A RED-LETTER DAY
Vanna White hosts Wheel of Fortune for first time in 37 years
For almost four decades, Vanna White has made a career for herself turning letters on Wheel of Fortune’s puzzle board.
On Monday’s broadcast, though, the 62-year-old stepped in to host while mainstay Pat Sajak is off recovering from emergency surgery.
White was joined on the episode by Minnie Mouse, who took over flipping consonants and vowels.
Her stint as host will last until the end of next week. She’ll also return for a brief spell in January.
Sajak took to Twitter to explain the upcoming schedule. “It’s a bit confusing, but here’s the deal: Vanna will be hosting this coming week and the next. Then two weeks of shows I taped before my surgery. Then Vanna again the week of Jan. 6 with a special guest at the puzzle board. Then the planets will realign, and it’s back to normal.”
The request by producers for her to fill in for Sajak, 73, caught White by surprise.
“I’ve never even thought of that in 37 years,” White said in an interview with the New York Times last week, “and to be asked almost on the spot, ‘How do you feel about hosting the show?’ Like, what?!”
In more than 35 years, Sajak hasn’t missed an episode except for April Fools’ Day 1997, when he hosted Jeopardy! while Alex Trebek took over Wheel of Fortune. Sajak also swapped spots with White in 1996 for a single round because he was battling laryngitis.
Monday night’s episode went smoothly, but at one point White quipped: “That wheel is heavy!” When she suffered another hiccup, she joked: “Oh no, I’m looking at the wrong arrow. How do you do this show?”
Wheel of Fortune was created in 1975 by Merv Griffin. Sajak took over from original host Chuck Woolery in 1981 with White replacing original hostess Susan Stafford in 1982.
White is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as “television’s most frequent clapper.”