NEW YORK — When producers of “Wheel of Fortune” named Ryan Seacrest — in all probability essentially the most ubiquitous man on leisure tv — as its subsequent host this week, it shocked just about nobody.
The concept that Sony Pictures Television would appoint somebody comparatively unknown because the figurehead of certainly one of its Most worthy properties was far-fetched. But it wasn’t all the time that approach 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’s the top of an period: Game reveals at the moment are the provenance of the already well-known.
Why is Pat Sajak the final of his breed?
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 identified primarily as broadcast tv sport present hosts.
Now, so is Sajak. He has a handful of different entries on his resume, disc jockey (lots of his ilk additionally obtained their begin in radio) and tv weatherman amongst them. But he was 35 years outdated when he began internet hosting “Wheel of Fortune” and will probably be 77 when he leaves subsequent 12 months. He’ll be without end identified 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, creator 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 reside, or taped with hardly any interruptions, so the talent of an skilled broadcaster used to these circumstances was prized, Nedeff stated. Dick Clark would want it when taping 10 episodes of “The 10,000 Pyramid” in a day.
Trebek equally had a powerful pedigree of tv internet hosting, a lot of it in Canada, earlier than he turned host of “Jeopardy!”
Where’s the pipeline now?
Game reveals had been as soon as a mainstay of daytime broadcast tv, the land of the unhip, however are a lot much less widespread at the moment. 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 sport reveals as of late, producers search for a reputation. That makes actors, comics or different celebrities enticing to entrance these reveals (a few of which have nonetheless been canceled) — folks 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 sport present low-rent anymore.
And why ought to they?
Seriously. Trebek would tape two weeks’ value of reveals over two days. There’s solely 52 weeks a 12 months, and that didn’t rely the present’s trip durations, for a wage most of us couldn’t conceive of.
Carey changed Barker on “The Price is Right” in 2007. Soon, many viewers will know him as a sport present host as an alternative of an actor and comic, in the event that they don’t already.
Why would he depart?
Such comparatively straightforward cash is why a job like “Wheel of Fortune” is coveted; Whoopi Goldberg brazenly campaigned for the job. And it’s behind the request Jamie Foxx shocked his administration with within the 2010s.
“Years ago, I was telling my agent, I said, ‘Man, you gotta get a game show,’” Foxx informed The Associated Press in 2019. He succeeded with “Beat Shazam,” on the Fox community. Foxx obtained a payday, and Fox obtained a bankable star to entice viewers to a brand new sport.
Several sport reveals air in prime time now. Even if networks supply a giant test to a star like Foxx, it’s nothing like paying for the writers, administrators and actors of a scripted collection (to remind you, stated writers at the moment are on strike).
Oddly sufficient, Seacrest’s profession path resembles a number of the old-time hosts. Merv Griffin, the legendary sport present impresario, even supplied him a job internet hosting a quiz sport 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 sport present hosts of yesteryear, he’s 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 sport, a reside present and a web based merchandise retailer full with a “Wheel” umbrella and silver tote bag.
Seacrest, to make sure, is extremely unlikely to muck that up.
The 48-year-old’s reward is a job he can absolutely rely on so long as he needs to do it.
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