Pat Sajak announced Monday that he is leaving Wheel of Fortune, the legendary game show he has hosted since 1981.
“Well, the time has come. “I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last,” Sajak said tweeted. “It was a wonderful ride and I will have more to say in the coming months. Thank you all.”
In 2019, Guinness World Records recognized 76-year-old Sajak as the carrier longest career as a game show host for the same show. Wheel of Fortune, which pits three players against each other to guess the unfamiliar words in a puzzle, is also the longest-running syndicated game show in the country and has more than recorded 7,000 episodes.
Sajak’s co-host Vanna White has been on the show since 1982, almost as long as Sajak.
Sajak hinted in an interview last summer that his tenure on the show was coming to an end.
“On most TV shows at this point, you would have said, ‘That’s probably enough,’ but this show isn’t going to die,” he joked.
Sajak and White are also hosting a 2021 spin-off titled Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.