Pat Sajak’s Surprising New Role After Wheel of Fortune Revealed

A year after leaving his job as host of Wheel of Fortune, Pat Sajak will return to the stage in Hawaii. Find out more about his new theater acting gig.

By Corinne Heller Apr 24, 2025 3:56 PM
| Updated Apr 24, 2025 3:57 PM
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Watch: See Pat Sajak’s Emotional Goodbye to Wheel of Fortune After 41 Years

Pat Sajak is moving on from America's game to bring you again America's guilty pleasure: A murder mystery.

One year after he left Wheel of Fortune, the TV hosting legend is set to star in a revival of the 1962 play Prescription: Murder, which helped inspire the famed detective TV series Columbo, at a Hawaii community theater between July 31 and Aug. 10.

The 78-year-old will play "brilliant psychiatrist Dr. Roy Flemming, who’s carried out an ingenious plan to murder his wife, and established a perfect alibi," while his longtime friend Joe Moore portrays investigator Lt. Columbo, according to a synopsis shared by the Hawaii Theatre in Honolulu.

While best known for his game show duties, Sajak is no stranger to acting. In addition to mostly making cameos on shows such as The A-Team and The King of Queens, he has appeared with Joe in several plays over the years at the Hawaii Theatre.

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Prescription: Murder marks Sajak's first major project since he left Wheel of Fortune in July 2024 after hosting the hit syndicated game show for 41 years.

"I'm realistic enough to know the people aren't gonna be banging my door down," he said in an interview with Hawaii news station KHON in 2023, recorded just before he starred with Moore in a revival of the 1972 play The Sunshine Boys, "but I'll take projects if they come."

Sajak joked about his post-Wheel of Fortune life, "I suspect most of my time will be whittling on the front porch. But don't know how to whittle and I don't have a front porch. So that'll be a challenge."

Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images

While Sajak is returning to the stage, he has not fully left the Wheel of Fortune franchise. You can watch him host season five of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, which premieres April 30 on ABC.

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