The iconic host of “Wheel of Fortune,” Pat Sajak, who became the longest-running host of a game show in television history in 2018, will appear as the host for the last time on June 7.
Sajak started hosting the show in 1981, when he took over from Chuck Woolery; he has received 19 nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host and won three times.
He announced his impending retirement last June, tweeting, “Well, the time has come. 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!)”
Sajak was born in Chicago in 1946, went to Columbia College, then served in the U.S. Army as a disc jockey during the Vietnam War for American Forces Vietnam Network. He later worked as a weatherman before becoming a weather reporter for KNBC in Los Angeles.
Merv Griffin fought for Sajak to become the host of “Wheel of Fortune” to succeed Chuck Woolery, he took over as host in 1981. In the 2018-19 season, he became the longest-running host of any game show, passing Bob Barker, who had hosted The Price Is Right.
Sajak, a staunch political conservative, has served as an external director of Eagle Publishing and served on the board of directors of the Claremont Institute.
Sajak’s rapier wit on Twitter has endeared him to conservatives for years. Targeting the non-stop coverage of Great Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle amidst ferociously incessant coverage of the woke couple because of Harry’s new memoir, “Spare,” Sajak tweeted, “Having trouble finding information about Prince Harry and his wife (Meghan, I think). Any sources you might suggest?”
In November 2019, Sajak, then 73, took notice of the unhinged climate alarmists on the Left who had decided to avoid having children in order to save the planet. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pontificated, “Our planet is going to hit disaster if we don’t turn this ship around and so it’s basically like, there’s a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult. And it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question, you know, ‘Is it okay to still have children?’”
Offering his own hilarious solution for the problem. Sajak tweeted, “In order to save our planet, I’m asking everyone in America who’s 73-years-old or older to join me in pledging not to have any more children.”
Sajak had lanced the self-importance of celebrities before as well. In October 2017, he issued a tweet in the wake of the plethora of uninformed opinions offered by celebrities (in response to the Las Vegas massacre), writing, “OK, let me explain this again: We’re celebs. We’re wiser & more empathetic than you. We are famous. Please take our opinions more seriously.”
