Wheel of Fortune Temporarily Replaces Vanna White Amid Tense Contract Negotiations

For the first time in more than three decades, Vanna White will be temporarily M.I.A. at Wheel of Fortune.

The iconic letter turner reportedly contracted COVID in late July while Wheel was filming its annual “Teachers Week” block, slated to air in October. In her absence, Puck News reports that producers tapped California-based “Teacher of the Year” recipient Bridgette Donald-Blue (pictured here) to stand at the letter board for the week’s worth of episodes. (Season 41 premieres Monday, Sept. 11.)

This may seem like a natural fix on the surface, but the switch comes during tense contract negotiations for White, who is seeking her first salary bump in 18 years. Puck News’ Matthew Belloni suggests that this could either be seen as a “smart producing move, or a veiled message sent to White’s aggressive lawyers: Go ahead, push us harder.” [UPDATE: New details about the switcheroo emerge.]

TVLine has reached out to a Sony rep for comment.

White has only been absent from the show on three previous occasions: predecessor Susan Stafford returned while White grieved boyfriend John Gibson following his 1986 plane crash; Tricia Gist filled in during White’s two-week honeymoon with George San Pietro in 1991; and Gist came back for another week that same year when White came down with a cold.

Pat Sajak’s daughter Maggie has twice filled in for White at the letter board — first in 2019 while her father recovered from surgery, and again in 2023 for ABC’s primetime Celebrity edition of Wheel — but White was still a major part of the broadcast in both of those instances, hosting in 2019 and competing in 2023.

As previously reported, Sajak is stepping down from his longtime position as Wheel host at the end of Season 41. Episodes featuring Ryan Seacrest as the new host will begin airing in September 2024.