Grrr! Ryan Seacrest is Officially Replacing Pat Sajak on Wheel of Fortune

[icecream]

Unlike Jeopardy! which went through a long phase of guest hosts auditioning after Alex Trebek died, Ryan Seacrest has been picked without anyone else even being considered.

https://tvline.com/news/ryan-seacres...ak-1235006091/

[Zoneboy]

Missed it by about 10 minutes.

I can't stand Ryan Seacrest so no more 'Wheel' in this house.

At least Whoopi Goldberg didn't get it.

[icecream]

I found the email address of Sony's CEO to contact, just sent him feedback. Kenichiro.Yoshida@jp.sony.com is his email. It is a valid address, first one I turned up for contacting Sony Google had an invalid one. Don't use spe.privacy@spe.sony.com, that one got kicked back. In the email I asked him to reconsider, saying I and many others can't stand Ryan Seacrest and suggested several other names. If Sony gets overwhelming negative feedback on Ryan, maybe they will table this move and look into other options.

[opus]

Now they just need to get Leslie Jones to turn the letters.

[TSMIV]

Ugh..epic fail!

[TMC]

• Pat Sajak joked about Ryan Seacrest replacing him
  
• Is Vanna White Retiring When Ryan Seacrest Hosts?

[Hawkee]

Oh My Goodness,
Out of all the people they were thinking of to replace Pat Sajak with on Wheel Of Fortune why did they choose Ryan Seacrest to replace Pat Sajak on Wheel Of Fortune? This will hurt the show's ratings and Wheel Of Fortune will get cancelled. They could've gone with Mark L. Walberg or even Alfonso Ribeiro would've done a better job as host because to host Wheel Of Fortune the host has to be fun and Wheel Of Fortune is a fun game show. I think what will happen in a few years Wheel Of Fortune will do what Who Wants To Be A Millionaire did when Meredith Veira stepped down as host and replaced her with Cedric The Entertainer and then once Cedric quit Terry Crews replaced Cedric and then Chris Harrison replaced Terry Crews as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire's host til it's final season in syndication and the main reason why Millionaire got cancelled was because of low ratings. And this is what Wheel Of Fortune will become when Ryan Seacrest makes his debut in Fall 2024. Because when Pat Sajak replaced Chuck Woolery as host of Wheel Of Fortune and Vanna White replaced Susan Strafford it was a perfect pair and Pat made the game so fun to play along with and watch. But when Ryan Seacrest will debut in 2024 I can predict Wheel Of Fortune's ratings WILL get low and the show will see it's demise

[TMC]

It was announced today that Ryan Seacrest will be taking over for Pat Sajak come September of 2024. Here are my thoughts on the matter and why it was the best choice to make.

[Coffeecup]

As for Ryan, He seems to go all over the place. Hosts New Years EVE celebrations, has a podcast. was on or is he still involved with American Idol, hosted the morning show with Kelly Ripa + probably is involved with a few other jobs I'm not aware of. and now to Host Wheel of fortune. I rarely watch WOF so the announcement doesn't faze me.

[stevea]

I heard Vanna is demanding a raise, a big one, or she's gone.

Maybe they'll mechanize the board somehow, or have a stagehand change the letters from the back.

[Edward216]

I'm looking forward to Ryan Seacrest taking over as host of Wheel Of Fortune. I think he'll do great at it. If you don't like him, that's your problem.

Ed.

[Yong Fang]

I haven’t watched it since the 1980’s so it doesn’t matter to me. I think it’s incredible that Pat Sajak was on that show for over forty years. Kids in high school when he started are grandparents now. There are middle aged people who have literally grown up with this program.

I don’t know Ryan Seacrest except he is a pretty man. Why not? I have read that Vanna is still staying. She should go when Sajak goes, they are a duo like Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon. Just my opinion. She isn’t needed anymore anyway since the board doesn’t need to turn letters (I haven’t watched the show in literal years, what does she do, touch the lights so it seems she is doing something?)

I remember back in the day of Chuck Woolery and when someone won a game the contestant had to buy prizes with their winnings. Fortunately the show got rid of that.

[TMC]

Ryan Seacrest Hosting Wheel of Fortune Makes Perfect Sense - Here's Why

Ryan Seacrest is a smart and safe choice to replace Pat Sajak as Wheel of Fortune host, even if his hiring has proven unpopular with some viewers.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by stevea

I heard Vanna is demanding a raise, a big one, or she's gone.

Maybe they'll mechanize the board somehow, or have a stagehand change the letters from the back.

Vanna White is key to Wheel of Fortune's success, but Sony TV doesn't seem to realize her value as a cultural icon.

By Daniel D'Addario

In my earliest years, the evening didn’t end until Vanna White said good night.

I was in one of the parts of America where “Wheel of Fortune” comes on after “Jeopardy!” (the only proper order — a roughage-filled meal, then dessert). And I’d insist on staying up past the last ad break to hear the chat between White and “Wheel” host Pat Sajak for 45 seconds or so, wrapping on a sincere-sounding sendoff that gave me the all-clear to trundle up the stairs.

Why did I have to wait for the last moments with Vanna? Well, part of it was a child’s literalism: she hadn’t said good night, so it wasn’t yet that time. But part, too, was an attempt to wring out every last moment of White’s particular charm from “Wheel’s” half-hour. White — perhaps even more than Sajak, a consummate emcee of the old school — seemed to represent in one person what “Wheel” was all about. A model for an endless array of spectacular gowns and an ornament on a show whose gameplay didn’t strictly require a letter-turner as technology improved, she represented all the glamour and luxurious promise of cash prizes, free vacations and the gilded sunlight of California. And yet presenting in complete earnest, from her glee or sorrow for a contestant who won the game or who bought the wrong vowel to her utter commitment to trading pleasantries with Sajak, she was a fabulous contradiction — a quintessentially middle-American celebrity.

All of which makes the reporting — on Page Six, via the Daily Mail — that White is concerned for her future at “Wheel” an especially dispiriting piece of TV news. This follows the replacement of retiring host Sajak with Ryan Seacrest, as well as a succession drama at “Jeopardy!” that came to overtake the entire series. It also comes on the heels of reporting in Puck that White has not received a pay raise in 18 years. That alone suggests that “Wheel of Fortune” is television production of the old school in the worst sense. And if borne out, White’s fears for her professional future are only the latest sign that Sony Pictures Television, which produces both game shows, doesn’t quite understand what keeps viewers coming back.

If one were designing “Wheel” from scratch today, one likely wouldn’t include a Vanna White figure — not given that letters can reveal themselves, and her walking across the stage eats seconds that might otherwise go to adding more gameplay into the half-hour. And yet her presence speaks to a certain showmanship that’s been lost — after all, few game shows as enduringly popular as “Wheel” have been made in the years since. There’s something to its formula, and it isn’t simply the hangman-style word game. White is gifted at the emotionally intelligent gladhanding that makes television operate smoothly, and has a way, beyond the gowns and never-out-of-place hair, of accessing some core of emotion, ginning up real feeling for each of the three contestants. She in particular represented an intriguing counterbalance to Alex Trebek, on the other side of their shared hour of TV; in the best way, he could feel as though he himself were a part of the battle of wits against “Jeopardy!” contestants. White just wants everyone to win. And — just as meeting Trebek was the consolation prize for a generation of “Jeopardy!” losers — White’s nod and smile at a right answer or a lucky spin could be a win in itself.

Her ebullient good cheer has made her into a cultural icon: People know the name “Vanna White” the whole nation over. But both classic hosting modes, Trebek’s snappiness and White and Sajak’s sincerity, seem out of fashion nowadays; Trebek’s at-long-last replacements, Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings, are both competent but can read as disengaged, and Seacrest is the definition of a safe choice, at least as far as broadcasting style goes. Trained on “American Idol,” where he had to both celebrate Kelly Clarkson and subtly needle William Hung, Seacrest is just ironic enough, insincere in a way that won’t rankle anyone. Sajak and White made for a strong team, practiced in their rhythms, but from this vantage point, it feels as though Seacrest will need White more than Sajak ever did — to provide a tie back to the sort of big-tent, creamily good-natured show “Wheel” has always been. He will also need her to provide the show something of an emotional center. She’d have been a gifted host of the whole thing, had the producers chosen to go that way; she’ll certainly have a role to play as the show finds its feet with a new man at the other side of the stage.

After all, a game show presents three narratives in miniature, over a brisk half-hour: We must at once feel excitement for the person who ends up winning and sympathy for the two who do not. If that engagement isn’t there, why watch at all? And White, wordless until her final chat-and-farewell each night, may not still turn letters, but she’s doing heavy lifting. Nightly, she cues the audience at home to the mood in the room, and keeps a show that necessarily must end with two people bitterly disappointed feeling light. She deserves a bigger piece of the show’s financial success, given how large a part of its long-term status in the American TV firmament she’s been. And she deserves to play out her future on the show for as long as “Wheel of Fortune” is still about providing a low-stakes bit of confection at the end of the day. It’s not yet time for her to say good night.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by stevea

I heard Vanna is demanding a raise, a big one, or she's gone.

Maybe they'll mechanize the board somehow, or have a stagehand change the letters from the back.

Vanna White is staying on Wheel of Fortune

Long-time "Wheel of Fortune" co-host Vanna White extended her contract and will continue turning letters on the venerable game show until at least the middle of 2026, producers said Tuesday.