Apex man on 'Wheel' admits, 'I just screwed up' after mispronouncing 'flamenco'

APEX, NC (WTVD) -- An Apex man made famous for a flub on Monday's episode of Wheel of Fortune spoke to ABC11 on Tuesday evening.

While trying to solve the puzzle "Flamenco Dance Lessons," Jonny Knowles mispronounced the word "flamenco" and read it as "flamingo" instead.

"I just screwed up that's all there is," said Knowles, a married father of one. "I feel like it was very subtle and I'm kind of surprised I didn't get it, but I didn't get it. I screwed up that's all there is to it."

RELATED: Wheel of Misfortune: Apex man loses $7k after mispronouncing 'flamenco'

Knowles has always loved the show - he even has "Wheel of Fortune" blocks in his living room.

"I've been watching the show with my mom for a long time," he said. "We always watch it, we always talked about being on the show and what we'd do if were on the show but never ever applied."

Finally, he made an audition tape and in August tried his hand at an audition in Raleigh. Two months later, he was invited to Hollywood.

"I'm originally from Sacramento so my family came to Los Angeles for the taping and got to be there with us too which is really cool," he said. "When you're out in LA, everything seems so fake - like everything. Everybody is just glammed up. I had never experienced that. It was so weird. If there were ever a mistake, you could stop and they would run it again and Pat would say the right words like everything was just fabricated."

It's clear his now-viral mistake was not fabricated. The moment came as he was in the lead - the moment also cost him $7,000 and a trip to Spain.

"It's a slip of the tongue - literally," Knowles said.

The slip exploded on the Internet Tuesday and even led Airbnb to offer him a trip to Spain and some "flamingo dance lessons."

"I don't know what to say about this," he said. "It's cool. It's not what I was expecting. The one thing I will explain is that I was not mad. I know that sounds crazy when you're watching it and when I watched it, I did look like I was really angry."

Knowles still made off with $19,000 in cash and prizes.