What a pat on the back.
Pat Sajak sort-of complimented his daughter, Maggie, on her recent holiday trivia hosting stint while wrapping up Tuesday’s episode of “Wheel of Fortune.”
“You were actually a good host!” Sajak, 76, told Maggie, 27, who joined the game show as a social correspondent in the fall of 2021.
The perplexing “praise” follows a series of eyebrow-raising on-air goofs by Sajak, who appeared shocked by a contestant’s leak joke and a competitor’s unusual goat hobby.
And it has fans wondering if Maggie is poised to take the reins from her father or letter-turner Vanna White.
Both have signed on to host the long-running show through the 2023 to 2024 season. A show representative did not immediately return a Post request for comment Thursday.
“The whole Maggie Sajak thing annoys me to no end. I cringe whenever they show her and her made-up ‘social correspondent’ job,” one commenter groused earlier this month in a Reddit thread titled, “They are so grooming Maggie Sajak to take over for Vanna. Nepotism at its best!”
“Yup! Thought they could just slip her in. It would be great if someone else had the chance to prove themselves,” another argued.
“I hope they just let that position go forever. It’s so pointless in 2022. She’ll take over for Pat, and that’s just the way the world goes. Rich people set up their young to have it made. You’ll see it to your dying days,” a third grumbled.
The discussion comes amid a reckoning in Hollywood about nepotism babies, or nepo babies. A thorough New York Magazine cover story this month detailed how numerous celebrities — including Dakota Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp and Zoë Kravitz — have it made at least partly because their parents are famous.
Some stars have defended themselves or shrugged off the criticism.
Born in Chicago to a pair of factory workers, the elder Sajak joined “Wheel of Fortune” as host in 1981. He added consulting producer to his résumé last year.
Sony Pictures Television has not revealed an eventual succession plan, though it would behoove it to have one.
The studio received significant backlash for its handling of hosting responsibilities following the 2020 death of Alex Trebek.
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