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Ryan Seacrest is proving to be a worthy successor to Pat Sajak as host of Wheel of Fortune — and he thoroughly prepared for his role.
President of Sony game shows, Suzanne Prete spoke to the LA Times about the 50-year-old TV mainstay joining Wheel and gave insight into his preparation.
According to Prete, after the American Idol host was hired, he wanted to understand the game inside and out — so he requested videos of past shows. As she told the Times in an article published on Monday, January 6, Prete noted that she was ready to send him 50 episodes, but he wanted to see all 8,000.
“He said, ‘No, I want to see every episode,'” Prete recalled.
Ted Harbert, a former network executive and friend of the former Live with Kelly and Ryan host, told the outlet how Seacrest wanted the game to be almost instinctive for him, removing room for error.
“He wanted the rules to be just second nature to him,” Harbert noted. “He didn’t want there to ever be a question.”
According to the outlet, the show’s executive producer, Bellamie Blackstone, even flew to Miami to prep with the Emmy Award winner, bringing a tabletop version of the game and going through many potential scenarios that could arise.
Prete told the outlet Seacrest was a natural at the job, “When he stepped on the set, it was like he’d been doing it his whole life.”
In September, the E! alum spoke with CBS Sunday Mornings about his preparation.
“Wherever I was working, the producers would sometimes come, and they bring contestants, and we would play Wheel of Fortune in hotels just to get familiar with the rules and scenarios and things that can happen so that at some point it becomes second nature,” he shared.
Seacrest also explained that he was immediately on board after being offered the role.
“This is such an incredible special franchise. It’s more than a TV show. It is something that means something to people, and when I found out that this was an opportunity for me, there was no thought to this. It was like, absolutely, let’s figure it out, and let’s get started,” he recounted.
