When producers of “Wheel of Fortune” named Ryan Seacrest — in all probability essentially the most ubiquitous man on leisure tv — as its subsequent host, it stunned just about nobody.
The concept that Sony Pictures Television would appoint somebody comparatively unknown because the figurehead of one in all its Most worthy properties was far-fetched. But it wasn’t at all times that means for a style of tv that minted such celebrities like late “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, Bob Barker of “The Price is Right” and present “Wheel of Fortune” emcee Pat Sajak.
With Sajak’s impending retirement, after the present’s subsequent season, it is the top of an period: Game reveals are actually the provenance of the already well-known.
Back in 1984, a a lot youthful Sajak was pictured on the quilt of TV Guide alongside Wink Martindale, Monty Hall, Bill Cullen, Jack Barry and Barker.
Each of the opposite males was recognized primarily as broadcast tv recreation present hosts.
Now, so is Sajak. He has a handful of different entries on his resume, disc jockey (lots of his ilk additionally received their begin in radio) and tv weatherman amongst them. But he was 35 years previous when he began internet hosting “Wheel of Fortune” and will probably be 77 when he leaves subsequent yr. He’ll be without end recognized for standing onstage on the wheel, with Vanna White on the board.
“He’s kind of the last of the old school,” stated Adam Nedeff, writer and researcher for the National Archive of Game Show History on the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.
Game reveals had been as soon as proven stay, or taped with hardly any interruptions, so the ability of an skilled broadcaster used to these circumstances was prized, Nedeff stated. Dick Clark would wish it when taping 10 episodes of “The 10,000 Pyramid” in a day.
Trebek equally had a robust pedigree of tv internet hosting, a lot of it in Canada, earlier than he turned host of “Jeopardy!”
Game reveals had been as soon as a mainstay of daytime broadcast tv, the land of the unhip, however are a lot much less frequent as we speak. The Game Show Network and Buzzr exist on cable for aficionados, however are heavy on reruns of the classics.
And, let’s be sincere, who watches, anyway?
To create curiosity in recreation reveals lately, producers search for a reputation. That makes actors, comics or different celebrities enticing to entrance these reveals (a few of which have however been canceled) — individuals like Drew Carey (“The Price Is Right”), Howie Mandel (“Deal or No Deal”), Meredith Vieira (“Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”), Wayne Brady (“Let’s Make a Deal”), Steve Harvey (“Family Feud”), Alec Baldwin (“Match Game”), Michael Strahan (“The $100,000 Pyramid”) and Mayim Bialik (“Jeopardy!”). Ken Jennings wasn’t an actor, however any fan of “Jeopardy!” knew who he was.
“We have a generation of stars who grew up watching game shows,” Nedeff stated. “We have just reached a point where nobody sees any shame in hosting a game show.”
No one considers a recreation present low-rent anymore.
Seriously. Trebek would tape two weeks’ value of reveals over two days. There’s solely 52 weeks a yr, and that did not depend the present’s trip durations, for a wage most of us could not conceive of.
Carey changed Barker on “The Price is Right” in 2007. Soon, many viewers will know him as a recreation present host as an alternative of an actor and comic, if they do not already.
Why would he go away?
Such comparatively straightforward cash is why a job like “Wheel of Fortune” is coveted; Whoopi Goldberg overtly campaigned for the job. And it is behind the request Jamie Foxx stunned his administration with within the 2010s.
“Years ago, I was telling my agent, I said, ‘Man, you gotta get a game show,’” Foxx advised The Associated Press in 2019. He succeeded with “Beat Shazam,” on the Fox community. Foxx received a payday, and Fox received a bankable star to entice viewers to a brand new recreation.
Several recreation reveals air in prime time now. Even if networks provide an enormous examine to a star like Foxx, it is nothing like paying for the writers, administrators and actors of a scripted sequence (to remind you, stated writers are actually on strike).
Oddly sufficient, Seacrest’s profession path resembles a number of the old-time hosts. Merv Griffin, the legendary recreation present impresario, even supplied him a job internet hosting a quiz recreation present for teenagers when Seacrest was solely 23, Nedeff stated. Seacrest has expertise as a disc jockey, a chat present host, a New Year’s Eve concertmaster and because the longtime host of “American Idol,” as soon as tv’s largest sensation.
Unlike many recreation present hosts of yesteryear, he is already a star in his personal proper. “Wheel of Fortune” is an empire Sony wants to guard: not only a tv present, however video video games, a on line casino recreation, a stay present and a web-based merchandise retailer full with a “Wheel” umbrella and silver tote bag.
Seacrest, to make certain, is very unlikely to muck that up.
The 48-year-old’s reward is a job he can certainly depend on so long as he needs to do it.
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