NEW YORK (AP) — When producers of “Wheel of Fortune” named Ryan Seacrest — in all probability probably the most ubiquitous man on leisure tv — as its subsequent host this week, it shocked just about nobody.
The concept Sony Photos Tv would appoint somebody comparatively unknown because the figurehead of one in every of its most precious properties was far-fetched. However it wasn’t all the time that method 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: Recreation reveals at the moment are the provenance of the already well-known.
Why is Pat Sajak the final of his breed?
Again in 1984, a a lot youthful Sajak was pictured on the quilt of TV Information alongside Wink Martindale, Monty Corridor, Invoice Cullen, Jack Barry and Barker.
Every of the opposite males was identified primarily as broadcast tv recreation present hosts.
Now, so is Sajak. He has a handful of different entries on his resume, disc jockey (a lot of his ilk additionally obtained their begin in radio) and tv weatherman amongst them. However he was 35 years outdated when he began internet hosting “Wheel of Fortune” and shall be 77 when he leaves subsequent yr. He’ll be ceaselessly identified for standing onstage on the wheel, with Vanna White on the board.
“He’s kind of the last of the old school,” mentioned Adam Nedeff, writer and researcher for the Nationwide Archive of Recreation Present Historical past on the Sturdy Nationwide Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.
Recreation reveals had been as soon as proven dwell, or taped with hardly any interruptions, so the talent of an skilled broadcaster used to these situations was prized, Nedeff mentioned. Dick Clark would want 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 grew to become host of “Jeopardy!”
The place’s the pipeline now?
Recreation reveals had been as soon as a mainstay of daytime broadcast tv, the land of the unhip, however are a lot much less widespread right now. The Recreation Present Community 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) — 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 mentioned. “We have just reached a point where nobody sees any shame in hosting a game show.”
Nobody considers a recreation present low-rent anymore.
And why ought to they?
Significantly. 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. Quickly, many viewers will know him as a recreation present host as a substitute of an actor and comic, if they do not already.
Why would he go away?
Such comparatively simple 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 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 Related 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 recreation.
A number of recreation reveals air in prime time now. Even when networks supply a giant verify to a star like Foxx, it is nothing like paying for the writers, administrators and actors of a scripted collection (to remind you, mentioned 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 recreation present impresario, even provided him a job internet hosting a quiz recreation present for teenagers when Seacrest was solely 23, Nedeff mentioned. Seacrest has expertise as a disc jockey, a chat present host, a New Yr’s Eve concertmaster and because the longtime host of “American Idol,” as soon as tv’s greatest sensation.
In contrast to many recreation present hosts of yesteryear, he’s already a celebrity 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 dwell present and an internet 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 desires to do it.
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