Let’s be honest with each other for a second: Did the announcement today that Ryan Seacrest is going to take over for Pat Sajak as the host of Wheel Of Fortune surprise anyone? I doubt it; from the first moments his name was floated as a possible replacement for Sajak we all knew he was going to get the gig.

Yes, this could have been a chance for Sony to make a statement and hand “America’s Game” to a woman or a person of color — Sherri Shepherd’s name had floated around in conjunction with the job, for instance — but there was almost no chance they were going do anything but hand the role to Seacrest.

Sony was not going to embroil itself into another extended, botched host search, like they did on Jeopardy! after Alex Trebek died in November 2020. That was a huge factor. Just ask Jeopardy! savant James Holzhauer, who didn’t mince words with his caustic response to the Seacrest announcement:

Sony knows that the Jeopardy! fanbase is conservative and resistant to change, but also that the fanbase for WoF is even more rigid. Any deviation from the formula that has worked in syndication since 1983, with Sajak being the slightly snarky, avuncular host, would have been too much for the fans.

But here’s another factor, one that people who are anti-Seacrest might not want to admit: Ryan Seacrest is perfect for this job.

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When I celebrated the fact that Seacrest was leaving Live With Kelly And Ryan this past spring, I did so because Seacrest had proven to be just too bland and closed off to work on daytime television, where you need to not only have some quirkiness, but be able to open up and connect with the viewers at home. But the host of Wheel Of Fortune just needs to banter with the contestants, keep the game moving, and… well, that’s about it.

Bantering and keeping things moving is Seacrest’s superpower. He’s been doing it on TV for over 20 years, starting with American Idol but also on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and countless award show red carpets for E!. There’s no need to reveal anything about himself as he tells people there are no more vowels or tells a contestant that they get the letters R, S, T, L, N and E in the bonus round.

It’s the entire principle of why, all the way back in 1981, Merv Griffin allowed Chuck Woolery to leave the very successful daytime NBC version of WoF when Woolery asked for a raise and replaced him with Sajak, then a weather forecaster for KNBC. The wheel and puzzle boards were the stars of the show, and Griffin wanted a host that could facilitate that instead of becoming the show’s focus. Sajak has done just that over the past 43 years, even during the years of “Vannamania” in the ’80s, when his co-host Vanna White attracted an outsized amount of pop culture attention.

Seacrest will keep that notion intact as host, even if White, currently in some serious negotiations with Sony to extend her contract, stays on the show. The stars of the show will still be the wheel and the puzzles, and the viral videos of contestants blowing easy guesses will continue, no matter who the host is.

Believe us, no one wants to really see another Rolf Benirschke experiment on Wheel Of Fortune. The former NFL placekicker replaced Sajak on the daytime version when Sajak started his late-night show in 1989 (Sajak, of course, stayed on the syndicated nighttime version). He was inexperienced and stiff, and the ratings took such a dive that NBC cancelled the show within months; when CBS picked up the daytime version, the more-experienced Bob Goen was named host.

Seacrest won’t have the problem of being inexperienced or stiff, and even the squawking naysayers on Twitter likely won’t have much to complain about. That’s exactly what Sony wants, which is why this wasn’t a tough decision on their part. If there’s any blip in the show’s ratings after Seacrest takes over in the fall of 2024, we’ll be completely shocked.