*Pat Sajak is retiring as host of “Wheel of Fortune” after its 41st season airs this fall.
“Well, the time has come. I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last,” Sajak wrote on Twitter Monday, Complex reports. “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!)”
Sajak began hosting the beloved game show in 1981 alongside letter-turner Vanna White.
“As the host of Wheel of Fortune, Pat has entertained millions of viewers across America for 40 amazing years,” Suzanne Prete, executive vice president of game shows at Sony Pictures Television, said in a statement, per The Hollywood Reporter. “We are incredibly grateful and proud to have had Pat as our host for all these years and we look forward to celebrating his outstanding career throughout the upcoming season. Pat has agreed to continue as a consultant on the show for three years following his last year hosting, so we’re thrilled to have him remaining close to the Wheel of Fortune family.”
The retirement announcement comes weeks after “Wheel of Fortune” fans noted on social media that Sajak has been acting bizarrely on the show lately.
We reported previously, citing the New York Post, that in the past few months, Sajak has “put a contestant in a chokehold; asked a contestant to remove his shirt, and scolded a contestant who grabbed the envelope in the show’s bonus round,” the outlet writes.
Sajak has hosted “Wheel of Fortune” for four decades and earns an estimated $15 million a year. Apparently, he previously exhibited strange behavior on the game show. As The Post reports, in 2021 he mocked a young man’s speech impediment on air.
He even once asked Vanna, “Have you ever watched opera in the buff? I’m just curious.”
“Pat has put his foot in it one too many times and offended people with his off-color humor and temperamental behavior,” an insider previously told OK!. “Network brass and top-level producers have come down hard on him and read him the riot act.”
Despite the awkward joking on the game show, past contestants and industry insiders claim Sajak is “wonderful to work with.”
READ MORE: Pat Sajak’s Bizarre Antics on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ – Is He Losing it, err, Time for Him to Go? | WATCH
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