'Wheel of Fortune' Inks Vanna White To Two-Year Extension, But Bridge Deal Means It's Crunch Time For Letter-Flipping Icon

Wheel Watchers rejoice: Two more years of Vanna White are in the cards.

While Pat Sajak is ready to hang it up as the host of Wheel of Fortune and make way for Ryan Seacrest (because there weren't any options more boring than him), a familiar face will still be part of the show for two more years.

According to Deadline, White and the powers that be at Wheel came to terms on a two-year deal after lengthy and, at times, tense negotiation.

There's no word on the dollars and cents, but the 66-year-old letter-turning GOAT wanted a raise on the $3 million she had been making for nearly the last two decades. She received a pay bump earlier this year when she signed on to continue co-hosting Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.

I think this is a solid deal for both sides. I know Vanna wanted term, but considering the rebuild the show is going through that was going to be hard to get.

A two-year deal is solid and will give White time to feel out the Seacrest era. If she decides he's excruciatingly boring the way the rest of us do, then she can decide to retire at the end of the 2025-26 season.

That's the glass-half-full way of looking at Vanna's new deal.

Much like Wayne Gretzky's "office" was behind the net, Vanna White's office is in front of the Wheel of Fortune letter board. (Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images)

Is Offering Vanna White A Bridge Deal An Insult?

You could also look at this bridge deal as a slap in the face to her legacy as one of TV's biggest game show icons alongside Sajak, Bob Barker, and those little cartoon whammies from Press Your Luck. We know what Vanna can do. She could flip letters even if a hitching post had been hired to host the show, which would be only marginally less exciting than when Seacrest starts hosting it.

For them to take a "wait-and-see" approach when Vanna has been doing her thing long before Ryan Seacrest ever came on TV and put all of us to sleep, could certainly be seen as an insult.

Sure, Sajak is a big loss. But, aside from maybe the Wheel itself, White is the key ingredient in the show's success (nursing room TVs play a factor as well).

White's clearly a team player willing to help bridge that gap to the new era of Wheel. Hopefully, Wheel Of Fortune brass realizes what they've got with her on the books before she sells her last vowel and rides off into the sunset.

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