'Wheel of Fortune' Answer About Major Actor Leaves Pat Sajak Clueless

Daniel S. Levine

01/25/2022 03:33 pm EST

Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak must have missed out on Doctor Strange and Spider-Man: No Way Home. During the Jan. 23 episode of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, Sajak apologized to actor Benedict Cumberbatch for not understanding a puzzle answer because he did not know who the actor is. The snafu inspired plenty of jokes on social media.

The celebrity contestants in last weekend's episode were The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Tatyana Ali, The Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment, and celebrity chef Curtis Stone. One of the puzzle answers in the game was "Eggs Benedict Cumberbatch," which Ali guessed.

Although the answer was correct, Sajak was a little confused. Sajak asked Ali to "explain" who Cumberbatch is. "Benedict Cumberbatch is an actor, right?" Ali asked. Sajak said he had no idea. "I didn't have the answer so I pretended like I was just saying, 'So tell us. I, of course, know it but you tell us.' And that was a little host trick," Sajak said. "My apologies, Mr. Cumberbatch. But I spend a lot of time in my basement. I have no idea what's going on."

'No harm no foul'

It's hard to understand how Sajak could not at least be aware of Cumberbatch, who has been almost everywhere since scoring his breakout role as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC's Sherlock. He has also starred in dozens of important films in the past two decades, including Atonement, 12 Years a Slave, Star Trek Into Darkness, 1917, August: Osage County, and The Hobbit movies. He plays Doctor Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making his latest appearance as the character in Spider-Man: No Way Home. He recently finished filming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which opens on May 6.

'Benedict is an amazing actor... Same on you, Pat'

Cumberbatch also scored an Oscar nomination for The Imitation Game. His performance in Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog has won him widespread acclaim and was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role. The Netflix movie is widely expected to garner another Oscar nomination for the actor.

'The world is still spinning!'

Meanwhile, Wheel of Fortune fans are still making fun of Sajak for forgetting who Cumberbatch is. Scroll on to see some of the best reactions to the situation.

'Does Cumberbatch know who Pat Sajak is?'

"Does Cumberbatch know who Pat Sajak is? Would an apology be required?" one fan wondered.

Does Sajak 'look like someone up on anything that happened after 1985?'

"Trebek told us in the little huddle after the show about how he had the writers change the FJ category name to make it easier on us; Sajak just asked a contestant to explain the end of 'EGGS BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH' because he didn't understand it," former Jeopardy! champion John Schultz tweeted.

'That's just (Dr) Strange'

"Pat Sajak doesn't know who Benedict Cumberbatch is? That's just (Dr) Strange," one viewer wrote.

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