OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!
PAT SAJAK SPINNING WHEEL OF FORTUNE OUSTER AS RETIREMENT
EMBATTLED game host Pat Sajak insists he’ll leave Wheel of Fortune on his own terms, but show bigwigs are fed up with his gaffes and testiness and are looking to force him out, say sources.
The 75-year-old Sajak’s contract runs to 2024, but “network brass and toplevel producers have come down hard on him and read him the riot act,” tattles an insider.
“Pat has put his foot in it one too many times and offended people with his off-color humor and temperamental behavior. Now no one, with the possible exception of his partner Vanna White, thinks he’s good for the show.”
Since his contract has two years to run, insiders say execs are treating him as a leper — with the hope he’ll get fed up and quit on his own.
“They’ve made things very uncomfortable for Pat,” spills the insider. “Hardly anyone talks to him between takes. Makeup and wardrobe people do their jobs and then scram.
“The pressure’s getting too much for Pat. If and when he quits, it’ll be to save face. But everyone will know he was shown the exit door.”
Sajak was hired as host in 1981 and recently publicly admitted his fourdecade run was coming to “the end.”
“It’s been a long [time]. We’re not gonna do this for another 40 years. The end is near,” Sajak confesses.
He also admitted he’ll probably go before the show was yanked off the air.
As GLOBE has reported, sources say Sajak’s behavior has grown from bad to worse. He’s insulted a contestant’s lisp, barked at another for “making sound effects” while he was talking, and snapped at a player for being “ungrateful.”
In a recent segment, he embarrassed Vanna, 65, by asking her if she watched opera in the nude!
Still, many believe Vanna will leave with him since she’s also contracted to 2024. But she might stay if her $10 million salary was upped by a cool $5 million, sources believe.
Adds the insider: “The one they want gone is Pat and bosses are looking discreetly to replace him with someone who won’t cause them any grief.”