Pat Sajak Is In Hot Water Once Again Over His On-Air Behavior

Pat Sajak is feeling the heat over his recent on-air behavior. The 75-year-old has been hosting "Wheel of Fortune" for over four decades, becoming the longest-running game show host in the history of television, per NBC New York. Sajak is widely known to be kind and funny toward contestants on the show. He, along with hostess Vanna White, make up one of the best partnerships on television. However, as the years of hosting the show have gone by, Sajak has seemingly gotten annoyed with some of the contestants on-air.

In 2014, social media users laughed at Sajak after he jokingly walked off "Wheel of Fortune" during "Best Friends Week," where the contestants struggled with solving the puzzle, repeatedly using phrases with "horse" in them. Per CNN, Sajak became flustered after the contestants and responded, "That's amazing, and it's wrong." Sajak's bluntness on air has only increased since then — and he stoked controversy again on the latest episode of "Wheel of Fortune."

During the March 9 episode of "Wheel of Fortune," Pat Sajak snarked at a contestant's backstory and caused backlash on social media, per the New York Post. The host was speaking with contestant Scott Ingwersen during the player introductions when Sajak took offense to the story he was about to tell, which concerned his big toe getting cut off when he was 12 years old.

"Why are you telling this?" Sajak asked the contestant. Ingwersen responded that it was "important" to tell his story so he could "thank" those who saved his life. "I was riding a 10-speed bike with flip-flops, and I fell and completely cut off the top of my toe," he explained. "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' ... My toe is reattached, and I just wanna say 'thank you' to them 30 years later."

Sajak, however, was not moved and called it "the most pointless story ever told," which angered viewers who immediately criticized him on Twitter. "Pat was so rude to the second contestant," one user wrote, while another questioned, "When did #PatSajak get so cold-blooded?" Others also criticized Sajak for being a hypocrite after he lectured viewers not to "ridicule" contestants online if they don't get the puzzles correct on the show earlier in March. Maybe Sajak should take some of his own advice.