Before Hosting ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ Vanna White Was A Contestant on ‘The Price Is Right’

Before Vanna White scored her iconic gig turning letters on Wheel of Fortune, the TV star appeared on another well-known game show: The Price Is Right.

Yesterday (September 30), The Price Is Right aired a two-hour primetime special celebrating its 50th anniversary. A young White appeared in a throwback montage as a contestant in 1980, two years before she was hired on Wheel of Fortune.

In the present day, White appeared on the special as a celebrity guest. “I didn’t win a doggone thing,” White joked of her time on the CBS show, adding that she never even got onstage.

However, as she explained to Price Is Right host Drew Carey, she eventually overcame her game show fears with the help of her Wheel of Fortune co-host, Pat Sajak.

“I remember Pat telling me after I got the job, he said, ‘I didn’t really think you would get the job because you were so nervous,'” White said. “But I did. I got it, and 39 years later, we’re a great team. We work together, we’ve never had one argument.”

Sajak and White recently signed on to host the game show until at least the 2023-2024 season. Don’t expect to see them on the game show forever: In a recent Entertainment Tonight interview, Sajak admitted: “We’re certainly closer to the end than the beginning… I wouldn’t bet on seeing us in, like, 10 years.”

The Price Is Right airs weekdays on CBS at 11/10c. Wheel of Fortune airs weekdays at 7:30/6:30c on ABC.

Where to watch The Price Is Right