Are Pat Sajak And Vanna White Ready To Leave Wheel Of Fortune?
"Wheel" watchers have considered themselves fortunate to spend their week nights with Pat Sajak and Vanna White for almost four decades. During that time period, White has worn over 7,000 different glamorous gowns on the show, and she's set a Guinness World Record as the "most frequent clapper."
While the landscape of television is ever evolving, viewers just don't seem to tire of watching a spinning wheel and a supersized version of the hangman game that replaces the macabre stick figure with a blonde model whose main concern is touching the right letter, not death by strangulation. White believes that fans keep tuning in for "Wheel of Fortune" because what she and Sajak have is so fantastic that it's like a perfect couple molded from plastic. "Our viewers are loyal. They've seen Pat and me together for 30 years. It's like Ken and Barbie. How do you break them up?" she told The Washington Post in 2013.
The dynamic duo seems to be a package deal, so it's hard to imagine one of them sticking around if the other decides to retire. "He's like my brother," White told Entertainment Tonight of her relationship with Sajak. "He's funny. I mean, we could finish each other's sentences if we wanted to. We know each other that well." So just how close are these incredibly close co-hosts to taking their final spin on "Wheel of Fortune"?
Pat Sajak sets a time frame for his departure from Wheel of Fortune
According to Deadline, Pat Sajak and Vanna White have signed contracts to continue hosting "Wheel of Fortune" through 2024. Sajak is also now a consulting producer for the show, which might be related to his daughter Maggie landing a gig as its Social Correspondent. Beyond 2024, Sajak can't be certain about exactly how long he'll stick around, but he expects to be retired within a decade. "We're certainly closer to the end than the beginning," he told Entertainment Tonight. "I wouldn't bet on seeing us in, like, 10 years, I would say."
White agreed with this time frame, and it sounds like the co-hosts might coordinate their retirements when they finally grow tired of raking in that big money. "There's a pretty good chance that when one of us leaves, we'll both leave, because it would be odd for either of us to work with somebody else," Sajak told USA Today. They've worked together for so long that White was able to step in and give Sajak's job a spin in 2019 when he underwent emergency surgery for a blocked intestine. "I was petrified, terrified," she told ABC News of the unexpected role change. "But I did it." Sajak's daughter filled in for White by tapping letters while her dad was recovering, so who knows? When he and Vanna leave, maybe Maggie will remain involved with the show.
Pat Sajak and Vanna White's only argument was over food
You might think that two people who have worked together for 40 years would bicker like an old married couple — especially if their working relationship got off to a rocky start. As hard as it is to believe, Pat Sajak's initial impression of Vanna White wasn't great. He thought she wasn't right for the "Wheel of Fortune" job and even tried to talk his boss Merv Griffin out of hiring her. He told White this to her face during a 2000 "Larry King Live" interview. "You were pretty awful," he said of her audition. "No, you were very, very nervous."
White took her co-worker's candid confession in stride, and it turns out that work is not something she and Sajak fight about. In fact, they have only quarreled over one thing. "I put ketchup on my hot dog. He does not like that," she told "Nightline" (via ABC News). "He thought it was absolutely disgusting." This isn't White's only eating habit Sajak takes issue with.
During a Television Academy Foundation interview, he seemed absolutely baffled by one of her favorite sweets. "Listen to this. She tells me she likes chocolate chip cookies, but without chocolate chips," he said. "I'm telling her that they're not chocolate chip cookies." When White and Sajak do leave "Wheel of Fortune," we hope she makes sure that the spread at their retirement party includes hotdogs slathered in ketchup and chip-less chocolate chip cookies.