Usually, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak is charming and supportive of the contestants, as any game show host should be, but lately, that persona has slipped a bit and viewers have seen another side of the longtime host. Last year, many Wheel watchers felt Pat should resign for allegedly making fun of a contestant's lisp. A few months before that, he had an icy exchange with a player over a bad pun, and that came just a few weeks after he called a contestant "Ungrateful."
Now, Sajak is back in hot water after Wednesday's episode. On it, the host introduced Scott Ingwersen, an improv teacher from Upland, California. Pat asked Scott about his job but just a few words into Scott's answer, Sajak cut him off, saying, "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening. What did you say?" It led to some awkward laughter from the audience.
As the conversation went on, Pat looked at his notecard and, with a look of frustration, remarked, "Why am I mentioning this?" He went on to say, "But it's on your card. You had your big toe chopped off. Why are you telling this?" Scott responded, saying, "It's important to know," explaining that as a 12-year-old, he was riding a bike while wearing flip-flops. He fell off of it and cut off the top of his toe. The next car that drove by stopped and two paramedics happened to be inside. They helped him and he was able to get his toe reattached. He wanted to use his moment in the spotlight to thank them, 30 years later.
A confused Pat stopped the audience from applauding and stated, "That may have been the most pointless story ever told. And you told it, Scott. Congratulations to you." Scott took it well, but as Sajak started chatting with the next contestant and all the players are shown on camera, there seems to be some sadness and embarrassment on Scott's face.
Most of the footage of the incident has been pulled from YouTube, but you can see some of what happened in this tweet:
The interaction comes just days after Pat asked Wheel viewers to "have a little heart" and be more respectful to the contestants, following an incident where all three players were unable to come up with the solution to what the audience felt was a very easy puzzle.
Twitter had a lot to say about Pat's behavior with Scott.
While Scott didn't win the game, he didn't go home empty-handed, leaving the show with $5,700 in cash and prizes.