Yahoo News Pat Sajak’s ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Goodbye Hits Four-Year Ratings High
The final episode for long-time Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak drew a big audience — the biggest for the game show in more than four years.
Sajak’s June 7 farewell on Wheel of Fortune, which he hosted for more than 40 years, drew 11.03 million viewers, the biggest tune-in for the syndicated series since April 29, 2020 (when TV viewing was experiencing a surge due to pandemic lockdowns). Excluding live sports, it was the most-watched program on broadcast or cable TV, at any time of day, for the week of June 3-9. Only game two of the NBA Finals (12.31 million viewers on June 9) outdrew Wheel of Fortune.
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“It’s been an incredible privilege to be invited into millions of homes night after night, year after year, decade after decade,” Sajak said in bidding goodbye to viewers. “Thank you for allowing me into your lives.”
The final week of Sajak’s Wheel tenure also experienced a ratings bump: It averaged 8.5 million viewers for the week and hit an 18-week high in household rating (5.0). Both figures ranked first among syndicated programming for June 3-9. Additionally, all five weekday episodes of Wheel of Fortune ranked in the top 15 among all network, cable and syndicated telecasts (there were about 28,000 in all) for the week.
Sajak announced in May 2023 that he would leave his long-time Wheel of Fortune gig at the end of the 2023-24 season. Ryan Seacrest will take over as host in the fall, and co-host Vanna White will remain with the show.
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