‘Wheel of Fortune’ Fans Support ‘Nervous’ Vanna White Amid First Solo Hosting Gig

Vanna White had no reason to be nervous for her first solo hosting gig of Wheel of Fortune, if you ask her fans and Twitter followers. The 62-year-old spoke out on Twitter about being “excited” and “nervous” to host the game show on her own for the first time ever amid longtime host Pat Sajak‘s medical leave.

“Tonight’s my first night of hosting Wheel! I’m excited and nervous! Stay tuned!” White wrote on Twitter, to which oodles of her fans responded with support.

“I’ve been waiting for this for years!” one person wrote back.

“Well done! South Carolina is so proud of our homegirl!” another said.

“I have no doubt you will do a great job! Can’t wait to tune in!” another said.

“Good job Vanna! Way to step up,” someone else wrote.

“You’re doing great Vanna. Good job,” one said.

“You were a great hostess, Vanna. Congratulations!” someone said.

Monday marked the first of several solo hosting episodes for White after Sajak was forced to take a break from filming following emergency surgery in early November for a blocked intestine.

White told Good Morning America last week about the moment she was asked to take over as host during her friend’s absence.

“I was like, ‘What? No. You’re kidding, right?’ He goes, ‘No, I’m serious,’” she remembered. “And my first thought was, ‘There’s no way.’ I don’t pay attention to Pat.

“I’m busy with my letters and my puzzle board,” she added with a laugh. “I mean, I’m hearin’ him, but I don’t really pay that much attention.”

“I was so nervous,” she said. “I’m shaking now, because I remember the feeling of, ‘How am I gonna do this?’”

She said she was “scared to death” to hear about Sajak’s emergency surgery, which was reported on in November.

“It was horrible, just horrible,” she recalled of getting the news of Sajak’s medical emergency. “We’ve been together 37 years, and it’s not the same — we are a team. We’re together. It just felt weird with him not being here on the set.”

“You think the worst, because you never know when you’re going in for surgery. You never know what’s going to happen,” she added.

She said she started to feel better once Sajak’s wife called to say he was making jokes after the surgery.

Once she made the decision to step up to the plate, “I was petrified, terrified. But I did it.” GMA reports White’s pre-taped solo hosting episodes will air for three weeks while Sajak fully recovered from his procedure. Sajak is currently back at work, having returned to the studio last week.