Pat Sajak Hints His Time on 'Wheel of Fortune' Is Nearly Over After 40 Years: 'I May Go Before the Show ... We're Getting Near the End'
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
“Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak said his days could be numbered as host of the long-running game show.
“In most television shows by this time, you would have said, ‘That’s probably enough,’ but this show will not die,” he told Entertainment Tonight in an interview.
“It appears I may go before the show,” Sajak said.
Sajak, who has been the show’s face since 1981, said his time as host has been great.
“Years go by fast. We’re getting near the end. It’s been a long [time]. We’re not gonna do this for another 40 years. The end is near,” he said.
Sajak said it has been “an honor to have been in people’s living rooms for that long. People were out there welcoming us. We’re happy and proud.”
Sajak isn’t in the public eye solely for his ability to host one of the most popular game shows in history.
He’s one of the few celebrities who has been known for his openly conservative politics throughout the years. His politics broke into public view again this weekend, when liberals took to social media to criticize him for being in a photograph with Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, as Fox News reported.
But conservatives and Sajak fans were undisturbed.
The Left is melting down over this photo. Why can’t @patsajak express his truth and identify however he wants?
“Diversity” is okay as long as it means Democrat controlled. pic.twitter.com/RkS1o9dakU
— Jenna Ellis 🍊🦅 (@JennaEllisEsq) September 18, 2022
Starting on Sept. 25, the third season of “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” will kick off.
“I think people love seeing celebrities and watching them be themselves and not play a character,” the show’s hostess, Vanna White, told ET. “When they come on here, they are themselves, they have a good time. They’re playing for a great cause, so it’s good for everybody.”
Sajak said he still has hopes to attract one celebrity who has never appeared.
“I’m still pulling for Meryl Streep ’cause I wanna see her say, ‘Come on, big money!'” he told ET. “That’s all I want, but she won’t come on because she found out you can’t win an Oscar for this.”
As noted by People, Sajak took time out only once – when he underwent surgery for a blocked intestine. The show didn’t miss a beat, though, with White serving as host in his absence while Sajak’s daughter took over White’s duties at the letterboard.
According to the Sun, “Wheel of Fortune” debuted in 1975 with Chuck Woolery as host and Susan Stafford filling the role for which White has become famous. Woolery was the show’s host until 1981. Stafford left the next year. The Sun indicated a salary dispute led to their departures.
Stafford said there was another reason as well, according to a Chicago Tribune report from 1987.
”I mean, for seven years I stood there and turned letters,” she said. ”I had to ask myself if that was any way for a grown woman to live her life.”
Sajak joined the show in December 1981. White joined the show in 1982.
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