The End Of An Era: Tonight Is Pat Sajak's Final Episode of Wheel of Fortune
First of all, Vanna White has always been a baddie. But that's not what this blog is about! Ok, maybe at the end that's what it'll be about. But first we gotta talk about the end of an era with Pat Sajak retiring as host of Wheel of Fortune.
In my lifetime, there have been 3 hosts that are the final bosses of gameshow genre: Bob Barker on the Price is Right, Alex Trebek on Jeopardy!, and Jeff D Lowe on the Dozen....haha kidding, Pat Sajak on WOF. I could possibly add Regis for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, but I think the longevity of the other 3 put them in a tier above. (Could also put in Marc Summers for Double Dare. Jeff Probst doesn't quite fit the genre I'm going for here but I could hear that argument too. But I digress.)
Now, while Trebek was always the real king of gameshows, Sajak and Queen Vanna truly went hand in hand with him. Based on where you lived, you would always either catch the end of WOF before Jeopardy started, or vice versa. That 7-8pm time slot, no matter where you travel, was always dominated by Trebek and Sajak. And with the sad passing of Trebek, and now with Sajak hanging up his jersey, it truly, undoubtably, and sadly, is the end of an era.
While Jeopardy is for the smart folks, Wheel has always been for us dumb brains who just want to shout letters and stupid answers. For a while a few years ago I got a little obsessed with watching the show because of how...quite frankly...dumb most of the contestants seemed to be.
But despite that, I will always enjoy WoF for what it is. And behind every great game show are great hosts, and Pat Sajak simply is just that. You can have a great game but without a great host, nobody will watch. His ability to control the flow of the game, rib the contestants, and keep viewers coming back cannot be overlooked.
And once again, shout out to Vanna, the true star, the best letter turner the world will ever know.
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She's continuing on with Seacrest as the new host, and I think he'll be pretty good. I mean, Seacrest kinda doesn't miss on anything.
Happy trails, Pat Sajak. Enjoy retirement. The streets of Annapolis aren't ready.