Pat Sajak will wrap up his record-breaking tour by performing “Wheel of Fortune” on Friday night. Here's what you need to know about the game show icon's decades-long tenure on the show.
When is the last episode of Sajak aired?
The season 41 finale of “Wheel of Fortune,” titled “Thanks for the Memories,” airs Friday at 7:30 p.m. on KABC-7. Thursday's penultimate episode will include a farewell message from Sajak's co-host Vanna White.
How long has Sajak been hosting?
Sajak has hosted the Hangman-style game show for more than 40 years, replacing original host Chuck Woolery after its seventh season in 1982, when “America's Game” still aired on daytime television.
“Wheel of Fortune” debuted in 1975 with Woolery and Susan Stafford at the helm of the show before the “Love Connection” host departed over a salary dispute with NBC. Legendary producer Merv Griffin hired Sajak and famed card-turner White in 1982, and the two have become fixtures on the series. In 2019, Sajak earned the Guinness Book of World Records title for longest career as a game show host on the same show. He will retire with almost 8,000 episodes to his name.
He earned three Daytime Emmy Awards as a game show host during his career and a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. He also has a People's Choice Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame credited for his run on “Wheel.” .
In 2021, “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” premiered in prime time on ABC with Sajak regularly hosting.
Why is Sajak resigning?
The 77-year-old announced his retirement a year ago, writing on X (formerly Twitter) that the current season would be his last. In an interview with his daughter, “Wheel” social correspondent Maggie Sajak, the host said he could continue hosting the show if he wanted, but that he felt he needed to go out on his own terms.
“I'd rather leave a couple of years early than a couple of years late,” he said, adding, “I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.”
Who will take charge of 'Wheel of Fortune'? And when?
Ryan Seacrest will become the new host of “Wheel of Fortune” in September.
(Associated Press)
Less than a month after Sajak revealed his retirement, “American Idol” and “On Air” host Ryan Seacrest announced he was stepping into the emcee's shoes. At the time, Seacrest praised his predecessor for the way Sajak “always celebrated the contestants and made viewers feel at home.”
Seacrest, who signed a multi-year deal with Sony Pictures Television last June, will begin the new job in September.
White will remain on “Wheel of Fortune” for the next two years. She previously replaced Sajak as host on a few occasions, and before the brief search for Sajak's successor ended, fans campaigned for White to replace her longtime colleague.
What was Sajak doing before 'Wheel'?
It's hard to think of Sajak doing anything more than requesting consonants and vowels or declaring a player “bankrupt,” but his storied career began long before “Wheel of Fortune.”
Born and raised in Chicago, Sajak began his career as a news anchor and announcer at a small radio station, seeking inspiration in shaping his television personality from broadcast legends Arthur Godfrey, Dave Garroway, Steve Allen and Jack Paar. He served in the U.S. Army in the late 1960s and was sent to Vietnam, where he hosted a daily show for Armed Forces Radio in Saigon shouting “Good morning, Vietnam!” every day.
After being discharged, he worked at small radio stations in Kentucky and Tennessee, and spent several years as an announcer, talk show host and meteorologist at Nashville's WSM-TV. A talent scout for NBC-TV in Los Angeles spotted him and brought him on board in 1977 to serve as the local NBC station's top meteorologist. In 1981, Griffin asked him to take over hosting duties for “Wheel” when it was still airing daytime on NBC, long before the syndicated version premiered in 1983.
“The nice thing about working in local television in Los Angeles,” Sajak said, “is that the decision makers watch you every night.”
The avuncular host joked that he spent 40 years doing “a part-time job pretending it was full-time,” since the show's filming schedule allowed him to record multiple episodes at once.
“The great benefit is [my wife] “Lesley and I could spend time together and do things,” he told his daughter in an interview published this week on the “Wheel of Fortune” YouTube channel. “And I could watch them grow up and go to games and all that kind of stuff that work might have kept me away from.”
What else is on Sajak's resume?
During his tenure, Sajak entertained generations of fans, inspired jokes from “Saturday Night Live” and “South Park” and generated numerous headlines about his behavior with contestants. He also briefly hosted the short-lived late-night talk show “The Pat Sajak Show” in the late 1980s and played himself in several films and television shows, including “The A-Team,” “227,” “Airplane II”. : The Sequel”, “Santa Barbara”, “The King of Queens”, “Just Shoot Me!” and “Fresh off the boat.”
“We became part of popular culture… and more importantly, we became part of people's lives,” he said in a recent interview with his daughter, who made her debut in “Wheel” when she was 1 year old when he joined his father on stage. . The Princeton and Columbia University graduate has been the show's social correspondent since 2021.
Pat Sajak also helped reformat the show, adding the Toss Up puzzle to contribute more content to each episode, in addition to the $100,000 Toss Up idea.
But his awkward jokes about his father have drawn attention in recent years, and the stalwart host went all in on a bizarre voyeurism prank while joking with White during a 2023 episode. He's also gotten in trouble for asking him if he he liked to see opera in public and He repeatedly sparked outrage on social media when he mocked and pranked a contestant for her fear of fish, mocked a man and his long beard by referring to him as one of Santa's helpers, and strangled a man. a winning contestant.
What's next for Sajak?
Sajak said he looks forward to time for “my crossword puzzles” and his family. He will continue his duties as president of the Hillsdale College Board of Trustees, a position he assumed in 2019.
