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On Friday night, Pat Sajak said goodbye<\/a> to \u201cWheel of Fortune,\u201d expressing gratitude to the countless viewers who had tuned in during his more than 40 years<\/a> at the helm. \u201cThank you for allowing me into your lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n After the final game on his watch concluded, Sajak returned from a final commercial break and addressed the camera directly. \u201cWell, the time has come to say goodbye,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been an incredible privilege to be invited into millions of homes night after night, year after year, decade after decade. I always felt that the privilege came with the responsibility to keep this daily half-hour a safe place for family fun. No social issues, no politics, nothing embarrassing I hope, just a game.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Sajak, who began his run in 1981, acknowledged that \u201cWheel of Fortune\u201d had evolved into more than just frivolous, fleeting fun for many. \u201cIt became,\u201d he said, \u201ca place where kids learned their letters, where people from other countries honed their English skills, where families came together along with friends and neighbors, and entire generations.\u201d<\/p>\n He praised the show\u2019s crew and thanked his family, including his daughter Maggie, who joined \u201cWheel\u201d as a social correspondent in 2021. And he of course had many kind words for his co-star of more than four decades, Vanna White, whom he called his \u201cprofessional other half.\u201d (The farewell episode<\/a> was filmed in early April.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cLike me, she takes the show very seriously but not herself,\u201d Sajak said. \u201cI shudder to think what these 40-plus years might have been like had they brought someone in all full of themselves, playing the prima donna role. Vanna is as sweet and unassuming as she seems.\u201d (He noted that while he\u2019ll miss seeing her at work, they\u2019ll see plenty of each other: They live about five miles apart.) They embraced onstage after his remarks as the episode ended like any other, with the two of them speaking to each other as the credits rolled.<\/p>\n