Beginning in 1983, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak has remained with the show as host up to the current day. Sajak began his career in entertainment as a radio deejay in Chicago, Illinois. After joining the Army in 1968 and going to Vietnam he was a deejay for Armed Forces Radio. Later in 1975, after returning from Vietnam he was a deejay in Nashville, Tennessee. He moved to Los Angeles in 1977, six years before he would host Wheel of Fortune, and was answering phones at hotel front desks. He got his first break into television by becoming a weatherman at KNBC Los Angeles in 1979. In 1981 he was asked by Merv Griffin if he’d be interested in taking over for Chuck Woolery on the daytime version of Wheel of Fortune. He had prior experience with a couple of game show pilots so he had some limited experience in the field. He proved to be a great host when he began in 1983 and eventually took over both the daytime and nighttime versions of Wheel of Fortune. For six years he had the demanding schedule of hosting two episodes of Wheel of Fortune per day. The show became a nationwide phenomenon and Sajak and co-host Vanna White became mainstream celebrities. Sajak’s rising fame led to him being offered the chance to host a nighttime talk show in addition to hosting the evening version of Wheel of Fortune. In 1989 he relinquished the daytime version of Wheel of Fortune to San Diego Chargers kicker Rolf Benirschke to begin hosting The Pat Sajak Show. The talk show was in the same time slot as the wildly popular The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and failed to gain major ratings. In 1990 the talk show was cancelled and Sajak has remained host of Wheel of Fortune ever since. He hasn’t branched out into too much else; occasionally filling in for Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly.
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