‘Wheel of Fortune’ Contestant Mispronounces Commonly Misheard Song Lyric

A Wheel of Fortune contestant lost out on guessing a clue after mispronouncing a commonly misheard song lyric. During Tuesday’s episode of the hit game show, one of the puzzles featured lyrics from “Sweet Dreams,” the hit ’80s song by the Eurythmics. Contestant Chris Bryant made a move to solve the puzzle but got tripped up by one word that most fans of the song might even not have realized sounds different from what it actually is.

Bryant guessed “Sweet dreams are made of THESE,” but the correct answer was actually “Sweet dreams are made of THIS.” The understandable flub is something that the song’s co-writer Annie Lenox has addressed in the past, Per ET Canada, saying that she does hear how it sounds as if she is saying “these.” Over on Twitter, many fans of the show came out to support Bryant, sharing that they too would have guessed incorrectly. “The guy on Wheel of Fortune just said ‘Sweet Dreams are made of these’ to solve the puzzle, and that’s exactly what I said too,” a watcher tweeted. “I could have swore it was ‘these!’”

View on X

During another recent Wheel of Fortune episode, three contestants had trouble guessing the clue “Another Feather in Your Cap.” The round went on for several minutes, with one of the other contestants eventually solving the puzzle. Following the episode, a clip from the round went viral and led to a lot of comments and jokes on social media.

One of the contestants, Christopher Coleman, addressed the online ridicule by urging social media users to not be so critical. “Just go easy on me and the other contestants because we are very educated people and we don’t want to be put in a situation where we are being cackled and publicly humiliated on a show that was a lifelong dream,” Coleman said. He then added that people “should have more empathy and a little more grace and understanding.”

Notably, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak has come to the contestant’s defense, taking to Twitter himself to lambast the criticism. “It always pains me when nice people come on our show to play a game and win some money and maybe fulfill a lifelong dream, and are then subject to online ridicule when they make a mistake or something goes awry,” Sajak began his tweet thread. He later added, “I have fun with players and I tease them occasionally, but when things go wrong, I feel for them, and I try to salve the wounds on camera and off. So, yeah, it was an oddly entertaining puzzle and it’s okay to laugh at the situation. But have a little heart.” Sajak’s complete statement can be read here.