A woman from Connecticut has made history as the biggest winner in Wheel of Fortune history, earning the right to buy as many vowels as she pleases.
During the Tuesday, Sept. 30 episode, Christina Derevjanik won a cash prize of US$1,035,155 on the game show, making her the fifth Wheel of Fortune contestant who has earned the million-dollar prize and the first since Ryan Seacrest took over hosting duties.
Derevjanik, a marketing manager at Con Edison, first won trips to Montana and Tokyo by solving puzzles to gain $35,155 in cash and prizes. She revealed that her boss was in the studio audience and when Seacrest asked what would happen if she were to win a million dollars, Derevjanik said, “I may be putting in my two weeks [notice] but we won’t tell her that yet.”
Then, in the bonus round, Derevjanik chose the category Living Things and solved the puzzle, which read: “PACK OF COYOTES.”
Seacrest opened the prize envelope and told Derevjanik that she won the million-dollar prize. Vanna White joined the pair, exclaiming, “I’m so happy for you!”
“Congratulations, you’re my first million-dollar winner. I have a tear in my eye,” Seacrest added.
After the episode, Seacrest confirmed to Derevjanik that she was the biggest winner in the show’s 49-year history, according to a statement from Wheel of Fortune.
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“I have no words!” she responded. “I’m so happy to be part of history now.”
When asked how much she wanted to win, Derevjanik said, “I was trying to manifest this. I was hoping for confetti, but I never thought it would actually happen.”
During an interview with Good Morning America following her win, Derevjanik revealed that she didn’t put in her two weeks’ notice even though she won the big prize.
“My boss, who is also one of my good friends, she’s actually from L.A. originally, so she came with me and we joked, like, ‘Well, if you win the $1 million, I may be going home by myself in the office, might have to fill your spot,’” Derevjanik said. “So that was just a running joke, never thinking it would ever happen. But yeah, I’m going to be staying at work.”
Derevjanik also shared how she plans on spending her prize money.
“The first thing that I am spending that on is getting rid of all my student loans,” she said. “It’s something that, the last 15 years I’ve been out of college, I’ve just been like, ‘How am I ever going to pay this off?’ And now, it is just going to be such a relief and then hopefully, invest in a home in the next couple of years.”
The $1-million wedge was incorporated into Wheel of Fortune in 2008 at the beginning of Season 26. The top prize of $100,000 is replaced with $1 million if a contestant lands on the wedge, solves the puzzle and never hits a bankrupt after landing on the $1-million wedge.
The first $1-million grand prize was won by Michelle Lowenstein in October 2008, followed by Autumn Erhard in May 2013 and Sarah Manchester in September 2014, according to TV Insider. Actor Melissa Joan Hart also won the $1-million prize during an episode of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune in October 2021.
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