FILE – Pat Sajak, left, and Vanna White, from “Wheel of Fortune,” attend a ceremony honoring Harry Friedman with a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2019. (Photograph by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES — After 41 years and over 8,000 episodes, Pat Sajak made his closing flip because the famend host of “Wheel of Fortune” on Friday.
The season 41 finale, dubbed the “Thanks for the recollections” present, opened with a clip from Sajak’s first episode because the host of “Wheel of Fortune” in 1981 and closed with Sajak’s heat message of gratitude.
In his farewell message, Sajak thanked the viewers of the beloved sport present for granting him the “unbelievable privilege to be invited into hundreds of thousands of properties, night time after night time, 12 months after 12 months, decade after decade.”
Sajak, 77, additionally gave a heartfelt because of his “skilled different half,” Vanna White, who has co-hosted with him for over 40 years and delivered her emotional tribute to Sajak a day earlier.
“We’ve seen a whole lot of adjustments in one another’s lives through the years, however we’ve at all times been there for one another,” he stated. “I’ll miss our nightly closes and her laughter and her good nature. She’s a really particular girl.”
Among the many many thanks and shoutouts Sajak supplied through the closing episode earlier than his retirement, he stated the crew and employees, a few of whom have been engaged on the present so long as he has, have been a “pleasure” to work with. “Your abilities and dedication and good humor made this a spot I at all times needed to be,” he added.
Sajak thanked one employees member by identify: his daughter Maggie. She started working because the present’s social correspondent in 2021 and he stated their collaboration has been the “greatest a part of the final couple of years.” Sajak additionally talked about his son, Patrick, and his spouse, Lesly, and stated that he’s “blessed” to have his household.
The famed host additionally stated that the “actual stars of the present” have been the contestants who competed for money and luxurious prizes all through the many years of the present’s run. He known as them “sort and thoughtful,” noting that they at all times “took nice delight in speaking about their household, their hometown, their associates, their faculties, their jobs, even their pets.”
Reflecting on the present’s huge attain, Sajak famous that he at all times discovered it necessary to maintain the each day half-hour present a “protected place for household enjoyable,” excluding any social points or political subjects from the banter he shared with contestants and White. He stated he needed to maintain the present “only a sport,” earlier than noting that to many, it turned part of their each day lives.
“Step by step, it turned greater than that,” Sajak continued. “A spot the place youngsters discovered their letters, the place folks from different nations honed their English abilities, the place households got here collectively together with associates and neighbors and whole generations. What an honor to have performed even a small half in all that.”
Sajak’s closed out his message with a crack about how viewers may nonetheless see extra of him by means of reruns of the present throughout its summer season break. “The jokes would be the identical, however I’d admire it when you’d snigger anyway,” he quipped earlier than saying a closing goodbye.
To find time for his closing message, Sajak truncated the sport by chopping out a spherical. He stated he needed to make sure the competitors was nonetheless honest for contestants Tammi, Adrienne and Nino, so Sajak spun the wheel himself and added to their totals. Whereas he initially stated he’d add $1,000 to the prize cash the wheel landed on, he bumped the bonus as much as $5,000 for every individual after noting that it wasn’t his cash he was allocating. “Little Jimmy’s surgical procedure can wait,” he joked.
Lifelong good friend, iconic
Throughout her tribute on Thursday, White known as Sajak “like a brother” and a “true lifelong good friend.” Within the pre-recorded video that featured clips and images of their many years as co-workers, she added that their private friendship has meant much more than their skilled collaboration.
Sajak introduced in June 2023 that he would retire from his internet hosting duties on the finish of the present’s forty first season, with Ryan Seacrest set to succeed him. White will keep on as Seacrest’s co-host by means of the 2025-2026 season, based mostly on a contract extension she signed in September.
Seacrest paid tribute to Sajak — and White — in an Instagram put up on Saturday.
View this put up on Instagram
“Your dedication, attraction, and wit have made the present a beloved a part of American tv for many years. Your partnership with Vanna has been nothing in need of iconic, and collectively, you’ve created numerous fantastic recollections for viewers,” stated Seacrest’s put up, which included a photograph and a video of him, Sajak and White on the sport present’s acquainted set.
“You’ve set the usual for hosts in all places, and this marks the tip of an period.”