Ryan Seacrest stirred up some debate following a disputed ruling on a puzzle guess.

Recently, one contestant on “Wheel of Fortune” lost the chance to win $1,000 after mistakenly pronouncing her guess on the first puzzle of the episode.

The puzzle was two words long: “A F _ I _ _ N _ A _ A _ _.” The contestant, Arzice from Medina, Ohio, guessed “African Safari” correctly, but pronounced the second word incorrectly as “sa-fair-ee,” which led to it being deemed incorrect. Consequently, another player, Brian, claimed the prize instead.

“Safari is how you need to say that,” Seacrest remarked, with Arzice seeming to understand her mistake. “I just wanted to confirm with our judges.”

Reactions on social media were varied, with some users surprised by the mispronunciation while others defended the contestant.

“Come on, judges of Wheel of Fortune. I understood what she meant when she said African ‘Safari’ that way,” one person expressed on X.

“Wheel of Fortune, you’ve got it wrong! The contestant said African Safari correctly but had a southern accent! That was really unfair!” another user remarked.

“Her guess included almost all the correct letters in the answer!” commented a third individual. “Unfortunately, being close only matters in horseshoes and hand grenades — and #wheeloffortune doesn’t fit into that category.”

“(African Safairee) Is Not A Recognized Word In The Dictionary Or Wikipedia,” another person added. “If the contestant were allowed to win $1,000, it would be unfair to the other contestants!”

In the end, the third contestant, Krystal, secured the victory with a total prize of $17,650.