Ryan Seacrest named new host of Wheel of Fortune

NEW YORK – Ryan Seacrest, the dexterous Hollywood master of ceremonies, was named the next host of Wheel Of Fortune on Tuesday,

succeeding long-time host Pat Sajak in 2024.

The selection of a star like Seacrest by Sony Pictures Television, the studio behind the show, is a big bet on Wheel Of Fortune. The show has demonstrated remarkable durability, even as traditional television has declined in the wake of streaming entertainment.

The swift decision by Sony executives, made just two weeks after Sajak announced he would step down in 2024, also suggests that they are hoping to avoid the succession fiasco that nearly overwhelmed their other hit game show, Jeopardy!.

Vanna White, Sajak’s long-time Wheel Of Fortune co-host, is under contract for another year, and is in negotiations to continue with the show, said a person with knowledge of the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“I’m truly humbled to be stepping into the footsteps of the legendary Pat Sajak,” Seacrest said in a statement. “I can’t wait to continue the tradition of spinning the wheel and working alongside the great Vanna White.”

In replacing Sajak, Seacrest will face a test. He will be replacing a host who is virtually synonymous with the show, like Bob Barker was with The Price Is Right or

Alex Trebek with Jeopardy!.

Sajak, a former Los Angeles weather forecaster, as well as White, came to Wheel Of Fortune in the early 1980s and turned the show into a major hit. Within a few years, it spawned board games, video games, casino slot machines and, eventually, a prime-time spin-off, Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune.

Though Wheel Of Fortune hardly holds the same spot it once did in American culture – at its height in the 1980s, the game show had a nightly audience of more than 40 million viewers – it remains one of the most popular entertainment programmes on television.

In the most recent season, it averaged 8.6 million viewers a night, just a shade behind the 9.1 million who watched Jeopardy!, according to data measurement firm Nielsen.

Those audiences are nearly as big as anything on prime-time television, aside from football games. NYTIMES