Pat Sajak will wind down his record-breaking spin internet hosting “Wheel of Fortune” on Friday evening. Right here’s what to know in regards to the recreation present icon’s decades-long tenure on the present.
When does Sajak’s closing episode air?
The “Wheel of Fortune” Season 41 finale, titled “Thanks for the Recollections,” airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday on KABC-7. Thursday’s penultimate episode will embody a farewell message from Sajak’s longtime co-host, Vanna White.
How lengthy has Sajak hosted?
Sajak has hosted the Hangman-style recreation present for greater than 40 years, stepping in for authentic host Chuck Woolery after its seventh season in 1982, when “America’s Recreation” nonetheless aired on daytime tv.
“Wheel of Fortune” debuted in 1975 with Woolery and Susan Stafford main the present earlier than the “Love Connection” host departed over a wage dispute with NBC. Legendary producer Merv Griffin employed Sajak and well-known letter-turner White in 1982, and the 2 have grow to be fixtures of the collection. In 2019, Sajak scored the Guinness Guide of World Data title for longest profession as a recreation present host on the identical present. He’ll retire with nearly 8,000 episodes to his title.
He earned three Daytime Emmy Awards as recreation present host throughout his run and a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. He additionally has a Folks’s Alternative Award and a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame credited to his “Wheel” run.
In 2021, “Superstar Wheel of Fortune” premiered in prime time on ABC with Sajak normally serving as host.
Why is Sajak stepping down?
The 77-year-old introduced his retirement a yr in the past, writing on X (previously Twitter) that the present season could be his final. In an interview together with his daughter, “Wheel” social correspondent Maggie Sajak, the host stated that he may proceed internet hosting the present if he needed to however felt he wanted to exit on his personal phrases.
“I’d slightly depart a pair years too early than a pair years too late,” he stated, including, “I’m trying ahead to no matter’s forward.”
Who’s taking on ‘Wheel of Fortune’? And when?
Lower than a month after Sajak revealed his retirement, “American Idol” and “On Air” host Ryan Seacrest introduced that he would step into the emcee’s footwear. On the time, Seacrest lauded his predecessor for the best way Sajak “all the time celebrated the contestants and made viewers really feel at residence.”
Seacrest, who signed a multiyear cope with Sony Footage Tv final June, will start the brand new gig in September.
White is ready to stay on “Wheel of Fortune” for the subsequent two years. She has beforehand crammed in for Sajak as host on a number of events and, earlier than the transient seek for Sajak’s successor got here to an finish, followers campaigned for White to interchange her longtime colleague.
What did Sajak do earlier than ‘Wheel’?
It’s onerous to consider Sajak doing something aside from soliciting consonants and vowels or declaring a participant “bankrupt,” however his storied profession started lengthy earlier than “Wheel of Fortune.”
Born and raised in Chicago, Sajak bought his broadcasting begin as a newscaster and announcer at a small radio station, trying to broadcast legends Arthur Godfrey, Dave Garroway, Steve Allen and Jack Paar for inspiration to form his TV character. He served within the U.S. Military within the late Nineteen Sixties and was despatched to Vietnam, the place he hosted a every day present for Armed Forces Radio in Saigon shouting “Good morning, Vietnam!” every day.
After being discharged, he labored at small radio stations in Kentucky and Tennessee, spending a number of years as a employees announcer, discuss present host and weatherman at Nashville’s WSM-TV. A expertise scout for NBC-TV in Los Angeles noticed him and introduced him onboard in 1977 to function the native NBC station’s major weatherman. In 1981, Griffin requested him to imagine internet hosting duties on “Wheel” when it nonetheless aired through the day on NBC, effectively earlier than the syndicated model premiered in 1983.
“The great factor about working in native TV in L.A.,” Sajak has stated, “is that call makers are watching you each evening.”
The avuncular host has joked that he spent 40 years doing “a part-time job pretending it was full-time,” given how the present’s taking pictures schedule has allowed him to tape a number of episodes at a time.
“The nice profit is [my wife] Lesley and I may spend time collectively and do issues,” he advised his daughter in an interview posted this week on the “Wheel of Fortune” YouTube channel. “And I may watch you guys develop up and go to the video games and all that type of stuff that work may need taken me away from.”
What else is on Sajak’s résumé?
Throughout his tenure, Sajak has entertained generations of followers, impressed “Saturday Evening Dwell” and “South Park” jokes and generated quite a few headlines about his habits with contestants. He additionally briefly hosted the short-lived late-night discuss present “The Pat Sajak Present” within the late Nineteen Eighties and performed himself in quite a lot of movies and TV exhibits, together with “The A-Group,” “227,” “Airplane II: The Sequel,” “Santa Barbara,” “The King of Queens,” “Simply Shoot Me!” and “Contemporary Off the Boat.”
“We turned a part of the favored tradition … extra importantly turned a part of individuals’s lives,” he stated in a current interview together with his daughter, who made her “Wheel” debut as a 1-year-old when she joined her dad onstage. The Princeton and Columbia College grad has been the present’s social correspondent since 2021.
Pat sajak additionally has helped reformat the present, including the Toss Up puzzle to contribute extra content material every episode, plus the concept of the $100,000 Toss Up.
However his awkward dad jokes have raised eyebrows in recent times, with the stalwart host absolutely committing to an odd voyeurism quip whereas bantering with White throughout a 2023 episode. He additionally has landed in sizzling water for asking her if she appreciated watching opera within the buff and repeatedly raised social media hackles when he mocked and pranked a contestant over her worry of fish, poked enjoyable at a person and his lengthy beard by referring to him as one in every of Santa’s helpers, and put a profitable contestant in a chokehold.
What’s subsequent for Sajak?
Sajak stated he’s trying ahead to time to “with my crossword puzzles” and household. He’ll proceed his duties as chairman of the Hillsdale School Board of Trustees, a place he took up in 2019.
