She’s prepared for it! Whoopi Goldberg revealed she’d be up for taking up Wheel of Fortune after Pat Sajak steps down as host subsequent yr.
“I would like that job,” the Sister Act star, 67, mentioned in the course of the Tuesday, June 13, episode of The View. “I believe it might be plenty of enjoyable.”
Cohost Pleasure Behar, for her half, supported Goldberg’s sentiment — and even joked that she may have her personal function within the sport present’s subsequent chapter. “ what? Sara [Haines] and I might be Vanna White. We’ll take turns strolling backwards and forwards!”
Goldberg’s declaration got here simply someday after Sajak, 76, revealed that his tenure at Wheel of Fortune is coming to an finish.
“Properly, the time has come,” the Daytime Emmy winner instructed Bloomberg Information in a Monday, June 12, assertion. “I’ve determined that our forty first season, which begins in September, can be my final. It’s been a beautiful journey, and I’ll have extra to say within the coming months. Many due to you all.”
Prior to creating his official announcement, Sajak hinted at his inevitable exit throughout a September 2022 interview with Leisure Tonight. “It’s an honor to have been in folks’s dwelling rooms for that lengthy.” Folks had been on the market welcoming us. We’re pleased and proud,” he instructed the outlet on the time.
The Chicago native additionally joked that he “might go earlier than the present” will get canceled. “In most tv exhibits by this time, you’ll have mentioned, ‘That’s most likely sufficient,’ however this present won’t die,” he quipped.
Wheel of Fortune premiered in 1975 with Chuck Woolery as host. Sajak took the job over simply six years later in 1981 and has helmed the favored daytime program ever since.
“After I began internet hosting Wheel (with Susan Stafford) on this date 40 years in the past, the highest 10 TV exhibits included Dallas, Three’s Firm, The Jeffersons and The Dukes of Hazzard,” he tweeted of his over 4 a long time with the present in December 2021. “Ronald Reagan was in his 1st yr as president. No 1 tune: Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Bodily.’”
After Sajak shared the information of his departure on Monday, his longtime cohost, White, 66, took to social media to assist her buddy’s choice to exit the beloved TV collection.
“After we began @WheelofFotune who may have imagined we’d nonetheless be at it 41 seasons later?” The Vanna Speaks creator wrote through Twitter, quoting Sajak’s authentic announcement tweet. “I couldn’t be happier to have shared the stage with you for all these years with yet another to return. Cheers to you, @patsajak!”
The A-Group alum and White have shaped a detailed bond over their practically 40 years sharing the display. “We’ve been collectively for, like, 38 years and he’s like my brother,” the Vanna’s Alternative cofounder instructed ET in 2021. “He’s humorous. I imply, we may end one another’s sentences if we needed to. We all know one another that properly.”
Sajak, for his half, opened up about his dynamic with White throughout a 2017 speak on the Paley Middle for Media in New York Metropolis. “I can’t think about being up there with another person,” he gushed to the viewers on the time.
Who will take over Sajak’s duties after he says his goodbyes stays up within the air, however Ken Jennings — who took over internet hosting Jeopardy in November 2022 alongside Mayim Bialik following the dying of longtime emcee Alec Trebek — joked throughout Monday’s episode of The View that he hopes Wheel of Fortune has a better time passing the torch than his personal sport present.
“Pat’s a legend. I imply, over 40 years and the worth of a vowel has not gone up one penny. Like, no one managed inflation like Pat Sajak,” Jennings, 78, joked. “I imply, Jeopardy had its personal succession disaster. Hopefully, ‘Wheel’s’ received an envelope saying what occurs when Pat packs it in.”
Whereas no successor has formally been named, studies have surfaced that Ryan Seacrest is in talks to take Sajak’s spot. “Some sources say he’s the frontrunner. Others say he is only one of many ,” Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw tweeted on Monday.
