"Wheel of Fortune" winner explains strategy, tests skills again
Ellen DeGeneres had a couple of questions for Emil de Leon -- this week's "Wheel of Fortune" winner, who shocked viewers when he snagged the bonus round by guessing "New Baby Buggy" with only two letters on the board.
First -- how did he do it? And could he do it again?
"It's all in the first letters: R-S-T-L-N-E," he said. "They showed up, the N and the E. It's pretty obvious the first word was new. Then worked on baby. It just sounds right, right? 'New baby?' The hard part [was 'buggy']. I worked with that B again."
The correct answer didn't show up immediately, and de Leon said that lag-time was the "longest three seconds I've ever felt."
It turns out that de Leon, who waltzed away with $63,099 during Wednesday's episode, has been an avid "Wheel of Fortune" fan ever since he was 3 or 4 years old.
"The first letters that I learned how to say were R-S-T-L-N-E. Those are the prominent letters in 'Wheel of Fortune,'" he told DeGeneres during a segment airing Friday.
He plays at home all the time and says he gets the answer "99 percent of the time." "Watching with my family and friends, you can't do it. Because after five seconds it's: 'Emil got it again!'"
So it wasn't too much of a surprise to hear that de Leon landed a spot on the long-running show after his first audition ("It took me one try").
He tested his skills once again on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," alongside DeGeneres and guest host, Jason Bateman.
See how he did in the video below:
