By April MacIntyre Jan 27, 2012, 15:41 GMT
TV host Pat Sajak is backing away from claims he appeared on the hit game show "Wheel of Fortune" while drunk.
Not drunk, just happy: Pat Sajak - TV host Pat Sajak is backing away from claims he appeared on the hit game show "Wheel of Fortune" while drunk. © Koi Sojer / PR Photos
Sajak was interviewed on ESPN2, and shared that he and hostess Vanna White used to have “two or three or six” margaritas and then go back and tape the show while drunk.
Sajak now backtracks on these claims:
“To be honest, and I hate to put an end to this drinking thing because we’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of it, but it was probably a half a dozen times we went across the street and had a margarita,” he tells ABC News Radio. “But when you’re telling a story on the air, you want to make it sound more exciting than it was. In truth, you really can’t do television if you’re stumbling all over the place.”
The taping schedule was blamed for the times that Sajak says many game show hosts in the old days were "getting drunk" during dinner and then going back to work.
Sajak says, “I mean the stories around shows like ‘Hollywood Squares’ are legendary,” said Sajak. “You know, there’d be long dinner breaks and all the celebrities would have a glass of wine or two. And you could always tell when you’re watching which shows were taped after the dinner break!”
Sajak downplayed the comments, “It is funny that on a little show on a little cable network, we’re doing a fun interview, two guys joking around and making a joke about having margaritas thirty years ago and it turns into, you know, a thing for a day,” said Sajak. “But it is the nature of the echo chamber now and here we are. So, let’s all enjoy it!”
“Wheel of Fortune” will host a Military Spouses Week — all the contestants will be military spouses representing all branches of the service beginning February 6.
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