus Round…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She had already built an impressive lead and seemed destined for an even bigger prize.<\/p>\n
Then the final puzzle appeared\u2014and viewers couldn’t believe how difficult it was.<\/p>\n
Shibby Daly, an Irish-born contestant living in Charlotte, North Carolina, took part in the January 13 episode of Wheel of Fortune<\/em>. Daly has lived in the United States for 27 years and previously made a name for herself as a champion disco dancer in Ireland.<\/p>\n She faced Rob Baker, a crossword puzzle writer from Illinois, and Joelle Joseph, a dance teacher from Los Angeles.<\/p>\n From the very beginning, Daly was one of the strongest players on the board. She solved both opening toss-up puzzles, putting $3,000 into her bank and taking an early lead.<\/p>\n Baker eventually answered \u201cLike Money In The Bank,\u201d earning $10,650 after landing on the Collette wedge connected to a trip to Hawaii.<\/p>\n Later, the contestants faced the \u201cSay Cheese\u201d puzzle. Although Baker was a crossword puzzle writer, he couldn’t solve it. Daly stepped in and correctly answered \u201cBlue, Brie, Feta, Provolone,\u201d adding another $4,400 to her total.<\/p>\n Joseph then appeared to be in a strong position during the Prize Puzzle. She uncovered most of the letters, but her momentum disappeared when she landed on Bankrupt.<\/p>\n The opportunity went back to Daly, who solved \u201cScreaming At The Top of My Lungs.\u201d The answer brought her a major prize package, including trips to Spain, France and Italy, pushing her total to $18,398.<\/p>\n Daly continued to dominate during the Triple Toss-Ups, solving two of the three puzzles and adding another $4,000. Baker managed to solve the remaining one, earning another $2,000.<\/p>\n The final puzzle of the main game was \u201cMy Favorite Perk At Work.\u201d Once again, Daly found the answer and collected $5,700.<\/p>\n By the end of the regular game, Daly had accumulated an impressive $28,098<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Baker finished with $12,650, while Joseph ended without winnings from the game and received the show’s $1,000 consolation prize.<\/p>\n But Daly’s biggest opportunity was still waiting.<\/p>\n She advanced to the Bonus Round and selected the \u201cFood & Drink\u201d<\/strong> category. Unlike some contestants who bring a loved one onto the stage, Daly chose to face the challenge alone.<\/p>\n As usual, the show automatically revealed the letters R, S, T, L, N and E<\/strong>. Daly then selected M, D, K and A<\/strong> as her additional letters.<\/p>\n The board appeared with a frustratingly incomplete phrase:<\/p>\n _ _ _ED _ <\/strong>NE_DE<\/strong><\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The countdown began.<\/p>\n With only seconds available, Daly tried to figure out what the mysterious phrase could be. She guessed that the first word might be \u201cFried.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n But the answer was something almost impossible to anticipate:<\/p>\n \u201cCubed Honeydew.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The correct answer was revealed after time expired.<\/p>\n That single missed puzzle cost Daly an additional $45,000<\/strong>, as well as a trip to Finland. Had she solved it, her winnings would have climbed dramatically.<\/p>\n Even host Ryan Seacrest appeared to sympathize with her, acknowledging that it was an extremely difficult puzzle to solve.<\/p>\n And viewers seemed to agree.<\/p>\n Comments quickly appeared beneath the show’s YouTube video, with fans describing the Bonus Round as confusing, unusually difficult and even \u201cmind-boggling.\u201d<\/p>\n Some viewers complained that the puzzle seemed nearly impossible without calling the right letters. Others said it was another brutally difficult Bonus Round in a row.<\/p>\n One fan admitted they managed to recognize \u201cHoneydew\u201d but couldn’t figure out the word \u201cCubed.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite missing the massive bonus, Daly still walked away with $28,098<\/strong>, along with the trips she had earned during the main game.<\/p>\n Her Bonus Round miss, however, became the moment viewers remembered most\u2014because she wasn’t simply beaten by the competition.<\/p>\n She was beaten by two words that almost nobody watching seemed to expect.<\/p>\n And the question remains:<\/p>\n Could you have solved \u201cCubed Honeydew\u201d before the clock ran out?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Something strange happened during the Bonus Round… She had already built an impressive lead and seemed destined for an even bigger prize. Then the final puzzle appeared\u2014and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mdrssa_facebook_image":"","_mdrssa_unique_id":"2bd0a3b344c35520de6c2be54a8234d4","_mdrssa_normalized_url":":\/\/lateststories.info\/?p=3390"},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justbytime.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justbytime.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justbytime.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justbytime.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.justbytime.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5198,"href":"https:\/\/www.justbytime.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5188\/revisions\/5198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justbytime.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justbytime.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justbytime.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justbytime.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}