{"id":2061468,"date":"2025-10-01T06:36:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T06:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2061468"},"modified":"2025-10-01T06:36:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T06:36:15","slug":"connecticut-wheel-of-fortune-player-christina-derevjanik-wins-historic-1-035m-in-front-of-her-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/connecticut-wheel-of-fortune-player-christina-derevjanik-wins-historic-1-035m-in-front-of-her-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut &#8216;Wheel of Fortune&#8217; player Christina Derevjanik wins historic $1.035M \u2014 in front of her boss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2025%2F10%2Fchristina-derevjanik-ryan-seacrest-wheel-112540435.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A Connecticut woman spun her way into \u201cWheel of Fortune\u201d history!<\/p>\n<p>Contestant Christina Derevjanik won a $1,035,155 cash prize \u2014 the largest in the iconic game show\u2019s history \u2014 in front of her boss during Tuesday\u2019s episode <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no words!\u201d Derevjanik exclaimed when she won.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Christina Derevjanik won a $1,035,155 cash prize on \u201cWheel of Fortune.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Chris Willard\/CBS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Stamford-based marketing manager, who secured the \u201cOne Million Dollars\u201d wedge early in the show, earned $35,155 in cash and a trip to Montana and Japan before she advanced to the bonus round. <\/p>\n<p>Derevjanik joked that she would put in her two-week notice if she won a million dollars, while host Ryan Seacrest pointed out that her boss was sitting in the studio audience.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>She picked the \u201cLiving Things\u201d category, correctly solved the puzzle with the phrase \u201cPACK OF COYOTES\u201d and Seacrest showed her the $1 million envelope.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou won a million dollars,\u201d Seacrest exclaimed.<\/p>\n<p>Derevjanik screamed as she jumped up and down as confetti poured on set.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so happy for you,\u201d White said during an embrace.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Derevjanik is a marketing manager based in Stamford, Conn.  <span class=\"credit\">Chris Willard\/CBS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"50\" src=\"https:\/\/embeds.nypost.com\/protected-iframe\/ae07a3726bec0fc91a840dddea9d294c\" scrolling=\"auto\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"\" allow=\"camera; fullscreen;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m in tears,\u201d an emotional Seacrest said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can pay off my student loans,\u201d an excited Derevjanik shared with the hosts.<\/p>\n<p>Derevjanik joked that she\u2019ll have a discussion with her boss \u201conce we get back to the office\u201d when Seacrest asked if she had a message for her supervisor. <\/p>\n<p>Derevjanik was the first contestant to win over $1 million since Seacrest became the host in September 2024, following\u00a0Pat Sajak\u2019s departure from<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/06\/07\/entertainment\/pat-sajaks-history-on-wheel-of-fortune-as-he-retires\/\"> the show in June 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Derevjanik hopes to pay off her student loans and buy a house. <span class=\"credit\">Chris Willard\/CBS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI just completely went into another world,\u201d <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/reel\/643576685242519\">Derevjanik shared during a post-show interview<\/a> on the show\u2019s Facebook page. \u201cI was like \u2018Oh my God! I can\u2019t even believe that I can now pay things off [and] put stresses aside.\u2019 This is amazing, I\u2019m so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Derevjanik plans to use some of the money to buy a house so she can move out of her one-bedroom apartment.<\/p>\n<p>She also looks forward to going on the trips she won to Japan and Montana.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Only four other contestants have ever won more than $1 million since the prized wedge was introduced to the franchise in 2008, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/gallery\/wheel-of-fortune-every-million-dollar-puzzle-winners-losers\/#10\">according to TV Insider.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Contestant Michelle Loewenstein was the first to win it in Oct. 2008 followed by Autumn Erhard in 2013, Sarah Manchester in 2014 and \u201cCelebrity Wheel of Fortune\u201d contestant Melissa Joan Hart in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who won $1,000,000 may have it paid in $50,000 installments over 20 years or take a lump sum of $660,000, according to a disclaimer from an episode in 2008 <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/wheeloffortunehistory.fandom.com\/wiki\/Million-Dollar_Wedge#:~:text=A%20disclaimer%20in%20the%20credits,sum%2C%20with%20no%20value%20listed.\">reported by a \u201cWheel of Fortune\u201d fan page.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Connecticut woman spun her way into \u201cWheel of Fortune\u201d history! Contestant Christina Derevjanik won a $1,035,155 cash prize \u2014 the largest in the iconic game show\u2019s history \u2014 in front of her boss during Tuesday\u2019s episode \u201cI have no words!\u201d Derevjanik exclaimed when she won. Christina Derevjanik won a $1,035,155 cash prize on \u201cWheel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2061469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[23219,21741,348458,349110,344414,384508,21872,21913,346633,39864],"class_list":["post-2061468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-connecticut","tag-entertainment","tag-game-shows","tag-history","tag-marketing","tag-millionaires","tag-ryan-seacrest","tag-tv","tag-vanna-white","tag-wheel-of-fortune"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Connecticut-Wheel-of-Fortune-player-Christina-Derevjanik-wins-historic-1035M.jp.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2061468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2061470,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061468\/revisions\/2061470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2061469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2061468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2061468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2061468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}