She may have won big, but she said it was the incredible people she got to meet that made the trip to Los Angeles worth it.

ROGERS, Ark. — Lynette McClelland, a Rogers native, was a contestant on “Wheel of Fortune” on Monday, Nov. 27, winning over $24,000 and besting her competitors.

McClelland hosted a watch party with friends and family at Bariola’s Pizzeria in Rogers, where she told 5NEWS that her husband finally convinced her to apply after watching the show together for years.

“Every night, at 6:30 we’re in front of the TV watching ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ and my husband kept saying, ‘I wish you would interview to go on the show’ … and so finally, mainly just to get him to drop it and quit bugging me about it, I said ‘okay,'” McClellan said.

McClelland won a grand total of $24,500 and a trip to the Grand Canyon, but she says it was the people she got to meet who made the trip to Los Angeles worth it.

Back at her watch party, she said she couldn’t have done it without the support of her friends and family. “I appreciate all the support I had here tonight,” McClelland said. “We’ve had a great party. It was fun watching and I really had forgotten even some of the puzzles that were out there. But it was great too that all of us won money that night because we did form just an amazing friendship.”

And her friends and family are beyond proud of her.

“So proud, because for one thing, she won, and that’s great and she’s so smart. But I love seeing her heart. And that’s how she was just as excited when the others won,” one of the partygoers said.

In June, it was announced that Ryan Seacrest would become the new Wheel of Fortune host after Pat Sajak’s retirement. It’s only the latest hosting gig for Seacrest, who’s known as the host of the popular singing competition show “American Idol” and rings in the new year for many on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.”

However, Vanna White, the longtime co-host of Wheel of Fortune, isn’t going anywhere for the next few years, according to Sony Pictures Studios. The studio confirmed White will stick around to flip letters on the game show until 2026.