Ryan Seacrest, a former and longtime host of the popular TV talent show American Idol, has found himself in the social media crosshairs.
This incident happened when he questioned a Black contestant, Traci, on Wheel of Fortune suggesting she might have cheated during the show broadcast.
This episode of Wheel of Fortune was held inside the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.
On January 17, the longtime TV show’s YouTube channel published a video of a Black woman named Traci competing in the program’s Bonus Round.
Traci had to solve a 13-letter word phrase. After choosing three consonants and one vowel to help her complete the challenge, she gave the correct answer with only nine blank spaces left.
“They go way back!” was the phrase Traci exclaimed and received applause from the live studio audience.
Traci’s quick thinking shocked everyone, including the host Ryan Seacrest, who however, expressed his shock at how quickly she figured out the puzzle by jokingly checking for hidden earpieces.
The longtime TV host then said, “Congratulations. That was amazing,” before going on to reveal that Traci had won a total of $78,650 before asking, “How in the world did you solve that last one?”
Traci then responded by saying, “I just dug deep. I dug deep,” pointing to her brain.
Even though the video has been watched for 260k views on YouTube, Seacrest questioning Traci’s quick thinking could seemingly imply that she had and couldn’t have thought that quickly has been met with social media outrage.