Game Show Host Chuck Woolery Has Died

The first host of “Wheel of Fortune” and later, “Love Connection,” has died. Chuck Woolery died at age 83 at his home in Texas.

His friend and podcast host, Mark Young, said in an email that “Chuck was a dear friend and brother and tremendous man of faith, life will not be the same without him.”

Woolery was the host of “Wheel of Fortune” when it debuted in 1975 on NBC. He hosted the show for a few years, then demanded a raise to $500,000 a year, matching what Peter Marshall was making on “Hollywood Squares.” Show bosses declined and replaced Woolery with Pat Sajak.

In 1983, he started hosting “Love Connection,” and kept that job for the next 11 years. It was a dating show, featuring a single man or woman who would watch audition tapes of three potential matches and pick one for a date. A couple of weeks later, the guest would sit with Woolery and tell everyone about the date. The audience would vote on the three contestants, and if the audience agreed with the guest’s choice, the show would pay for a second date.

Woolery became famous for his signature “2 and 2” while on the show. He’d look at the camera and say, “We’ll be back in two minutes and two seconds,” later shorting to “two and two” while flashing two fingers to the camera.

In 1984, he also started hosting the game show, “Scrabble,” and could be seen on both shows until 1990.

After his TV career ended, Woolery went into podcasting, teaming up with Mark Young in 2014 for the conservative right-wing podcast “Blunt Force Truth.” He received some criticism for arguing minorities don’t need civil rights and tweeting an antisemitic comment linking Soviet Communists to Judaism. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he accused medical professionals and Democrats of lying about the virus.

Woolery is survived by his wife Kristen, his sons Michael and Sean, and his daughter Melissa.