The world, or at least the Wheel of Fortune fans in the world, now know about Albany, Kentucky, and thanks to resident Erica McWhorter-Hill, it’s in a favorable light.

Hill and her best friend, Kristy Flowers Williams, of Burkesville, were recent contestants on the widely popular television game show, The Wheel of Fortune, competing during the show’s “Girlfriend Getaways” week, and the pair not only came away from the experience winners, but were the big winners on the episode.

Following the January 20, 2020 taping date of the show in Culver City, California, the episode with McWhorter-Hill and Flowers, aired this past Friday afternoon on ABC, and viewers across the world watched as McWhorter-Hill and Flowers played their way into the final round.

While introducing herself to host Pat Sajak as well as the studio and television audience, McWhorter-Hill also told about her life with husband, Jereme Hill, and their son, Jase, she proudly told the world she lived in Albany, Kentucky.

Family members who accompanied her to California for the episode taping included her husband, Jereme, and a niece, McKenna Abbott, as well as her father, Ned McWhorter. All three were briefly shown while being introduced during Friday’s airing of the episode.

While it became clear that the McWhorter-Hill/Williams pair made it into the game during the taping, what they had accomplished couldn’t be revealed to the public prior to Friday’s program airing.

But with a house full of guests, friends, family and friends from church, on hand in her home Friday afternoon, it soon was learned that the pair had accumulated a prize total of some $22,850.00, including a vacation opportunity to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.

Sajak, during the episode, seemed to relish the excitement that the southern Kentucky competitors were displaying during the game, at one point feigning hearing loss after they had been screaming following one instance of winning the vacation round.

“They can hit notes that only dogs can hear” Sajak proclaimed before taking the pair over to the bonus wheel for the final part of the contest.

Although Erica and Kristy failed to add to their bounty by winning that bonus round, missing the final puzzle in the “Fun and Games” category by failing to correctly solve the “Making People Laugh” puzzle, they still left the experience of a lifetime with plenty of memories, and a story to tell for the rest of their lives.

Managing to keep her sense of humor even though failing to correctly answer that final question cost them from owning a pair of Mini Cooper cars, she jokingly told the Clinton County News on Monday of this week in an email message that it was likely best that they didn’t win the Coopers in that final portion of the show.

“Regarding the Mini Cooper, to make me feel better I’ve come to these conclusions: I will be thankful at tax time next year that I didn’t win it.” she said. “If I had of won it, I would never have got to drive it because my husband would have had it traded for a new fishing boat before we ever got back to Kentucky. LOL”

Friends and family gathered at the Erica McWhorter-Hill home Friday afternoon to watch the airing of the Wheel of Fortune episode she competed in during a January taping. She is seated in the rear center of the photo wearing her “I’d Like To Buy A Vowel” shirt. Below, she and playing partner Kristy Flowers Williams are shown with show host Pat Sajak after learning how much they had won, including a vacation to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.