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Q: Has anyone else ever hosted "Wheel of Fortune" besides Pat Sajak?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

It may seem like the ever-tanned and smiling Pat Sajak has hosted "Wheel of Fortune" forever, but he wasn't the first host. And he took a break, too.

Sajak has been hosting the game show since 1981, when he took over the reins from another game show-hosting legend, Chuck Woolery.

"Wheel" was Woolery's first big gig, but he went on to quite a few others. Two years after Sajak stepped up to the big wheel, Woolery was already hosting another hit game show, the match-making game "Love Connection."

That series is of course somewhat similar to "The Dating Game," which Woolery also hosted near the end of its long run in 1999. "The Dating Game" premiered in 1960, though taking an occasional hiatus for a season or two. Woolery hosted the last two seasons, from 1997 to 1999.

He's also doled out prizes on the game show version of the popular board game "Scrabble," which ran from 1984 to 1990, and on the Game Show Network's "Lingo" and, most recently, the short-lived GSN show "Think Like a Cat."

Sajak had hosted "Wheel of Fortune" for eight years when, in 1989, he tried his luck in late night, hosting his own talk show for one season, from 1989 into 1990. During that time, his spot at the wheel was filled by Bob Goen, a relative unknown at the time who would go on to find greater fame as an "Entertainment Tonight" co-host.

Sajak came back, of course, and seemingly hasn't left the side of the wheel since.

Hard as it is to imagine, Vanna White hasn't always been there, either. She's the second glamorous hostess to get her hands on the letters, having replaced Susan Stafford, who did the job from the show's debut until 1982.