Here's how Pat Sajak said goodbye to 'Celebrity Wheel of Fortune' in his final episode as host
Pat Sajak is officially leaving Wheel of Fortune — for real this time.
The beloved, Emmy-winning, longtime host of the game show staple took his last-ever spin on Tuesday's episode of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.
"I want to thank ABC for the opportunity to host season 5 of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. I hope they'll take a close look at my proposed primetime series, Sajak Senior Secret Agent," he joked at the top of the show.
"Sounds like a winner," bandied Vanna White, Sajak's cohost of over 40 years.
The episode proceeded as usual, with Broadway legends Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and Bernadette Peters as celebrity contestants. After a scintillating round of game play, in which a laissez-faire Sajak threw Peters' million-dollar wedge over his shoulder after she spun a Bankrupt and joked with the trio, Ferguson won, taking home $59,300 for his charity, No Kid Hungry by Share Our Strength.At the end of the episode, Sajak, White, Ferguson, Goldsberry, and Peters all took to the stage to bid the maestro a final adieu.
"See you next time for more Celebrity Wheel of Fortune," Sajak said — though of course, we won't see him next time.
Sajak, 78, announced his retirement from Wheel of Fortune in June 2023, exactly four decades since he took the show from daytime to nighttime in 1983.
"Well, the time has come," Sajak said in a statement shared to social media at the time. "I've decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last. It's been a wonderful ride, and I'll have more to say in the coming months. Many thanks to you all. (If nothing else, it'll keep the clickbait sites busy!)"
The Chicago native has made good on that promise, joining his longtime friend and KHON-TV Hawaii anchor Joe Moore for a stage production of Prescription: Murder, the play which was eventually adapted into the pilot episode of Columbo. He spun the wheel on the main series for the last time last June, dedicating his parting statement to White.
"Like me, she takes the show very seriously, but not herself. I shudder to think what these 40-plus years might have been like had they brought someone in all full of themselves, playing the prima donna role," Sajak shared in a statement. "Vanna is as sweet and unassuming as she seems. We've seen a lot of changes in each other's lives over the years but we've always been there for each other."
With reporting from Jillian Sederholm
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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