Call it the Great Cue-Card snafu.
Pat Sajak rang in the New Year on Monday’s “Wheel of Fortune” by bungling a contestant’s biographical information due to an unfortunate mishandling of his cue cards.
Sajak, 77 — who’s in his final year hosting the warhorse game show — was getting set to ask Jason, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, about his relationship status when he mis-shuffled his cue cards, resulting in an awkward exchange.
“Married man?” Sajak asked Jason, who appeared confused by the question.
“No, I’m single, actually,” he answered after waiting a beat.
“You know, I’m sorry,” Sajak said, laughing, “I just messed up a card, hold on.
“So you’re a circus acrobat, I see?,” he joked, before reading Jason’s correct biographical information: “Paris, Texas, as a single dad to two adopted boys.”
Sajak then laughed the incident off.
“Nice to have you, Jason forgive me but it’s been a New Year’s weekend. You have to understand.”
The gaffe was just one of many awkward and embarrassing incidents involving Sajak on “Wheel of Fortune” in the past year or so.
Just last week, Sajak got testy with a contestant when she questioned a puzzle she couldn’t solve and lost out on $40,000.
The contestant named Jill, then asked Sajak: “What kind of puzzle is that?”
“It’s a puzzle you didn’t solve” Sajak fired back. “It’s getting testy here on Christmas.”
Last May, Sajak snapped at a contestant who tried and failed several times to answer the puzzle.
“Why are you bothering?” he said.
He has, in the recent past, put a contestant in a chokehold; claimed he hides in letter-turner Vanna White’s garden, asked a contestant to remove his shirt, and tugged on a contestant’s beard.
Sajak’s last episode will likely air in June 2024.