How Pat Sajak Kicked Off His Final ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Season

Right now, it’s business as usual on Wheel of Fortune, but fans can start counting down the days that they’ll see Pat Sajak as the game show’s host — not that you’d know that by the Season 41 premiere.

Sajak (who has hosted the nighttime version of Wheel since it debuted in 1983) and Vanna White walked out like usual to kick off the episode on Monday, September 11. “Another year,” Sajak remarked. “Yes, 41,” White agreed. “But who’s counting?” Sajak then asked. (Well, everyone, given that it’s his last as its host.) That was all that was said before the focus turned to the gameplay, with Sajak jokingly calling the contestants the season’s first three “victims” and getting to the puzzles.

Sajak also had fun with the players when, for the prize puzzle with the category Person, all three — Kevin, Valerie, and Manjula — started the round off by guessing incorrect letters. “I’d like to point out we’re using a standard English alphabet,” he quipped, getting laughs.

Then, after he showed the player at the end where the $1 million wedge was on the wheel, he offered some hope that someone might win that prize this season. “We’re just getting started this year, maybe we’ll do it before the season’s out,” he said.

At the end of the episode, Sajak remarked how “odd” it was he and White didn’t see each other at all over the summer since both were traveling — “And I missed you,” she told him — before joking about driving by her house.

It was in June that Sajak announced that Season 41 will be his last as Wheel of Fortune host. (The following day, it was reported Ryan Seacrest was in talks to replace him, and he became the new host officially a couple weeks later.) “Well, the time has come. I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last,” Sajak said in a statement to Bloomberg News at the time (three days after the end of Season 40). “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!)”

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