Simple mistake cost a grandpa $1 Million on 'Wheel of Fortune'

The 'Wheel of Fortune' can sometimes be painfully brutal, and an elderly contestant was reminded of it during an episode.

During an episode of Wheel of Fortune, a grandpa named Frank and his granddaughter, Laurel, missed out on winning the big prize of $1 million because of one small mistake.

A video uploaded on YouTube showed how the elderly man and his granddaughter failed to guess the right answer by the slightest of margin - guessing 'fried zucchini' instead of 'baked zucchini.'

Frank and Laurel took the stage and received 'Food and Drink' as their category from which they had to guess the right word. If they guessed the word correctly, they would win an undisclosed price.

Laurel guessed a few consonants and a vowel letter, from which the grandpa could make out the word, 'fried zucchini.'

What seemed like the only possible answer and a great guess soon turned into a heartbreak when the host revealed the right word to be, 'baked zucchini.'

But the bigger tragedy was yet to be announced for the old grandpa. It was now time to announce what was the undisclosed prize that the pair would have won had they guessed the answer correctly.

To add to the pair's utter grief, the host revealed that they could have won $1 million, and the difference between winning that big a sum and losing was just a few letters.

The host rightly said, "Now we don't want to see the million, but we did," while opening the card to disclose the big prize.

Grandpa Frank immediately felt the brutality of the situation as his expression changed to a painful one. However, the host tried to relieve some of his pain by reminding the duo that they were still walking away with a prize of $26,203.