Wheel Of Fortune's Biggest Winners, Ranked

The One Million Dollar prize wedge was introduced in 2008, and it didn't take very long for someone to win the unwinnable. In October 2008, California florist Michelle Loewenstein made every right move on the road to $1 million dollars. She caught the $1 million wedge, which in normal play is just a sliver in the middle of a Bankrupt wedge. She didn't go bankrupt. She made it to the bonus round with $26,080, already an impressive haul, and spun the bonus wheel containing the $1 million prize envelope.

The final puzzle clue was "Around the House," and Loewenstein lucked out with both the letters the show provided and the ones she picked out. Still, it was a tricky puzzle, not so much for its complexity but for its unusual combination of letters — a K without a C preceding it, and a rare AU in the second word. Loewenstein, however, knew exactly what it was: "Leaky Faucet." She had won, and the bonus envelope she pulled contained the $1 million prize, the first the show had ever awarded. "Do you know everything that had to happen for that to happen?" Sajak shouts as she celebrates on stage, nearly as excited as she was. Loewenstein's total for the episode was $1,026,080, a record for the show that would go unbeaten for nearly five years.