Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak has been called out by viewers for being too snarky towards one of the show’s participants.
Sajak, 75, acknowledged that contestant Scott Ingwersen previously had his toe cut toe off and asked him to speak about it during a recent episode of the game show.
“Why are you mentioning this?” Sajack asked. “It’s on your card. You had your big toe cut off. Why are you telling me this?”
Ingwersen then explained how the event happened and why he mentioned it on his card.
“It’s important to know that when I was 12 years old, I was riding a 10-speed bike with flip-flops, and I fell and completely cut off the top of my toe,” he said. “The next car that came by were two paramedics that were on their way to their job, and they said, ‘It’s just a laceration.’ But I didn’t know what that was, so it freaked me out even more.”
“And my toe is reattached, and I just wanna say ‘thank you’ to them, 30 years later,” he added.
While the audience said “aw” in response, Sajak didn’t exactly agree.
“That may have been the most pointless story ever told,” the host responded. “And you told it, Scott. Congratulations to you.”
On social media, fans have criticised Sajak’s behaviour, saying that he could have been a little nicer to Ingwersen.
“Poor Scott just wanted to tell his story. Pat [is] just throwing shade,” one Twitter user wrote.
“Pat Sajak is such an a**hole,” another said. “Who says to someone, ‘that’s the most pointless story ever,’ when someone is opening up on National TV???”
Many other viewers applauded Ingwersen’s story and told Sajak that he should apologise.
“Sometimes Pat says really mean things to contestants, but this was the worst,” a tweet reads. “A man thanking paramedics for giving him his big toe back, an important toe for balance, is not a pointless story. It’s touching that he still feels gratitude for them and took the time.”
“So @patsajak got on his @WheelofFortune high horse a week ago and lectured everyone to be nice to contestants who couldn’t solve an easy puzzle, but tonight he had no problem belittling and insulting a contestant who told their intro story,” a Twitter user said. “Scott needs an apology.”
Earlier this month, Sajak defended his Wheel of Fortune contestants, after a clip of a player making incorrect guesses to a puzzle went viral on social media. The contestant failed to solve the puzzle six times, which viewers found to be “amusing,” as one person claimed it was “the funniest thing [they’d] seen in a long time.”
“It always pains me when nice people come on our show to play a game and win some money and maybe fulfill a lifelong dream, and are then subject to online ridicule when they make a mistake or something goes awry,” Sajak tweeted at the time.
“I have fun with players and I tease them occasionally, but when things go wrong, I feel for them, and I try to salve the wounds on camera and off,” he added. “So, yeah, it was an oddly entertaining puzzle and it’s okay to laugh at the situation. But have a little heart.”
