'Wheel of Fortune': Pat Sajak Suffers Embarrassing Loss at Daytime Emmys

06/25/2022 11:38 am EDT

The 2022 Daytime Emmys went down on Friday night, via live ceremony broadcast on CBS. One of the wildest facts to come out of the awards ceremony — which is now streaming via Paramount+ — was at the expense of game show icon Pat Sajak. As noticed by BuzzerBlog, Sajak suffered an embarrassing loss. Sajak was riding high going into the night, being as he was nominated twice in the same category, Outstanding Game Show Host, due to his work on both Wheel of Fortune and Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. However, he did not win the category.

The winner ended up being Family Feud host Steve Harvey, who defeated Sajak, Let's Make a Deal's Wayne Brady and People Puzzler's Leah Remini. Despite being the frontrunner — being as the voting body loved his work so much they gave him two nominations — the 75-year-old TV legend walked away without a trophy. There is a possibility that the Daytime Emmys voting body was split on which of Sajak's gigs to award him for, therefore costing him the Emmy. Regardless, Harvey was the night's big winner.

Wheel of Fortune's losing streak carried on past Sajak's category. The syndicated program also lost the Outstanding Game Show category to Jeopardy!, joining fellow losers Family Feud, Let's Make a Deal and The Price Is Right. In the crafts categories, it lost its only nomination for Outstanding Lighting Direction. The Kelly Clarkson Show took home that award, defeating Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Red Table Talk, The View and The Young and the Restless.

Sajak is probably not sweating this too much, though. He's been nominated in the Daytime Emmys' Outstanding Game Show Host category 23 times and has only one three times (1993, 1997 and 1998). He's tied with The Price Is Right's Bob Barker for second-all-time in terms of nominations but is still a few behind the category's all-time nomination leader, Jeopardy!'s Alex Trebek (32). As far as wins, he's tied for fourth-all-time alongside Harvey, Pyramid's Dick Clark and Cash Cab's Ben Bailey. (Third-all-time is Hollywood Squares' Peter Marshall, the second is Trebek, and the first is Barker.) With his two nominations in 2022, Sajak has been consecutively nominated each year since 2017.

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