Spelling the end of an era: How Pat Sajak made an imprint in Canada

As game show host Pat Sajak takes his last spin on the Wheel of Fortune, an Ontario entrepreneur, rapper and self-described religious viewer, Bishop Brigante, will tune in and try to solve the Hangman-style puzzles. The draw, for him and millions of viewers spanning generations, is family-friendly fare delivered with a sense of humour. But Brigante also has a connection to the Wheel. Last year, his fashion brand, TheEnds, was showcased as a prize on the spinning board for six episodes of the popular show.

It was an idea he had with his family as well as devoted fans.

“We were sitting here one day thinking, you know, we always see these prizes on the wheel,” he says. “How amazing would it be if we could get our clothing line on the wheel? I don’t believe there’s ever been another Canadian brand that’s ever been on.”

He tapped in to his entrepreneurial skills, figured out how to contact the show to make it happen, and then watched in awe.

“When somebody won the prize, Pat Sajak was like, ‘Pick up that prize from the clothing line TheEnds,'” he says.

“So to me that that that is the memory that I’ll hold on to forever, because an icon like Pat Sajak, on national television, was able to talk about my clothing line and offer it to a guest as a prize. That’s priceless. It’s priceless.”

Brigante says he has always been drawn to word games, and grew up guessing along as Sajak urged contestants to buy a vowel or pick a consonant. He has carried on the tradition with his own family, including his eleven-year-old daughter.

“Every night we tap right in and we’re challenging each other,” he says. “We’re trying to beat the contestants on air and we just love Pat Sajak’s energy.”

For many viewers, Sajak’s on-air “guy next door” charm has been key in making the show a refuge from their troubles of the day.

Brigante points to the host’s sense of humour and his natural ability to turn even awkward moments into humorous ones, although he stresses Sajak’s real gift is that he never pushes too far in mocking contestants who fumble.

It was a miss that put TheEnds fully on the map during its run on Wheel of Fortune, though Brigante says he never wanted the attention at the expense of a teenaged contestant under the bright lights and pressure.

During “Teen Week”, a contestant was one letter away from completing a puzzle, only missing one letter, the “s” in “FRESH TROPICAL FRUIT”. She first guessed “g” instead of “s”, and the clip, where TheEnds made an appearance, went viral.

“People are forgetting that it was a young girl. And you know what? It’s tough. You’re on national television. You fumble. It happens,” says Brigante who tried unsuccessfully to reach out to the family to offer a prize. “We showed her love on our socials, and, we wanted to make sure that, you know, that we actually stood up for her.”

The show’s popularity spans generations. Sajak has famously said that it came to be more than a game, that children learned their letters, people around the world honed their language skills and families united around watching that wheel bring fortune, at least, to some. And Brigante says he would like to be a contestant one day.

“I would smoke the whole show,” he says. “I’m a wizard, I love the show, I love it, I love, I love the puzzles, I love figuring it out. I am up for the challenge any time,” though he concedes, with a smile, that some members of his family are competitive, and don’t necessarily agree he is number one.

Brigante also says the show’s next host, radio and television personality Ryan Seacrest, has big shoes to fill, and that Sajak has made an imprint in countless households around the world.

“It’s a great show and I will I will say this on the record that Pat Sajak, he is going to be missed drastically, because he’s just incredible at what he does.”