'Wheel of Fortune' host Pat Sajak [Shutterstock] https://tinyurl.com/puu62do
Pat Sajak’s retirement announcement couldn’t have come soon enough for a columnist who skewers the “Wheel of Fortune” host in a new piece.
Sajak on Monday announced he was stepping down as the host of “Wheel” after the conclusion of its 41st season, which begins in September. Sajak announced his retirement on Twitter.
“Well, that time has come,” Sajak wrote. “It’s been a wonderful ride, and I’ll have more to say in the coming months. Many thanks to you all. (If nothing else, it’ll keep the clickbait sites busy!)”
SFGate columnist Drew Magary writes that Sajak started out in the early 1980s as a game show host cast from the mold of Wink Martindale, Chuck Woolery, Peter Tomarken, among others.
“TV is a harder job than it looks, and all of these men were good at it, in that half-friendly, morning show kind of way. They weren’t gifted performers in many other respects, if any. But they could hit their marks and keep everything moving. They were the faces of my childhood sick days, and I remember the bulk of them fondly,” Magary writes.
“Except for Sajak.”
Magary describes Sajak, who is reportedly paid $15 million annually for a job he worked just 48 days a year, as an “empty suit.”
“He is that one real estate agent your wife didn’t like,” Magary writes. “He possesses all the warmth of a Cheesecake Factory host. And his takes are boilerplate cocktail party fascism.”
Magary isn’t alone in expressing disdain for the retiring game show host.
The New Republic reports that Sajak has a history of embracing right-wing groups and causes, and a 2014 social media post suggested he’s a climate denier. He tweeted, “I now believe global warming alarmists are unpatriotic racists knowingly misleading for their own ends.”
Magary notes that Sajak has ties to a conservative Christian college that’s deeply involved in culture wars.
Sajak was named chairman of the Hillsdale College Board of Trustees in 2019. He previously served as the board’s vice president since 2003.
Salon reports that “a national movement driven by the vision and curriculum of Hillsdale College, a small Christian school in southern Michigan that has quietly become one of the most influential entities in conservative politics.”
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