Pat Sajak isn’t afraid to get outspoken after decades of hosting Wheel of Fortune, and his snarky line on Tuesday’s (Feb. 28) episode proved just that. The longtime host snapped at a contestant when she violated the rules, demanding she refrain from touching the show’s titular wheel.
Sajak temporarily lost his cool when competitor Mary Ann Hotaling, an Alabama school administrator, couldn’t resist putting her hands on the $1 million wedge after a particularly lucky spin.
And we really can’t blame her, considering she landed on a pretty plum slice of the wheel, but Sajak wasn’t letting her off so easy.
“No, no, no, ba-ba-bo-bop!” he called out immediately, leaving Hotaling to pull her hands back and break into laughter as Sajak chuckled along with her.
He coached her, “Now here’s what you do, you see, you call a letter,” after which Hotaling promptly called out, “H.”
Sajak replied, “And because there are two H’s, you may now pick up the million dollar wedge,” and Hotaling finally had her moment as she triumphantly grabbed the wedge and lifted it up with a grin.
“You put a million dollars in front of someone, they just get goofy,” Sajak said.
The Wheel of Fortune Twitter account highlighted the tense moment from Tuesday’s show, posting a clip of the interaction between the host and contestant, joking about Sajak’s “DON’T TOUCH THAT!!!” reaction.
Sajak’s Wheel moments have been causing quite the buzz lately, with the veteran host making headlines just last month after he piled onto a poor contestant who couldn’t solve a puzzle.
“I thought you might be able to come up with ‘autograph’…Wasn’t gonna happen, was it?” he told a competitor during a February show.
Wheel of Fortune airs weeknights at 7 p.m. Find local listings on the Wheel website. If you missed Tuesday’s episode, see the moment Sajak snapped in the clip above.