The American Idol star is “thrilled” after the game show personality extended her contract through the 2025-2026 season.
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Ryan Seacrest is gearing up to become the next host of Wheel of Fortune, and he’s spilling all the tea about how elated he is to work with one of the most famous game show figures in TV history.
On September 19, fans were ecstatic to learn that Vanna White extended her contract to stay on Wheel of Fortune through the 2025-2026 season. The news comes after her co-star Pat Sajak announced his retirement in June after 41 seasons, with her status being up in the air and Ryan being slated to succeed Pat.
While the American Idol personality has been vocal about how excited he is to take over Pat’s iconic job, he sat down with Sunday TODAY’s Willie Geist to share how equally thrilled he is to work alongside Vanna in an integral partnership.
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“This is such great news,” he revealed.”Vanna has been such a staple on that show and in our living rooms for so many years. I’ve been very excited to work with her but now that it’s official I can say, ‘Congratulations, Vanna.’ I can’t wait.”
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Although Ryan will usher in a new era of the popular game show starting in the fall of 2024, he does feel that Vanna’s presence is essential to the longevity of Wheel of Fortune. As he further explained to Willie, having her on the set will give him some ease as he acclimates to a different kind of hosting in his career.
“It’s super important to have Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune,” he added. “She’s beloved by this country and the viewers and I can’t even imagine standing next to her on that set being able to say, ‘OK, let’s get to it.’ … I’m very happy to hear it and very happy I get to work with her.”
Thankfully, having Vanna’s vote of confidence won’t be the only thing helping Ryan out. As fans may know, Pat will continue to be on set as a consultant, and will likely be there to give Ryan direction when he’s unsure how to go about certain elements of the new gig.
“Yeah, he’ll be bossing me around,” he joked to Entertainment Tonight. “Why not? I think he deserves that.”
Between Pat’s seal of approval and Vanna appearing alongside Ryan, it looks like folks will be in for quite an adventure.
