After hosting “Wheel of Fortune” for 41 years, Pat Sajak is taking his final spin on Friday.
Last year, the now 77-year-old announced this would be his final season after being part of more than 8,000 episodes.
“It’s been an incredible privilege to be invited into millions of homes night after night, year after year,” Sajak said.
Sajak’s turn as the affable host, with Vanna White by his side, made him a TV legend.
“When I first started, I was so green. You made me so comfortable, you made me so confident, Pat,” White said. “You made me who I am. You really did.”
Sajak also spoke to his daughter Maggie about the show’s staying power.
“People come up to us almost every day, sometimes in tears, and say, ‘I used to watch the show with my grandmother or my kids, or my kids learned the alphabet from your show, or my mom came from the Philippines and learned to speak English,'” Sajak said. “We didn’t intend any of that, and yet we’ve become this sort of cohesive bond between people and generations and families and friends, and it’s awfully gratifying.”
Sajak will now hand the reins over to Ryan Seacrest.
“It really feels like the end of an era,” said Angelique Jackson, a senior entertainment writer at “Variety,” who says Sajack’s storied career could be impossible to replicate.
“This is just not the way that TV works anymore. You don’t have a game show that is part of everybody’s lives when they are a child, then they are a parent, then they are a grandparent. This is a total anomaly and really will help Pat go down in the record books.”
Despite the big shoes Seacrest will have to fill when next season begins, he will have White standing next to him as she returns for another year.
“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,” Seacrest wrote on X last year after the announcement. “I can’t wait to continue the tradition of spinning the wheel and working alongside the great Vanna White.”
