Vanna White wants pay raise after Pat Sajak exits ‘Wheel of Fortune’

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Vanna White has no plans to stop tapping letters on Wheel of Fortune.

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According to Puck, the famed television personality is in negotiations to keep co-hosting the long-running game show after Pat Sajak retires at the end of the 2023-24 season. White and Wheel producers haven’t reached a deal and everything is still very much in flux,  Entertainment Weekly adds.

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But White, 66, is looking for a pay bump after not having received a raise in close to two decades. White pockets an annual salary of $3 million a year while Sajak, 76, makes almost five times as much, Puck reported.

In 2016, Forbes reported that Sajak earned $15 million a year from the show.

Puck reports that White has hired attorney Bryan Freedman, who represented Jeopardy! host Mike Richards after he was dropped as host, to negotiate on her behalf. The lawyer is apparently “hitting the pay discrepancy issue hard with Sony, as well as possible gender discrimination with respect to White’s salary.”

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Earlier this month, Sajak shocked Wheel fans when he announced that he would be walking away from the show next year.

“Well, the time has come. I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last,” the television personality shared on Twitter. “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!)”

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Although he is exiting as host, the Daytime Emmy winner will continue a partnership with the program as a consultant.

Days after Sajak’s retirement news, reports surfaced claiming that White had fears that she could be shuffled out if producers opt to give the show a makeover.

“The next year is going to be quite the ride and Vanna wants to be a part of it all even after he leaves, and she hopes they don’t force her out,” a source allegedly close to White told the Daily Mail.

The insider went on to claim that despite Sajak’s decision to leave after its upcoming 41st season, White wants to keep turning letters on the popular game show, which she joined in 1982.

“Vanna doesn’t want to leave Wheel of Fortune even after Pat’s announcement of retirement, and she would highly consider taking over his role as host on the show,” the source maintained.

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The Mail’s alleged source went on to claim that White wants “to be a part of the selection process for Pat’s replacement, because if it is up to her, she is in it forever.”

White, who moved to Los Angeles in 1980 “$1,000 to my name” before landing the dream job two years later, is prepared for show producers to take their time looking for Sajak’s permanent replacement when he steps away in 2024.

“Vanna knows that they are going to do the same thing they did with Alex Trebek and his replacement (on Jeopardy!) and make a huge to-do about it all,” they said . But they cautioned: “A year from now, if Vanna is gone from Wheel, it wasn’t her decision.”

After Sajak confirmed his time on the show is coming to an end, Ryan Seacrest emerged as a front-runner to step in as his replacement. White and Sajak’s daughter Maggie are also among the names being bandied about.

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Meanwhile, White paid tribute to her longtime screen partner in a heartfelt social media post after his surprising news.

“When we started @WheelofFortune who could have imagined we’d still be at it 41 seasons later?” White wrote on Twitter, adding “I couldn’t be happier to have shared the stage with you for all these years with one more to come. Cheers to you, @patsajak!”

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Sajak has hosted the game show since 1981, taking over from Chuck Woolery, who was the program’s first host when Wheel debuted in 1975. He also fronted a short-lived late night show — The Pat Sajak Show — from 1989 to 1990.

“Please do not adjust your sets at home. Chuck Woolery has not shrunk,” Sajak said in his first episode [per the Washington Post]. “I’ve been fortunate enough to wander onto the set of a very successful program.”

White joined the program in 1982 after original letter turner Susan Stafford left the show, but Sajak wasn’t originally sold on her as his co-host as she competed against two other finalists.

“Vanna knows this,” Sajak told CBS News in 2020. “Not that she wasn’t lovely and wonderful and personable and all that. But she was the most nervous, by far, of any of them.”

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But the show’s creator Merv Griffin stood by White — and Sajak — and it wasn’t long before she became a household name.

White hosted Wheel for three weeks back in 2019 after Sajak was forced to undergo emergency surgery for a blocked intestine. In an interview with the New York Times, White said she was surprised she was asked to take over.

“I’ve never even thought of that in 37 years,” White said. “To be asked almost on the spot, ‘How do you feel about hosting the show?’ Like, what?! I was very nervous.”

Despite Sajak’s hints that the end was on the horizon, White said last year that retirement wasn’t on her mind.

“I don’t want to think about that,” White said in an interview with PEOPLE. “I mean, we’re a team. That’s depressing. I don’t even want to think about it.”

Looking ahead, she found it hard to envision a time where the pair wouldn’t be a part of the series. “I just visualize us just being there. I can’t think beyond that,” she said.

“I can’t imagine. Everybody relates Wheel of Fortune to Pat and Vanna. We’re like Ken and Barbie, you know?” she explained. “We’ve been in everybody’s homes for 40 years, so it would be weird having somebody else turn my letters.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

Twitter: @markhdaniell

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