Wheel of Fortune Player's Amazing Lucky Guess Goes Viral

Wheel of Fortune player Emil De Leon has stunned US audiences with an incredible guess that won the nursing student $45,000 (£27,000).

On the Bonus Puzzle round Emil found himself with only two letters on the board, hinting at a 10-letter phrase. The only clue as to what the answer was, was that it was a "thing". Not particularly hopeful.

None of the additional letters Emil guessed – H, M, D and O - appeared on the board, leaving the audience stumped.

Emil too was struggling, as he told The New York Post: "I was stumped at first. I was pretty much in a pickle. But it was obvious the first word was 'new.' The used-letter board helped a lot."

"This looks tough to me," said the show's host Pat Sajak. "You're a very good puzzle solver, but I don't know. You have 10 seconds. Keep talking. Maybe the right thing will pop out. Good luck."

It did. Emil's first answer was "new baby buggy" and only a few seconds later the board lit up, much to the surprise of the audience, host, hostess Vanna White and most of all, the lucky contestant himself.

Host Sajek jokingly patted Emil down for some evidence of cheating before allowing him to celebrate with his elated family. Sajek later tweeted: "Tonight's Wheel of Fortune features most amazing solve in my 30+ years on the show. No kidding."

He added the next day: "What made last night's solve amazing was the generic category ... Could have been 'new anything. But 'baby buggy?!' Wow!"

Emil told The Post: "It helped that I'm a nursing student. I'm in paediatrics, so I could visualise the things that babies use."