Pat Sajak

Sajak worked between 1975 and 2024 across television presenter, radio personality, actor, weather presenter and talk show host. This article rests on 8 published texts and 40 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

Pat Sajak studied at Columbia College Chicago, Farragut Career Academy and Defense Information School. The recorded working language is English. Distinctions recorded are Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host, Daytime Emmy Award and star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• Name — Pat Sajak • Birth Name — Patrick Leonard Sajdak • Born — 26 October 1946 • Birthplace — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Alma Mater — Columbia College Chicago • Occupation — * Television personality • game show host • creative consultant • Years Active — 1968–2025 • Credits — Wheel of Fortune (1981–2024 / 2021–2025) The Pat Sajak Show (1989–1990) • Children — 2; including Maggie • Political Party — Republican

Patrick Leonard Sajak was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 26, 1946. He graduated from Farragut High School in 1964, then went to Columbia College Chicago while working as a desk clerk at The Palmer House Hilton hotel. His Polish-origin surname was originally spelled Sajdak, but he later changed it to Sajak to better reflect its Americanized pronunciation. Sajak served in the U.S. Army as a disc jockey during the Vietnam War for American Forces Vietnam Network. He hosted the same Dawn Buster radio show that Adrian Cronauer did and Sajak followed Cronauer's tradition of signing on with "Good Morning Vietnam!" for 14 months.

• Illustration — Sajak in an ad for WSM, for whom he was an afternoon host, c. 1970s Sajak won a contest on WLS radio's Dick Biondi Show to be a guest teen deejay. While at Columbia College Chicago, his broadcasting instructor Al Parker told him that a local radio station (WEDC) was looking for a newsman. Sajak applied for the job and was hired to work from midnight to 6:00 a.m. In 1968, he joined the U.S. Army and was sent to Vietnam, serving as a disc jockey on Armed Forces Radio. On the Military Channel's program, An Officer and a Movie, Sajak admitted to botching President Richard Nixon's 1969 Christmas broadcast to the troops; he accidentally cut the feed off prematurely. Upon realizing the error, Sajak decided it would be best not to resume the feed. In the early 1970s, he DJed for a year at WNBS in Murray, Kentucky. Also in the early 1970s, Sajak began DJing at 50,000-watt WSM in Nashville; at the time, WSM was playing pop music during the day, and he was the 2:30–5:00 pm afternoon personality. The radio station's television sister, WSM-TV (now WSMV), brought Sajak on screen, first as a voiceover artist making station identifications and anchoring the five-minute newscasts during NBC's Today Show, then as a weekend and substitute weatherman, where he became acquainted with anchor Dan Miller. In 1977, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles was looking for a weather reporter and spotted Sajak working in Nashville. He accepted KNBC's request for him to be a full-time weather reporter for the station. In 1981, Merv Griffin asked Sajak if he would be interested in taking over the duties as host on Wheel of Fortune from Chuck Woolery. However, Fred Silverman, the president and CEO of NBC, rejected his hiring, claiming Sajak was too local, and Griffin responded by imposing a moratorium on new tapings until Sajak was hired. The issue became moot when Silverman was dismissed due to repeated programming failures and replaced by Brandon Tartikoff. Sajak, who had already hosted two game show pilots in 1980, Press Your Luck for Ralph Edwards (no relation to the 1983 CBS game show of the same name) and Puzzlers for Mark Goodson, accepted the position. From 1983 to 1989, Sajak hosted both the daytime (NBC) and syndicated evening versions of Wheel of Fortune; Sajak continued to host the latter version until 2024. With Sajak returning for his 36th season in 2018–19, he became the longest-running host of any game show, surpassing Bob Barker, who hosted The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007. Sajak was officially honored as such by the Guinness World Records with the episode taped on March 28, 2019, and aired May 8, 2019 (two days before the primetime version's 7,000th episode). Sajak had a small role as a Buffalo, New York newscaster in the 1982 comedy film Airplane II: The Sequel. When his late-night talk show on CBS premiered in January 1989, Sajak left the daytime version of Wheel and was replaced by former San Diego Chargers place-kicker Rolf Benirschke (who was later replaced by Bob Goen when the daytime show moved to CBS in July of that year). Sajak appeared on Super Password several times from 1984 to 1989, as well as Password Plus in 1981, shortly before taking on hosting duties on Wheel. Other game shows on which he appeared as a celebrity guest were Dream House, Just Men!, and Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. • Illustration — Sajak with Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune, circa 1986 Sajak hosted a short-lived late-night talk show on CBS from January 9, 1989 to April 13, 1990. Dan Miller, Sajak's old friend and former anchor at WSM-TV in Nashville, joined him as his sidekick. Sajak later became a frequent guest host for CNN's Larry King Live when King was unable to do the show. Sajak became a regular substitute host for Regis Philbin on the syndicated Live with Regis and Kelly. Sajak also hosted Pat Sajak Weekend on Fox News in 2003. From at least 2002, Sajak hosted The Pat Sajak Baseball Hour, a syndicated weekly radio sports talk show that ended in 2006 due to scheduling conflicts. Sajak is an external director of conservative publishing house Eagle Publishing. He has been a member of the board of directors for the Claremont Institute. In 1983, Sajak portrayed Kevin Hathaway in the NBC daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives. In 1994, Sajak appeared as himself on the children's cartoon show Rugrats. • Illustration — Sajak on Wheel of Fortune in 2006 In 1997, Sajak pulled an April Fool's Day prank on fans when he and Vanna White were contestants on an episode of Wheel hosted by Alex Trebek. The winnings of both Sajak and White were donated to charity (in this case, the American Cancer Society and the Boy Scouts of America). In return, Sajak hosted a regular episode of Jeopardy! in place of Trebek. Sajak also appeared at the beginning of a 2010 April Fool's episode, along with Jeff Probst and Neil Patrick Harris. In 2001, Sajak appeared as himself in the episode "Inner Tube" on the sitcom The King of Queens. Sajak began writing for the National Review Online in 2010. In his first post, Sajak questioned whether public employees should be allowed to vote on issues that would benefit them directly. He also has contributed to the center-right sociopolitical/social networking website Ricochet.com. Sajak is the author of several puzzle games, the first and best-known of them being "Lucky Letters", which debuted in 2007. The games, which Sajak developed with puzzle developer David L. Hoyt, are syndicated through Universal Uclick. As of 2019, Sajak is the Hillsdale College board of trustees chair. He was previously vice-chair for 15 years. Hillsdale is a private Christian college. Sajak has appeared on episodes of ESPN Radio's The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, as well as Le Batard's other show, Highly Questionable. From 2020 until his retirement in 2024, Sajak was credited as a consulting producer (since the start of Season 39) of Wheel of Fortune. From 2021 to 2025, Sajak and White hosted Primetime Celebrity Wheel of Fortune on ABC. In September 2021, it was announced that both Sajak and White had signed on to continue as hosts of Wheel of Fortune through the 2023–24 season. In 2021, Sajak voiced a singing bust in a Muppets Haunted Mansion television special. Sajak has been a frequent celebrity narrator at Disney's Candlelight Processional, appearing most recently in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2024. On June 12, 2023, Sajak announced that he would retire as host of Wheel of Fortune in 2024, after the conclusion of the show's 41st season. Shortly afterwards, media personality Ryan Seacrest was announced as Sajak's successor. His final episode was taped in April 2024 and aired on June 7, 2024. In June 2023, Sajak agreed to continue as a show consultant for three years after hosting and said he would continue as chairman of the board of trustees for Hillsdale College. It was announced on July 11, 2024 that Sajak would return as the host of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune for its fifth season. The season premiered in December 2024 with the remaining episodes starting to air on April 30, 2025. Sajak's final episode as host aired on June 10, 2025. In the summer of 2025, Sajak starred as Lieutenant Columbo in a stage production of Prescription: Murder, adapted from the pilot episode of the television series Columbo, at the Hawaii Theatre Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, alongside local news anchor Joe Moore.

• Illustration — Sajak with Vanna White in 2006 While at WSMV as a meteorologist in the mid-1970s, Sajak commented about "daytime highs and nighttime lows". This prompted songwriter Ben Peters to write "Daytime Friends", which became a country number one hit for Kenny Rogers in 1977. Sajak was parodied in a 1980s Sesame Street sketch, with a Muppet named Pat Playjacks hosting "Squeal of Fortune". The goal was for the contestants (Prairie Dawn and The Count) to guess how many times a pig in the center of the wheel would squeal before the wheel stopped. During the 1980s, comedian Martin Short frequently portrayed a fictional character he called Ed Grimley, a hyperactive manchild who is obsessed with banal popular culture – Sajak in particular – on the sketch comedy television shows SCTV and Saturday Night Live. In 1986, Sajak and his Wheel of Fortune co-star Vanna White portrayed themselves on an episode of the NBC sitcom 227. In the fourth-season episode of The A-Team called "Wheel of Fortune", Sajak makes a cameo along with co-star Vanna White. In the episode, Murdock wins big at Wheel of Fortune due to Face's system of guessing the letters correctly. In 1992, Sajak was a special guest star in the TV show The Commish. The episode first aired on November 7, 1992, and was called "The Two Faces of Ed". He played psychologist Brian Brandon. In the fourth episode of season three of Comedy Central's Brickleberry, "That Brother's My Father", Sajak gets kidnapped and becomes a hostage to the wheel of fortune. In the episode, the character of Connie, a strong and very large but typically kindhearted state park ranger, takes an unhealthy obsession with Sajak and his famous game show, ultimately tying him to a makeshift replica of the wheel itself and attempting a faux-game of Wheel of Fortune with him while behaving erratically. In the fourth episode of season four of Abbott Elementary, Jacob Hill, a teacher at Abbott Elementary, dresses up as Pat Sajak for Halloween.

From 1979 to 1986, Sajak was married to Sherrill Sajak, whom he met in 1978. In 1988, Sajak met Lesly Brown-Sajak, a photographer 19 years his junior, through mutual friends; after less than a year of dating, he proposed to her in the summer of 1989 and got married on December 31 of that year. The couple has two children: a son, Patrick Michael James Sajak (born September 22, 1990), who is a doctor, having earned his medical degree in 2021, and a daughter, Maggie Marie Sajak (born January 5, 1995), who is a social correspondent on Wheel of Fortune. They live in Severna Park, Maryland, with a second home in Los Angeles. Sajak is featured as a narrator in a brief film shown at the visitor center at Mount Vernon, the residence of George Washington, where he explains to tourists the attractions of the site. From 1998 until the end of 2021, Sajak owned Maryland-based AM radio station WNAV in Annapolis.

Sajak is a Republican, and has written a number of columns for the conservative magazine Human Events. He is also a regular poster and podcast participant on the conservative blog Ricochet.com. Sajak rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. He is also a financial supporter of the Young America's Foundation, which sponsors conservative speakers on college campuses. Sajak noted in his last appearance as host of Wheel of Fortune that he did not include politics into his hosting duties, saying that the show included "no social issues, no politics" and was "just a game."

In 2005, Sajak became an investor in the Golden Baseball League, an independent professional baseball league with teams in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Alberta, British Columbia, and Baja California. During a guest appearance in the broadcast booth at a March 2012 Baltimore Orioles – Boston Red Sox spring-training game, Sajak acknowledged that he had called some baseball games in the past. Sajak is an avid fan of the Washington Capitals NHL team. He is a longtime season-ticket holder and made an on-ice appearance before game three of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final.

Sajak underwent emergency intestinal surgery to remove a blockage on November 8, 2019. While Sajak recovered, co-host Vanna White hosted in his place. The first taping day in which he was incapacitated was a two-week Disney-themed Christmas episode. Mickey and Minnie Mouse took over White's role at the puzzle board for those weeks. Sajak's daughter, Maggie, also helped White for a week. Sajak returned to work on December 5, 2019.

Pat Sajak was born on 26 October 1946 in Chicago. Sajak held the nationality of United States. Sajak was educated at Columbia College Chicago, Farragut Career Academy and Defense Information School. Recorded child: Maggie Sajak. Sajak worked as television presenter, radio personality, actor and weather presenter, and the authority record catalogues a further 1 occupations under the same name, among them talk show host. Sajak was active from 1975 to 2024. Sajak worked in English.