'Wheel of Fortune' viewers demand woman is given car after she loses prize despite giving correct answer

Wheel of Fortune viewers are demanding that a contestant receives a brand new car after she guessed the correct answer to a puzzle... but a little-known rule prevented her from winning.

On Tuesday's show, contestant Charlene was facing her final puzzle in the category 'What Are You Doing?'.

After submitting her letters, she had 10 seconds to guess the correct phrase.

At first, she incorrectly guessed "Choosing the right card", before moving on to say: "Choosing the right... word!"

"Choosing the right word" was correct, however, host Pat Sajak said that due to her pause, she was not a winner.

Watch the injustice play out below:

"This one’s tough because you said all the right words, including the word ‘word,’ but as you know, it’s got to be more or less continuous," Sajak informed her. "We’ll allow for a little pause, but not four or five seconds. I’m sorry. You did a good job in getting it, but we can’t give you the prize and it was the Audi."

That's right, Charlene missed out on a brand new Audi because she briefly paused to think of the next word to come out of her mouth. This meant that Charlene's "Choosing the right" and "Word" were considered as two separate guesses.

Following the show, many viewers took to Twitter to slam the show's decision to refuse to award Charlene with a new car.

One viewer tweeted: "I'm just shaking my head. We should all gather a petition to let Wheel of Fortune give her well-deserved prize."

"Hey, the lady on #WheelofFortune solved the puzzle in time. It's unfair to not award her the prize. Do the right thing and give her the car which she rightfully won," wrote a second viewer.

One disgruntled viewer even quipped: "You know what?! I’m gonna take a long pause from Wheel of Fortune..."

Alex Jacob, the winner of Jeopardy!'s 2015 Tournament of Champions, shared his thoughts on the decision, writing: "Come on @WheelofFortune, the woman literally chose the right word. Give her the car."

"I understand rules are rules but this seems like a particularly dumb rule. C'mon Wheel, it's Christmas," Jacob added in a follow-up tweet.

Even Audi tweeted out in support of Charlene, writing on their official US page: "You're a winner in our eyes, Charlene. Now, let's get you a prize. Time to #GiveHerTheQ3."

Something tells me that - one way or another - Charlene will be getting a new Audi for Christmas. Fingers crossed!

Featured image credit: ABC