On the Monday, November 18 episode, Seacrest, who replaced Pat Sajak for the current series, said the puzzle Joey Sweet was tasked with was “tough” after he was unable to solve it and lost out on the $40,000 bonus round prize.

It was a change in tack for the presenter who normally remains impartial and does not comment about the difficulty of puzzles on the ABC show.

Coming into the bonus round, Joey racked up $16,150, a prize trip to Mexico, and a Wildcard wedge, which allowed him to request another consonant.

He selected ‘Phrase’ as his category, and when the three-word puzzle was displayed he picked out “CDMA” and an “F” as his Wildcard letter.

The board read “CAR _ED’ ‘_ _’ ‘_AND’, “ and after the timer began a baffled Joey could only guess “Cleared In Hand?”, before co-co-host Vanna White revealed the answer was ‘Carved By Hand’.

White then threw up her hands as the audience groaned, before Seacrest said: “You were on the right track. This is a tricky one.”

After the host opened the gold prize card that revealed the prize $40,000, he again remarked the puzzle was not easy to solve, even with a Wild Card.

He said: “Tough one. “Even with the headstart”.

Sweet took his loss on the chin and said: “It’s OK!”.

After the clip was shared on YouTube, some fans rushed to the comment section to agree with the hosr, and said the inclusion of “By”, made it particulary hard to solve.

One fumed: “‘Carved by hand’ that’s a really tough one guys come on.”

A third wrote: “I couldn’t get it. This was tough.”

A fourth added: ‘By’ is Tough Word for the Bonus Round, as Ryan said and I agree with him.”

Seacrest is making headlines after he brought Wheel of Fortune their largest premiere week audience in five years.

A total of 9.63 million viewers tuned in for the first episode of the show’s 42nd season.

He joined the show for their 42nd season in September of 2024, replacing Sajak who retired in June after 43 years.