Pat Sajak has completed his final spin, but the game show veteran isn’t retiring.
Sajak’s final episode of “Wheel of Fortune” aired Friday night, but the host of 42 years already has a new job lined up.
The 77-year-old actress plays the antagonist in the 1962 play “Prescription for Murder,” which was the basis for the pilot of the same name for “Columbo,” starring Peter Falk, and the detective series that ran until 2003.
Sajak plays a psychiatrist who conspires with his lover to murder his wife and is then relentlessly pursued by an unassuming LAPD lieutenant, played by Hawaiian news anchor Joe Moore at the Hawaii Theatre Center in Honolulu.
Pat Sajak sends ‘Wheel of Fortune’ farewell message to fans in six words
The final episode of Pat Sajak’s “Wheel of Fortune” aired on Friday. (Ricky Middlesworth/ABC via Getty Images)
“Freshly retiring from hosting the hit game show Wheel of Fortune after 41 seasons, Pat Sajak and longtime friend Joe Moore will return to the Hawaii Theatre Center’s mainstage in 2025 to star in William Link and Richard Levinson’s original Columbo mystery thriller, Prescription: Murder. All net proceeds from the show will support the Hawaii Theatre Center,” the theater announced on its website.
Sajak is scheduled to perform at the theater from July 31 to August 10, 2025.
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According to Variety, Sajak and Moore have been friends for decades, having first served together in Saigon with the U.S. Military Vietnam Network in 1968, and have since appeared together in nine plays.
The two first worked together in Moore’s original play “Prophecy and Honor” in 1993 and more recently worked together on “The Sunshine Boys” last year.
Most of the plays they performed together were intended to raise funds for Hawaiian theatre.
According to Variety, Moore has been in broadcasting in Hawaii since 1969 and is well known in the state.
Sajak delivered an emotional farewell during Friday’s final episode of “Wheel,” writing: “Now, it’s time to say goodbye. Before I go, I want to offer a few thanks and acknowledgements. I want to start with you, the viewers. It has been an incredible honor to be invited into millions of homes every night, every year, for decades.”
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“I’ve always felt that with this privilege comes a responsibility to keep it a safe place for 30 minutes each day that families can enjoy,” he continued. “No social issues, no politics, nothing embarrassing, just games.”
Pat Sajak and Vana White in the early 1900s. The two became co-hosts of the show in 1982. (Herb Ball/NBCU Photo Bank)
“But it slowly became so much more,” he added. “It became a place for children to learn to read, a place for people from other countries to practice their English, a place for families, friends, neighbors and people of all generations to come together.”
“It’s truly an honor to be a small part of all of it,” Sajak concluded, “and I’m so grateful that you’ve allowed me into your lives.”
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Sajak and co-host Vanna White (who remains with the show) began their record-breaking run on “Wheel” in 1982, seven years after the show first aired with Chuck Woolally as host.
The pair have produced more than 8,000 episodes together. Ryan Seacrest will take over as co-host.
