In my earliest years, the evening didn’t end until Vanna White said good night. I was in one of the parts of America where “Wheel of Fortune” comes on after “Jeopardy!” (the only proper order — a r…
that White has not received a pay raise in 18 years. That alone suggests that “Wheel of Fortune” is television production of the old school in the worst sense. And if borne out, White’s fears for her professional future are only the latest sign that Sony Pictures Television, which produces both game shows, doesn’t quite understand what keeps viewers coming back.
If one were designing “Wheel” from scratch today, one likely wouldn’t include a Vanna White figure — not given that letters can reveal themselves, and her walking across the stage eats seconds that might otherwise go to adding more gameplay into the half-hour. And yet her presence speaks to a certain showmanship that’s been lost — after all, few game shows as enduringly popular as “Wheel” have been made in the years since.
Her ebullient good cheer has made her into a cultural icon: People know the name “Vanna White” the whole nation over. But both classic hosting modes, Trebek’s snappiness and White and Sajak’s sincerity, seem out of fashion nowadays; Trebek’s at-long-last replacements, Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings, are both competent but can read as engaged, and Seacrest is the definition of a safe choice, at least as far as broadcasting style goes.
After all, a game show presents three narratives in miniature, over a brisk half-hour: We must at once feel excitement for the person who ends up winning and sympathy for the two who do not. If that engagement isn’t there, why watch at all? And White, wordless until her final chat-and-farewell each night, may not still turn letters, but she’s doing heavy lifting.
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