Screenshots showing Ryan Seacrest ducking under the wheeel and alongside the player (Cover image source: YouTube/Wheel Of Fortune)

“Wheel Of Fortune” contestants are known to get a bit too excited after winning, and one of them has even put the host Ryan Seacrest in a headlock before. But on a Halloween special episode, Seacrest was on his toes for different reasons. On one occasion, he was spooked out by laughter, which he thought came from the contestant, Shannon. After the confusion cleared up, Seacrest and Shannon played the Bonus Round, and the fun ended after she lost out on winning an additional $40,000.

Screenshot showing Ryan Seacrest alongside Shanon (Image source: YouTube/Wheel Of Fortune)
Shannon played impressively in the initial rounds, solving multiple toss-up puzzles to win cash and edge out a lead. In the end, she emerged as the grand winner with a total of $20,800 in cash and an exotic trip. While the player had managed to rack up a good sum, she had the chance to win up to $100,000 more or a brand-new car in the Bonus Round of the show.

Screenshot showing Seacrest and Shannon at the wheel (Image source: YouTube/Wheel Of Fortune)
After Shanon chose the category “Phrase” for the final round, she joined Seacrest at the wheel to spin and win. She was joined by her husband on the stage, who cheered her on as Seacrest picked out her Golden Envelope. As Shanon made her way to the center of the stage, a loud shrieking laughter echoed through the studio. The sound effect spooked Seacrest, who ducked behind the wheel to take cover.

Screenshots showing Ryan Seacrest taking cover behind the wheel (Image source: YouTube/Wheel Of Fortune)
As the host recovered from the scare, he jokingly asked Shanon, “Was that you!?” When the player denied it, he looked at the camera and said, “They should tell me about these things before we do the show!” After the fun moment, Seacrest and Shanon went back to the game, where she was faced with a four-word puzzle. With the show’s standard letters, “R, S, T, L, N, E,” on the board, she chose “B, H, C, and A,” as the additional letters. Unfortunately, her choice of letters didn’t go her way as she got only one more clue on the board. With everything filled in, the puzzle read, “_ _ _      _ EAR       _T        _ ELL.”

Screenshot showing the puzzle (Image source: YouTube/Wheel Of Fortune)
“Oh, not much more to go with there, but you might just get it. Give it a try here. You’ll have 10s to try and solve. Good luck!” Seacrest told Shanon before kicking off the timer. The player tried her best to solve the puzzle, shouting out answers like “Can’t hear it well”, “Can wear it well”, and so on. However, she got the first word wrong as the show’s co-host Vanna White revealed the answer to be “You Wear It Well.” To add to the heartbreak, Seacrest opened the Golden Envelope, which showed that Shannon had lost out on winning an extra $40,000, which would have taken her total to over $60,000.

Nevertheless, both the contestants and the viewers at home enjoyed the fun and spooky moments on the show. “I’m so loving these reactions of Ryan being scared. These are so genuine, and I can tell he didn’t know. It was hard to figure out myself,” wrote one fan called @4biz in the comments section of the YouTube clip.

While Seacrest got spooked for fun on the show, he recently admitted that his biggest fear in life is “relationships” as reported by Yahoo.