Products You May Like
Wheel of Fortune viewers have a new favorite contestant after the lovable Geoffrey Smith appeared on Monday’s (January 13) episode and proved to be an excellent puzzle-solver.
Smith, from Saint Cloud, Florida, told host Ryan Seacrest how he grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and used to watch Wheel of Fortune on his neighbors’ black and white TV since his family was so poor they never had a color TV. He also said he was amazed to see Vanna White “in living colors.”
On Monday’s episode, Smith faced off against Kaitlyn O’Keeffe, a high school social studies teacher from Deer Park, New York, and Sonja Hughes, a beauty pageant obsessive from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Smith proved to be a force from the start, immediately capitalizing on a mistake made by Hughes (where she left the ‘S’ off of her answer) and nailing the first puzzle of the episode. He went on to land the puzzles in Round 1 and the Mystery Round, giving him a strong early total of $7,500.
From there, Smith took full control of the game, answering all three puzzles in the Triple Toss-Up round and the final puzzle in the Speed-Up round. This gave him an episode-winning total of $26,000, compared to Hughes’ $7,300 and O’Keeffe’s $1,000 goose-egg.
Heading into the Bonus Round, the tall Smith towered over Seacrest as he selected the often tricky “Phrase” category. Smith took a moment to study the board before picking his additional letters, “C, F, M, and I.” This gave him a four-word puzzle that read: “_ _ S T / _ L _ R T / I T / _ _ T.”
“Take your time, it’s a phrase, you’ve got ten seconds,” Seacrest said, perhaps realizing Smith had a tough board in front of him.
However, as soon as the ten-second timer started, Smith confidently answered, “Just Blurt It Out.”
“Yeah! Wait a minute… come on!” said a shocked Seacrest before opening the prize envelope and revealing Smith added an extra $40,000 to his total winnings.
White came over to congratulate Smith, who danced and celebrated his victory. Meanwhile, Seacrest added, “You were looking down at me like, ‘I don’t need you to talk anymore, Ryan, I just wanna blurt it out.”
“I got it eventually,” Smith responded.
Fans loved Smith and his incredible Bonus Round puzzle solve, with one X user writing, “Geoffrey is the best #wheeloffortune player of all time. Holy smokes.”
Geoffrey is the best #wheeloffortune player of all time. Holy smokes
— CFMuir (@CFMuirWrites) January 14, 2025
Another agreed, saying, “#Geoffrey on tonight’s @WheelofFortune may be my favorite contestant ever!!!! Love him!!!”
One Wheel of Fortune Reddit user described Smith as a “legend,” while another agreed, writing, “The Jamaican guy on here tonight is a legend.”
“With the letters he chose, I thought he wouldn’t have gotten it, but Geoffrey has proved me wrong! Well played Geoffrey, well played!” added a YouTube commenter.
“Wow that’s perfect!! Great solve by Geoffrey!!!” said another.
“Way to go, Geoffrey! It was a tough one, but you got it right anyways!” wrote one fan.
However, many others didn’t get to see last night’s episode because it was preempted for NFL post-playoffs. In fact, Smith himself might have missed his own episode because, as one Reddit user pointed out, “He’s from St. Cloud, FL which is in the Orlando area. WOF didn’t air on WFTV channel 9 because of the NFL pregame but they will air his episode on Saturday at 12:30 PM.”
Another Reddit user explained, “ABC is airing an NFL Wild Card game tonight at 8 ET, with pregame at 7:30 PM, which means WOF will not be able to air in many cities where it airs on ABC. Also, since most stations favor Jeopardy! over Wheel of Fortune, some cities where WOF normally airs at 7:00 will be replacing it with Jeopardy! for tonight only.”
Did you get to see Monday’s episode? What did you think of Smith’s big win? Let us know in the comments section below.
Wheel of Fortune, Weeknights, check local listings