Throughout his near 40-year tenure as Wheel Of Fortune host, Pat Sajak has rarely taken leave of his duties although there have been a few occasions. A bout of laryngitis during the filming of a 1996 episode meant Sajak was unable to complete the game show’s bonus round segment, but luckily Vanna White stood in for him. The following year, Sajak and fellow game show host Alex Trebek traded places as part of an April Fools’ Day prank which saw Sajak host an episode of Jeopardy!, while Trebek presided over a special charity edition of Wheel Of Fortune in which Sajak and White appeared as contestants.

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Even during those moments, Pat Sajak was still present on the set of Wheel Of Fortune but in 2019 he was forced to take a real leave of absence from hosting duties when he underwent emergency surgery to repair a blocked intestine. Around three weeks’ worth of episodes were filmed in Sajak’s absence while he recovered from surgery, but who took over as host while he was away?

Naturally, it was Wheel Of Fortune co-host Vanna White that stood in for Sajak while he recovered. That posed a bit of a problem, however, as it required somebody else to perform White’s duties as chief letter-turner for the show’s famous puzzle board. Luckily, while White was hosting Wheel Of Fortune, a succession of understudies took over her job including Mickey and Minnie Mouse (or at least people dressed up as them) and Sajak’s daughter Maggie Sajak.

Sajak soon returned to Wheel Of Fortune, but his time on the long-running game show may be limited. In a 2019 interview with Pat Sajak to take a break after some questionable behavior towards contestants. For the time being, Sajak remains on the game show but it looks like Wheel Of Fortune could be getting a new host in the not-too-distant future.