Vanna White has been on Wheel of Fortune since 1982, and she has earned a lot of money for her work there. The former pageant queen is a staple of daytime TV, and is one of the most recognizable faces in the business along with her co-host, Pat Sajak. According to a report by ABC News, she is paid $4 million per year.
White and Sajak bring in a consistent stream of good ratings for ABC, and the network does not want to let it go. Back in 2017, ABC News reported that White had an annual salary of $4 million, although other sources claim it is even higher. CelebrityNetWorth.com claims that White makes an even $10 million per year on TV, though it does not cite a source for this number.
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That number could include White’s other ventures; when she is not on TV, she is a shrewd investor, putting her money into real estate and business. She has her own brand of yarns called Vanna’s Choice, which she swears by for her own love of crochet and knitting.
“I’ve used my income to invest in some apartment buildings, and I like flipping houses,” White told Market Watch in 2018. She also sold her own home in Beverly Hills for $47.5 million back in 2017.
To be fair, White has plenty of time to focus on these other streams of income. According to Good Housekeeping, she and Sajak film Wheel of Fortune just four days per month. In that time, they record six shows, then bank them for release throughout the weeks.
Sajak is reportedly paid a bit more than White for these shoots, in spite of the fact that he has only been on the show for one year longer than her. CelebrityNetWorth.com lists his salary at $15 million, which aligns with a 2016 report from Forbes listing the same figure.
While she is doing well for herself, White does not hoard all her earnings from TV and real estate. She told Market Watch that she has donated $1.8 million in total to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and she wants to do more. When she eventually retires from TV, she said she hopes to make charity her full time job.
“After I retire, I will probably do something philanthropic,” she said. “If I could do it [work] forever, I would, because I do love my job.”
Curiosity about White’s salary rose up this week after she hosted an episode of Wheel of Fortune by herself for the first time in history. White took over Sajak’s duties on Monday night while Sajak was out on a medical hiatus. It was the first of many, as she will reportedly host the show until Dec. 20, then again from Jan. 6 to Jan. 10. Sajak will return on Monday, Jan. 13.
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