Pat Sajak closed out his final day on Wheel of Fortune with 11.03 million viewers, the largest audience to have tuned into the access game show in more than four years.
Sajak’s last episode, which aired on Friday, June 7, was the most-watched telecast in all of television, excluding sports, among households with a 6.2 rating in the week ended Sunday, June 9, according to Nielsen. All five of that week’s episodes landed in TV’s top 15 telecasts among homes and total viewers, according to the show’s distributor, CBS Media Ventures. Across the total week, the Sony Pictures Television-produced show averaged a 5.0 rating in households, up 16% compared to the same week last year, and 8.5 million viewers.
Sajak, 77, has hosted Wheel of Fortune for all of the 8,000 episodes and 41 seasons it has aired in syndication, making him the longest-running game-show host in television history. He surpassed The Price is Right’s late Bob Barker to take that title in 2018. Along the way, Sajak has won three Emmys for outstanding game-show host, as well as received the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award. He is expected to remain with the show for three more years as a consultant.
Sajak’s co-host, Vanna White, 67, joined the show in 1982. Sajak will be replaced by Ryan Seacrest in September while White has signed to remain with Wheel of Fortune through the 2025-26 season. Bellamie Blackstone is the executive producer, having joined Wheel of Fortune in March 2022.
