“They didn’t give me any time to rehearse anything,” she says. White began taping her shows the following day. He would probably do the same for me and I felt it was important for our fans to continue on with the show.” I’m going to be a part of this and keep it going and will take Pat’s place until he comes back. “When I realized Harry was serious I thought, ‘You know what? The show must go on. “My first thought was, ‘You’re kidding, right?'” she says. We wanted him to get through his surgery and know he was OK. “We didn’t actually shoot that day Harry cancelled the tapings because we were all so concerned about Pat. the executive producer said, ‘How do you feel about hosting the show?'” White says. “We were supposed to be filming at noon and at 10 a.m. 13, 1982, says she wasn’t given much warning that she would slide into Sajak’s role when he suddenly took ill in early November. White, who’s been turning letters on “Wheel of Fortune” since Dec. “I didn’t want them to feel that anything had changed or for them to have any disadvantage because I was hosting, and not Pat. “I was more nervous about not messing up with the contestants,” says White, whose first gig as “Wheel of Fortune” host airs Monday (7:30 p.m. Iconic “Wheel of Fortune” letter-turner Vanna White says it was “surreal” hosting the show for the first time ever after Pat Sajak underwent emergency surgery last month for an intestinal blockage.
