For a second there, it appeared just like the Vanna White story was going to finish ugly. The 67-year-old presenter is the ultimate standard-bearer of America’s game-show golden age—a TV era that has been largely cleaned out by Bob Barker’s loss of life, Pat Sajak’s departure, and the protracted succession battle for the Throne of Trebek. Left behind is an ersatz fleet of programming that, whereas the fault of no person particularly, is a bit chilly to the contact. The perfect recreation present viewing expertise ought to evoke recollections of working a fever in your childhood bed room at excessive midday, watching bleary-eyed as a trio of panelists guesstimate the retail price of a vacuum cleaner. However Drew Carey isn’t going to turn into synonymous with The Value Is Proper, and the number of Ryan Seacrest for the Wheel of Fortune podium appeared particularly designed to lock the model in institutional decline. (Ken Jennings, now on Jeopardy!, is a distinct, extra sophisticated topic.) That makes Vanna White the final icon standing—a holdover from a glitzier time—and within the twilight of her profession, she is asserting her personal worth greater than ever.
In 2023, with Sajak headed for the exit and her personal contract nearing its conclusion at Sony, experiences surfaced that the as soon as and future vowel service provider had not obtained a increase on her $3 million annual wage in 18 years. That’s a far cry from the $15 million Sajak was reportedly taking dwelling, so White headed into negotiations for her subsequent contract with the intention of leveling the taking part in subject.
In the long run, Wheel of Fortune blinked. White shall be round for at the very least the subsequent yr after inking a contract extension lasting till 2026, with provisions that embody the pay increase she coveted.
When the present returned final September with Seacrest as host, there have been rumors of backstage stress between the brand new on-air pair. If that’s true, you possibly can’t actually inform. The truth is, you would say that Vanna had gracefully embraced her senioritis period. The lady by no means held the heftiest job in present enterprise; she touches letters, she maintains an enormous wardrobe of glowing floor-length clothes, she flashes telegenic grimaces to contestants who brick out on a consonant. (She has blithely joked about this reality herself for years: “I can’t say that it’s a onerous job, as a result of it’s not,” she mentioned in 2018.) However her relationship with Sajak—the topic of loosely sourced romantic intrigue for many years, and maybe the present’s main cultural draw—is not a day by day efficiency. So it looks like a largely checked-out Vanna is right here to money a number of extra checks whereas kindling a effective picket chemistry with Seacrest for a few seasons earlier than disappearing into the center distance of a wonderful Malibu sundown. The simplest job in broadcasting has by some means gotten even simpler.
The day of her departure is definitely coming before later. Over the past a number of seasons of Wheel of Fortune, Maggie Sajak—the 29-year-old daughter of the venerable recreation present host—has been not-so-subtly groomed as a possible inheritor to White when she decides to hold up her heels. Maggie stepped onto the set in 2020 whereas her father was recovering from surgical procedure with the intention to tackle some internet hosting duties, and, extra portentously, to the touch a few of these letters herself. (At this time, Maggie serves because the present’s “social media correspondent,” which is a makework gig for old-money Hollywood nepo infants if I’ve ever heard one.) A furtive continuity plan for an growing old famous person tends to be the stuff of relentless tabloid titillation, however Vanna herself has gestured towards this inevitability. Shortly after locking within the phrases of her new deal, White conceded to E! that Maggie might make for a “good substitute” on the board. And in a pointed, Substance-tinged Instagram put up final August, Maggie—who uncannily resembles a youthful, blonder Vanna—swapped robes with Wheel of Fortune’s matriarch and beckoned the commenters to guess which dainty quantity belonged to who. It was each an unlimited physique flex and, for longtime followers, a reminder that the sharks are circling.
Is Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune an odd factor to mourn? The feedback on Reddit and Instagram that brace for the emotional affect of her retirement can appear a bit absurd. However past childhood nostalgia, an older era remembers Vanna the breakout star, and extra importantly, Vanna the intercourse image. She was a girl worthy of a bestselling (if content-light) memoir; whose teased bangs appeared on a promenade of checkout-aisle journal covers throughout the nation all through the Nineteen Eighties. (“Vanna White—Her Seduction of America,” introduced a headline in a 1989 challenge of TV Information, alongside a picture of the host trying—it must be mentioned—gorgeous in a pair of Princess Diana denims.) Her stardom appeared to summon an unhealthy fusion of rage, thirst, and envy within the American ferment. The press dubbed it “Vannamania,” and it centered on an nervousness that endures to today: How does a girl who reveals letters for a dwelling obtain such a galactic stage of fame? Does she deserve it? Should she, and the remainder of girlhood, be delivered to heel?
“Why did she turn into a task mannequin for younger ladies?” opined a flabbergasted Chicago Tribune in 1992. “A lot of whom evidently aspired to a profession in pointing and smiling?”
That query is downright myopic by fashionable requirements, and never only for the blatant sexism. We have now all turn into inundated by stunning folks by way of the locus of vertical video in 2024, and every of them reflexively understands that their very own hotness is grounds sufficient for fame and fortune: the body-rolling yoga women, the flexing Chads, the beautiful {couples} on everlasting trip, Hawk Tuah, bounties of sponcon and low cost codes—in some methods, all of it comes again to Vanna White, who by no means apologized for incomes a lot by doing so little. In that sense, she’s a trailblazer.
In 2025, if anybody needs to Be Like Vanna, you have to exploit angles outdoors of community tv. In a time of Addison Rae and Alix Earle, it’s onerous to think about a socialite being cast on a recreation present set ever once more. (If Maggie Sajak ever actually desires to eclipse her forebearer, she may have to study the “Renegade” dance.) However as the one star left on the circuit, White is giving us one remaining present as she prepares her exit. Her retirement and succession plan, each time it involves be, could very effectively be the final fascinating story to floor on a recreation present. On the very least it is going to be much more compelling than whoever steps in for Steve Harvey on Household Feud. The saga will certainly culminate with a number of months of juicy hypothesis, and one tearful finale—an amazing exaltation of Vannamania earlier than Seacrest shepherds the present to its funeral. She was all the time probably the most fascinating particular person within the room, with out anybody ever understanding why. That’s present enterprise, child.
