Watching Wheel of Fortune, everyone on screen looks rather small. But this isn't because the game show casts only exceptionally short people. From the three contestants to the hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White (and now Ryan Seacrest), everyone's proportions are thrown off by the gigantic set pieces around them.
The iconic wheel itself, for instance, is a massive 16.5 feet (5 m) in diameter. Meanwhile, the puzzle board appears to rise at least 9 feet (2.7 m) off the ground when you include the steps below it. Vanna White is 5'6" (168 cm) and even in the 5-inch heels she wears to host Wheel of Fortune, she still almost fully extends her arm to reach the letter boxes on the top row.
Those 5-inch heels also explain why Vanna White and her longtime co-host always appeared to be the same height—Pat Sajak is around 5'10" (178 cm) tall.
Why Pat Sajak Appeared So Short on Wheel of Fortune
While Vanna White's relatively tall frame certainly didn't add to Pat Sajak's height, it's not the only reason many Wheel of Fortune fans assumed he was on the shorter side.
As Sajak once explained to WLKY, a little Hollywood magic also contributed to his diminutive on-screen appearance.
"(The wheel) is heavier than you think," Sajak said. "When the show first started, we would put shorter players on boxes, but problem is I would walk next to a great-grandmother on the show and I would walk next to her and people thought I was a jockey so now we are on risers and when they go up, I go up and we stay about the same size. But it got engrained in people that I was about 4 feet 3."
Wheel of Fortune isn't the only game show to carefully manage the heights of its contestants and hosts, specifically with how those heights translate to the overall appearance of the set. Jeopardy! also ensures that everyone onscreen is close to uniform height for more aesthetically pleasing camera shots.
And like Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune recently underwent a hosting change. After more than 40 years as host of the popular game show, Pat Sajak stepped down, passing the baton to Ryan Seacrest.
Well, according to Seacrest himself, he's 5'8" (and a half). He busted out the tape measure and everything after fans roasted him for being "an inch or two" shorter than every contestant on the show.
Despite being two inches shorter than Pat Sajak, however, he stands at equal height to Vanna White and sometimes appears even taller. So, either Vanna started wearing shorter heels to suit her new co-host, or Ryan has risers in his Wheel of Fortune shoes. No judgment either way.
