Celebrities
Whoopi Goldberg Wants to Replace Pat Sajak on ‘Wheel of Fortune’: “I Want That Job”
“I think it would be lots of fun”
She’s ready for it! Whoopi Goldberg revealed she’d be up for taking over Wheel of Fortune after Pat Sajak steps down as host next year.
“I want that job,” the Sister Act star, 67, said during the Tuesday, June 13, episode of The View. “I think it would be lots of fun.”
Cohost Joy Behar, for her part, supported Goldberg’s sentiment — and even joked that she could have her own role in the game show’s next chapter. “You know what? Sara [Haines] and I could be Vanna White. We’ll take turns walking back and forth!”
Goldberg’s declaration came just one day after Sajak, 76, revealed that his tenure at Wheel of Fortune is coming to an end.
“Well, the time has come,” the Daytime Emmy winner told Bloomberg News in a Monday, June 12, statement. “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.”
Prior to making his official announcement, Sajak hinted at his inevitable exit during a September 2022 interview with Entertainment Tonight. “It’s an honor to have been in people’s living rooms for that long.” People were out there welcoming us. We’re happy and proud,” he told the outlet at the time.
The Chicago native also joked that he “may go before the show” gets canceled. “In most television shows by this time, you would have said, ‘That’s probably enough,’ but this show will not die,” he quipped.
Wheel of Fortune premiered in 1975 with Chuck Woolery as host. Sajak took the job over just six years later in 1981 and has helmed the popular daytime program ever since.
“When I started hosting Wheel (with Susan Stafford) on this date 40 years ago, the top 10 TV shows included Dallas, Three’s Company, The Jeffersons and The Dukes of Hazzard,” he tweeted of his over four decades with the show in December 2021. “Ronald Reagan was in his 1st year as president. Number 1 song: Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Physical.’”
After Sajak shared the news of his departure on Monday, his longtime cohost, White, 66, took to social media to support her friend’s decision to exit the beloved TV series.
“When we started @WheelofFortune who could have imagined we’d still be at it 41 seasons later?” The Vanna Speaks author wrote via Twitter, quoting Sajak’s original announcement tweet. “I couldn’t be happier to have shared the stage with you for all these years with one more to come. Cheers to you, @patsajak!”
The A-Team alum and White have formed a close bond over their nearly 40 years sharing the screen. “We’ve been together for, like, 38 years and he’s like my brother,” the Vanna’s Choice cofounder told ET in 2021. “He’s funny. I mean, we could finish each other’s sentences if we wanted to. We know each other that well.”
Sajak, for his part, opened up about his dynamic with White during a 2017 talk at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. “I can’t imagine being up there with someone else,” he gushed to the audience at the time.
Who will take over Sajak’s duties after he says his goodbyes remains up in the air, but Ken Jennings — who took over hosting Jeopardy! in November 2022 alongside Mayim Bialik following the death of longtime emcee Alex Trebek — joked during Monday’s episode of The View that he hopes Wheel of Fortune has an easier time passing the torch than his own game show.
“Pat’s a legend. I mean, over 40 years and the price of a vowel has not gone up one penny. Like, nobody controlled inflation like Pat Sajak,” Jennings, 49, joked. “I mean, Jeopardy! had its own succession crisis. Hopefully, Wheel’s got an envelope saying what happens when Pat packs it in.”
While no successor has officially been named, reports have surfaced that Ryan Seacrest is in talks to take Sajak’s spot. “Some sources say he’s the frontrunner. Others say he is just one of many interested,” Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw tweeted on Monday.
This article originally appeared on our sister site, US Weekly.
