No one will be able to host “Wheel of Fortune” quite like Pat Sajak, but one entertainment veteran is going to give it his best shot.
Ryan Seacrest, who was just 7 years old when Sajak began hosting the long-running word game show in 1981, will replace Sajak after 41 seasons.
The 77-year-old Sajak’s final episode is set to air Friday, June 7 after a week-long series of tributes to the host called “Thanks for the Memories.” The beloved game show host first announced his departure from show last June, saying that it had been “a wonderful ride.”
Seacrest, 49, is set to take “the car keys” from Sajak in September.
“I’m truly humbled to be stepping into the footsteps of the legendary Pat Sajak,” Seacrest said in a statement at the time. “I can say, along with the rest of America, that it’s been a privilege and pure joy to watch Pat and Vanna on our television screens for an unprecedented 40 years, making us smile every night and feel right at home with them.”
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Sony taps Ryan Seacrest to usher in new ‘Wheel of Fortune’ era
Seacrest calls the return to game show hosting a “full circle moment,” writing that he got his start on “Click,” a game show hosted by Merv Griffin in 1997.
“I can’t wait to continue the tradition of spinning the wheel and working alongside the great Vanna White,” he wrote in 2023.
Seacrest has been in show business for decades, working as an on-camera host for a number of programs, including “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest and “American Idol.”
He has also hosted a number of events ranging from Oscars red carpets to Olympic games since the late 1990s.
Seacrest told Variety in April that he was working on “studying the rulebook and all of the scenarios that the rulebook has inside of it” to prepare for his gig.
First appeared on www.usatoday.com