With Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak set to step down after its final episode on Friday, his first post-Wheel gig has been revealed.
Sajak, 77, announced in June 2023 that he would be leaving the show after more than four decades, with Ryan Seacrest taking his place.
Now it has been revealed that Sajak will travel to Hawaii to reunite with his old friend Joe Moore, a host at KHON-TV in Hawaii, to star in an adaptation of the play Prescription: Murder, via Variety.
The play will run at the Hawaii Theater in Honolulu from July 31, 2025 to August 10, 2025, and KHON-TV will air a commercial on Friday announcing the news during the final episode of Sajak’s Wheel of Fortune.
Prescription: Murder was a 1962 play written by William Link and Richard Levinson, who, six years later, in 1968, adapted it and made it the first pilot for what would become the television series known as Columbo, which debuted on NBC in 1971.
With Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak set to step down after its final episode on Friday, his first post-Wheel gig has been revealed.
Now it has been revealed that Sajak will travel to Hawaii to reunite with his old friend Joe Moore, a host at KHON-TV in Hawaii, to star in an adaptation of the play Prescription: Murder, via Variety.
In this regional theater version, Sajak plays Roy Flemming, played by Gene Barry in the original pilot, described as “a brilliant psychiatrist, who hatches a plot with a perfect alibi to murder his neurotic and possessive wife.”
Moore will play Lieutenant Columbo, the seemingly bumbling detective who engages the psychiatrist in a cat-and-mouse battle of wits until the play’s surprising climax.
The play’s cast also includes Moore’s son Bryce (also a KHON reporter), Therese Olival, Amy K. Sullivan and Aiko Chinen.
This will be the ninth play Sajak will star in alongside Moore, whose friendship dates back to 1968, when they served in the US Forces Vietnam Network in Saigon.
Their first work together was one Moore wrote, an original called Prophecy and Honor that debuted in 1993.
They also starred together in The Odd Couple (2001), The Honeymooners (2004), The Boys in Autumn (2010), Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (2014), Dial M for Murder (2018) and The Sunshine Boys (2023).
Most of their work together was at the Hawaii Theatre, although they also performed as The Odd Couple at the Connecticut Repertory Theater in Storrs, CT in 2012.
The production of Prescription: Murder will serve as a fundraiser for the nonprofit Hawaii Theatre.
In this regional theater version, Sajak plays Roy Flemming, played by Gene Barry in the original pilot, described as “a brilliant psychiatrist, who hatches a plot with a perfect alibi to murder his neurotic and possessive wife.”
Moore will play Lt. Columbo, “the seemingly bumbling detective who engages the psychiatrist in a cat-and-mouse battle of wits until the play’s surprising climax.”
This will be the ninth work that Sajak will star in alongside Moore, whose friendship dates back to 1968, when they served in the American Forces Vietnam Network in Saigon.
They also starred together in The Odd Couple (2001), The Honeymooners (2004), The Boys in Autumn (2010), Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (2014), Dial M for Murder (2018) and The Sunshine Boys (2023).
Tickets can be purchased at Hawaii Theater box office website for the play’s presentation next summer.
Earlier this week, Sajak sat down for a Good Morning America interview with her daughter Maggie and explained why now is the “right time” to leave.
Maggie, 29, who serves as the show’s social media correspondent, asked: “What made you decide that this is the right time to leave the show?”
“I’ve always said, you’ve heard me say this dozens of times: I’d rather be gone a couple years early than too late,” Pat responded.
‘Could I still do it? Yes. I think I could for a while. (But) there are also other things in life that we would like to do.’
He continued: ‘I’m enjoying this last year. It’s been a fantastic 40 years. I’m looking forward to whatever comes.”
