The game show's 39th season just premiered.
The 39th season of Wheel of Fortune premiered earlier this week and it kicked off with a major change. Pat Sajak revealed that while the "final spin" will still exist, he will no longer be the one in charge of it -- and shared that it's something that has "always bothered" him just a little bit.
During an interview with his daughter, Maggie, on the game show's official YouTube page, the 74-year-old game show host opened up about the decision to have the contestants do the final spin of the game instead of him. (The final spin comes near the end of the show when play stops on the current puzzle. Wherever the final spin lands, that is the dollar amount each player gets for every letter until the puzzle is solved.)
After joking that “the work was just too hard," Sajak explained: "The reason is, honestly, I’ve never liked the idea of imposing the host on the game. That always bothered me a little bit. I was looking for a way around it and we finally got to talking and we said, ‘Look, someone’s spinning the wheel anyway. We’ll save time and just let them spin it.'”
“So the final spin, at least as far as the host is concerned, is gone,” Sajak added. “But the final spin remains, I’m just not doing it.”
This isn't the only big news to come out of the game show world in recent weeks. In late August, it was announced that former Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune executive producer Mike Richards was out of the job. The news came shortly after Richards stepped down as the new host of Jeopardy! after he issued an apology regarding sexist comments he had made in the past which had come to light amid his new position. (Richards was initially named the new Jeopardy! host after Alex Trebek's death.)
Following Richards' exit, it was announced that Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik will host the game show for the rest of the year.
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