Wheel of Fortune is going to look quite different after the currently airing season wraps up, with Pat Sajak retiring and stepping down from his longtime frontman role. Ryan Seacrest was already announced as his replacement, making it his first daily hosting gig since he exited the then-named Live with Kelly and Ryan. He appears to be pretty confident about eventually taking over, but his former co-star Kelly Ripa voiced an amusing (but highly relevant) concern she has about Seacrest in that particular capacity. And it turns out any worries she has are probably justifiable, with Pat Sajak getting called out by viewers for allowing a contestant’s misspoken guess to count as a correct answer.
Kelly Ripa appeared as a guest on the podcast Life Is Short, hosted by the current star of Disney+’s Goosebumps, Justin Long, where she talked about chatting with Wheel’s Vanna White, who’s spent quite a few months in 2023 working out contract negotiations (even if she downplayed how hectic it was). The soap opera star-turned-celeb then brought up her biggest concern over Seacrest taking on the highly visible hosting job: his spelling skills, or possible lack thereof. Here’s how Ripa put it:
We talk about the fact that Ryan is going to be joining her, and Ryan Seacrest is the only person I know besides myself — and I say ‘besides myself,’ but he may actually be worse than me — he is a terrible speller. And he doesn’t read things in a grid properly often. [Laughs.] And I actually am concerned. This is the first time I’ve ever been concerned for Ryan Seacrest where I go, ‘Is he gonna be able to understand this foundationally?’
Both Ripa and Justin Long basically shared the notion that Ryan Seacrest is the kind of endlessly casual and collected celeb that doesn’t seem like he’d ever present a case for his TV bosses to worry, least of all when it’s a hosting position. But it’s rather hilarious that one of his biggest hypothetical personal issues involves the most core element of his upcoming job. If he was terrible with numbers and math? Wheel of Fortune would be a great option. But for someone whose spelling skills have much to be desired? It seems like a good time for a reboot of Classic Concentration, amirite?
As Ripa bemusingly put it: “Spelling counts on that show.” And if Ryan Seacrest isn’t 100% on top of his game in that department, he may find himself the butt of far more social media videos and comments after joining Wheel. To that end, Pat Sajak once again found himself the target of viewer ire after botching a contestant’s answer.
The Wheel Of Fortune Mistake That Fans Got Angry Over
One Wheel of Fortune episode this week featured a round with a Crossword Puzzle theme, where each of the words in the puzzle had to follow “Butter” in a sensible fashion. Inexplicably enough, just as contestant Nadine Cedro was set to try and solve the puzzle, Pat Sajak reminded her of the slightly more strict verbiage in this instance: “Say everything. Don’t add anything.” And yet, when Cedro gave her answer, she did indeed slip up by adding an extra letter to one of the four words she answered with, erroneously guessing “nuts” instead of the proper “nut.”
But rather than recalling his own advice uttered just seconds before, Pat Sajak & Co. allowed Cedro to earn the $1,800 that she’d banked before guessing. Nothing against the contestant for making the mistake — lord knows there have been legitimately terrible answers already this season — but it seems kind of ridiculous for a show with both a host and a judges table to allow what was clearly a flubbed answer to be rewarded. Quite a few Wheel of Fortune viewers took to social media to express their dismay and befuddlement, with the post below summing things up quite perfectly.
@PatOnWheel, @TheVannaWhite @WheelofFortune She said "nuts", not "nut". Even closed captioning picked up the "s". #WheelOfFortune pic.twitter.com/qqdjcLfDDhOctober 17, 2023
Will Ryan Seacrest need closed captioning to have a better shot at sorting through all the grid-based spelling involved with Wheel of Fortune? Will he need to wear an earpiece so that Vanna White can clandestinely guide him along through the episodes? Will WoF drop its words-and-letters format and replace them with puzzles based entirely on grunts? None of those seem likely. Or smart.
Find out if Kelly Ripa’s worries were justified or all for naught when Ryan Seacrest takes over for Pat Sajak next season. Until then, be sure to watch Wheel weeknights in syndication, and head to our 2023 TV premiere schedule to see all the exciting new shows on the way soon.
