Wheel of Fortune fans forced to rewind show after Pat Sajak gives Disney character an odd nickname d

May 2024 ยท 3 minute read

WHEEL of Fortune's Pat Sajak has left fans hitting the rewind button after he gave a costumed companion an odd nickname on Thursday.

The game show has been invaded by Disney characters all week for a special and the host got especially comfortable with Donald Duck.

Wheel of Fortune has had quite a spin to kick off the month of December.

The show revamped the set for its Secret Santa special, where the winning amounts of the contestants were matched for a select few viewers at home.

Not only that, but Pat, 75, and Vanna White, 65, have had company.

Before they've walked onto the stage each night, different pairs of Disney characters - ABC's parent company - have opened the show.

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In tow, permutations of pairs of Disney characters have walked them out.

Thursday night, Mickey Mouse and Goofy took over as emcee and Mickey announced: "Now here are the stars of the show!"

Pat and Vanna, in a gorgeous blue dress, were then ushered out by Minnie and Donald Duck.

"Hey follow that mouse!" Pat said as he walked with Vanna to center stage.

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Standing with his partner in letter picking for 40 years, he bowed to Minnie and Donald Duck.

He said: "Thank you Minnie, thank you Don."

'ARE THEY FRIENDS LIKE THAT?'

Pat added: "Take your friends out of there," to Vanna, wanting to get the show on the road.

"So I'm leaving those characters for these characters" he joked as he went over to the wheel.

Fans had to take to Twitter as they had never heard Donald Duck be referred to as "Don."

One viewer wrote: "Did Pat Sajak just call Donald Duck 'Don?' Are they friends like that?"

Another was puzzled by the theme and wrote: "Is it Secret Santa week or Disney week? I can only handle one theme at a time."

A third spotted that Donald, or Don, was the only character given extra warmth which felt unfair: "Out of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck, they gave Donald the earmuffs?"

The Disney character-filled week has seemed a bit much for Pat too as last night he called the scene: "chaos."

"The chaos has cleared out," he smarmily said to start things off.

WHAT A HAM

Pat then ad-libbed a joke about rewriting a puzzle.

The puzzle's solve was "Happiness, Holidays and hugs."

Pat replied after it was solved: "I actually improved that.

"When they originally submitted the puzzle the last one was 'ham hocks' and I didn't care for that," as the crowd awkwardly laughed.

"Hamhocks, Pat? Why?" one fan tweeted after his joke.

"Hamhocks? Really Pat?" posted another.

Contestant Natalie made it to the bonus puzzle round and she didn't have a merry time with "Quick to Action."

In fact, it was the fourth out of four bonus rounds this week that the bonus puzzle has gone incorrect.

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Bothered fans said the "phrase" category has resulted in "lumps of coal" all week.

That pattern is especially unfortunate since winnings are matched for someone at home and tonight it would have been $57,000 instead of $17,000.

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