(NewsNation) — A Connecticut woman became the biggest winner in “Wheel of Fortune” history Tuesday, taking home more than $1 million in prizes.
Christina Derevjanik chose the category “Living Things” and correctly solved the puzzle with the phrase “PACK OF COYOTES,” and host Ryan Seacrest showed her the $1 million envelope.
Derevajanik won a total of $1,035,155, becoming the fifth contestant ever to land the show’s $1 million grand prize, and the first since Ryan Seacrest took over as host last year. Her prizes included $35,155 in cash and prizes, including trips to Montana and Tokyo, before advancing to the bonus round.
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“I just completely went into another world,” Derevjanik shared in a post-show interview. “I was like ‘Oh my God! I can’t even believe that I can now pay things off [and] put stresses aside.’ This is amazing, I’m so happy.”
During the game show, Derevjanik teased that if she won a lot of money, she might quit her job, but told Good Morning America on Wednesday that she hadn’t actually given her two weeks’ notice after all. She added that she plans to use the money to pay off student loans.
“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,” she said.
Only four other contestants have ever won more than $1 million since the prized wedge was introduced to the franchise in 2008, according to TV Insider.
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.
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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 largest ever awarded to a single contestant on “Wheel of Fortune” to date, according to an official ranking shared with Nexstar by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
A teacher named Sarah Manchester became the third winner of the $1 million prize in 2014 after racking up $17,490 during earlier gameplay.
But the most recent and perhaps most memorable winner of the $1 million prize was “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Clarissa Explains It All” actress Melissa Joan Hart during 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.
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