Retiring Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak. Photo: Christopher Willard/ABC via Getty Images
Pat Sajak is signing off tonight from Wheel of Fortune.
Why it matters: Game shows are still big profit-drivers for broadcasters despite the streaming upheaval — the media equivalent of the horseshoe crab in terms of evolutionary survival.
By the numbers: Wheel generates over $100 million a year for parent Sony Television, KCRW reported last year, citing Puck News' Matt Belloni.
The show draws around 8 million viewers a night, rivaling nearly anything on TV apart from the NFL, per a NYT report last year.
Between the lines: The NYT credited Sajak and co-host Vanna White with pulling the show off "ratings life support" in the 1970s.
