Pat Sajak announces retirement after 41 years helming ‘Wheel of Fortune’

Longtime “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak on Monday announced he’d be retiring from the position he’s held for 41 years.

“Well, the time has come,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last. It’s been a wonderful ride, and I’ll have more to say in the coming months. Many thanks to you all. (If nothing else, it’ll keep the clickbait sites busy!)”

Legions of fans have watched contestants guess letters and words to complete phrases and win money and other prizes over the decades. The 76-year-old host has helmed the show since taking over for Chuck Woolery in 1981. Woolery was the inaugural host when it launched in 1975.

A year after Sajak started, Vanna White joined the show, and the contest became a TV institution. Sajak has been nominated for Daytime Emmys 19 times for outstanding game show host, winning three times, according to Variety. He will stay on as a consultant for three years after his tenure ends.

Sajak and White have become stalwarts on- and off-screen. In 2019, White valiantly filled in for Sajak while he underwent and recovered from emergency surgery, a role she later said she was “scared to death” to take.

Over the years, Sajak has not been shy about courting controversy. In 2014, he decried climate change panic, declaring that “global warming alarmists” were simply “unpatriotic racists” who were “knowingly misleading for their own ends.”

More recently, he called out coronavirus-related stay-at-home orders as hypocritical, saying that many people could not do so if they wanted to pay their mortgage. “It’s okay to question the premise,” he tweeted.

In September 2022, he drew ire for posting a photo of himself with notorious right-winger, election denier and browbeater of massacre survivors Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

In 2021, Sajak and White renewed their contracts through 2024, and Sajak had hinted at retirement possibilities in recent years.

Executives at Sony Pictures Television, which produces the show, expressed their gratitude for his long run.

“As the host of Wheel of Fortune, Pat has entertained millions of viewers across America for 40 amazing years,” Suzanne Prete, executive vice president of game shows for Sony Pictures Television, said in a statement.

“We are incredibly grateful and proud to have had Pat as our host for all these years, and we look forward to celebrating his outstanding career throughout the upcoming season.”

With News Wire Services