'Wheel' Host Pat Sajak Announces 2024 Retirement

Pat Sajak, the host of “Wheel of Fortune” for more than 40 years, announced his 2024 retirement on Monday.

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!)

— Pat Sajak (@patsajak) June 12, 2023

“Wheel of Fortune” has been a fixture in living rooms across America for generations, holding a special place at the heart of American pop culture. Sajak’s likeness has been featured in “South Park,” and Tom Hanks has played him in a “Wheel of Fortune”-inspired skit while hosting “Saturday Night Live.”

The L-A Times reports media mogul Merv Griffin launched the American game show gem in 1975 and Sajak, alongside co-host Vanna White, has been the face of the show for more than four decades. It is the second-most-watched show in syndication (behind “Jeopardy!”), averaging 8.3 million weekly viewers.

The show is celebrating its 40th anniversary this season, and in January, Steve LoCascio, president of CBS Media Ventures, announced it had been renewed for five more years.

Sajak has won three Daytime Emmy Awards in the outstanding game show host category (1993, 1997, 1998), as well as a lifetime achievement prize in 2011, according to the Internet Movie Database.

Sony executives are likely to be under pressure to make sure the succession plan at "Wheel" goes more smoothly than the transition at "Jeopardy!" did.

In the wake of "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek's death in 2020, Sony decided to replace him with Mike Richards, the show's producer and a relative unknown. But he stepped down in August 2021 after the sports website The Ringer reported on sexist comments he had made years earlier on a podcast.

“As the host of Wheel of Fortune, Pat has entertained millions of viewers across America for 40 amazing years,” Suzanne Prete, a Sony executive vice president, said in a statement obtained by The Times. “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. Pat has agreed to continue as a consultant on the show for three years following his last year hosting, so we’re thrilled to have him remaining close to the Wheel of Fortune family!”