STAMFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — A woman from Connecticut became the biggest winner in “Wheel of Fortune” history after earning a whopping $1,035,115 on the show.
Christina Derevjanik was already on a winning streak in Tuesday night’s episode, having collected $35,115 in cash and prizes (including trips to Montana and Tokyo) as well as the wheel’s million-dollar wedge during the show’s earlier puzzles.
When she made it to the bonus round, Derevjanik admitted — in front of her boss, who was in the studio audience — that she “may be putting in my two weeks” if she ended up winning the grand prize. She chose the category “Living Things,” and correctly solved the puzzle as soon as the clock started ticking. (The answer was “PACK OF COYOTES.”)
A clip from Tuesday’s episode shows “Wheel of Fortune” host Ryan Seacrest flipping open the envelope to reveal her $1 million prize, after which Derevjanik began screaming and hugging Seacrest.
After the episode was filmed, Seacrest told Derevjanik she was officially the biggest winner in the show’s history.
“I have no words,” she responded, according to a press release from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Throughout the broadcast history of “Wheel of Fortune,” only four contestants (including one celebrity) have managed to win million-dollar prizes during the game’s bonus rounds. Each of these instances occurred after the show added a $1 million “wedge” to the wheel, which needs to be earned during previous gameplay and allows contestants the possibility of winning that amount during the bonus round, should they make it that far.
The first such prize was awarded to Michelle Loewenstein in 2008 — the same season the $1 million “wedge” made its debut on the show. Lowenstein, then 24, correctly guessed the bonus puzzle and walked away with a total of $1,026,080 in cash and prizes.
Five years later in 2013, Autumn Erhard won the second $1 million prize after solving an especially challenging bonus puzzle. Together with her winnings from earlier in the show, Erhard took home $1,030,340 in cash and prizes — the most ever awarded to a single contestant on “Wheel of Fortune” at the time, according to an official ranking previously shared with Nexstar by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
A teacher named Sarah Manchester then became the third winner of the $1 million prize in 2014 after racking up $17,490 during earlier gameplay.
But perhaps most memorable winner of the $1 million prize — before Tuesday’s episode, at least — was “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Clarissa Explains It All” actress Melissa Joan Hart, who appeared on an episode of “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” in 2021. Hart made it to the final round with a million-dollar wedge and correctly solved the bonus puzzle, winning a total of $1,027,800 for the Youth Villages charity.
