Pat Sajak retires from Wheel of Fortune: 9 things to know about game show’s host
Pat Sajak retires from Wheel of Fortune: 5 things to know about game show’s host
- Pat Sajak has announced his retirement from Wheel of Fortune after upcoming 41st season. Read on to know more about the game show’s host.
- On Monday, Pat Sajak announced that he will retire as the host of Wheel of Fortune after about 40 years. Following the end of the upcoming 41st season of Wheel of Fortune, Sajak will step away from the production. Sajak wrote, “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.”
As Sajak announced his retirement from the game show, here are five lesser-known facts about him.
9 things about Pat Sajak
- Pat Sajak worked for a Spanish radio
In the 1960s, Pat Sajak was hired at a Spanish-language radio station in Chicago. He didn’t know how to speak Spanish and got the job to do an English-language news briefing once an hour from midnight until 6 a.m. He always aspired to be in broadcasting ever since a young age and pretended that spoon was a microphone to talk into. - NBC didn’t want Sajak to host Wheel of Fortune
- Sajak was approached by syndicated show giant Merv Griffin in 1981 to replace the first host of Wheel of Fortune – Chuck Woolery. NBC initially refused to hire Sajak as a host, considering him a ‘local’ talent. However, Griffin threatened the network to shut down the talk show entirely and they agreed at the end.
- Sajak declined the cover of PEOPLE magazine
- In the 1980s, Pat Sajak turned down the cover of PEOPLE magazine to promote his debuting talk show on CBS. He didn’t want to be in any place where the show host is featured one week and it is John Hinckley next week.
- He starred in Airplane II
- Sajak has also acted in movies and television shows like Days of Our Lives and Airplane II: The Sequel.
- Pat Sajak was once a Wheel of Fortune contestant
- In 1997, as an April Fool prank Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek hosted Wheel of Fortune while Sajak made his appearance as the contestant. At this time, Sajak also hosted Jeopardy!
