Chuck Woolery Says Not All was Well with Wheel of Fortune

It's not that Chuck Woolery needed the job. Despite being replaced from hosting "Wheel of Fortune," arguably the most successful game show ever, Chuck Woolery is still considered by many to be the king of game shows. He revealed just recently, near the end of November, that he left because of a severe rift with Merv Griffin which made it impossible for the two to coexist peacefully in the same work environment. This story was broken during a weekly celebrity podcast called "The Strip."

Woolery says that he was replaced in 1981 because he felt Merv Griffin created a hostile work environment and refused to give Woolery the raise that he demanded. According to Woolery's side of the story, in 1981 he demanded a raise from $65,000 a year to about $500,000 a year because the NBC hit game show was drawing about a 44 share, and other hosts of game shows were making the higher amount. Griffin counter offered with around $400,000, and NBC (not wanting to lose a popular host) stepped in and offered to pay the other $100,000.

Apparently that made Merv Griffin furious, and he threatened to take the show to CBS, so NBC withdrew the offer. That led to hostile feelings between both Woolery and Griffin. Griffin fired Woolery and replaced him with Pat Sajak as host.

Why did this story stay under wraps for so long? According to Woolery, who went on to host "Scrabble," "The Dating Game," and "Greed," said it was out of respect because he didn't want a mess while Merv Griffin was alive, and he knew that could hurt both of them. After that mess, the two men never spoke again before Merv Griffin died, in August of 2007. Woolery still continues to host, and is host of the top rated game show on the Game Show Network: "Lingo."

"The Strip," the podcast where this information came out, is a weekly Vegas centered celebrity interview podcast. Every interview is kept and cached on their site, and the guests have varied on everyone from Chuck Woolery to Billy Bob Thornton, Pete Rose, Dennis Miller, and David Copperfield.