Chuck Woolery, host of ‘Love Connection’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune’, dies aged 83

On By Littum

Chuck Woolery, the enigmatic game show host best known as the original presenter of Wheel of Fortune and Love connectionhas died aged 83.

Mark Young, Woolery’s friend and co-host of their podcast, said on X/Twitter that Woolery had died at his home in Texas and that life “wouldn’t be the same without him”.

“It is with a broken heart that I tell you that my dear brother @chuckwoolery has just passed away. Life will not be the same without him, RIP brother,” he wrote. No statement has been shared from Woolery’s family on the time of publication.

Woolery was the first host of the long-running game show Wheel of Fortune when it premiered on NBC in January 1975. He earned a Daytime Emmy Award for his role on the show.

He fronted the program for six years, but left the program after asking for a pay rise to match the earnings of other top game show hosts. NBC reportedly did not oblige, and Woolery was replaced with Pat Sajak.

Woolery went on to host as a matchmaker on Fox’s Love connectiona dating game show where singles try to match with a compatible partner, airing more than 2,000 episodes between 1983 and 1994. According to a 1986 article in Peoplee, the show drew 4.5 million viewers a day and grossed $25 million a year.

Woolery went on to host her own short-lived CBS daytime morning show and co-host Family Channels home and family, and fronted other game shows, including Lingo on the gaming network, Greed on Fox and a rebooted syndication show, The dating game.

Chuck Woolery hosted 'Lingo', 2003

Chuck Woolery hosted ‘Lingo’, 2003 (Getty Images)

Charles Herbert Woolery was born in 1941 in Ashland, Kentucky, to Dan and Katherine Woolery. He attended the University of Kentucky for a short time before dropping out to serve in the US Navy. After two years, he left to study economics at Morehead State University.

In her twenties, Woolery began pursuing a career in the music industry with the pop duo The Avant Garde, scoring a Top 40 hit, the 1968 song “Naturally Stoned.”

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They released three singles with Columbia Records, also including “Yellow Beads” and “Fly with Me!” but they disbanded and never released a full album after the latter single was made.

Woolen clothes pictured in 2015

Woolen clothes pictured in 2015 (Getty Images)

Following his successful game show hosting career, Woolery later became a vocal conservative commentator, referring to himself as a “Hollywood conservative”.

In 2012, he launched a radio show called Save us Chuck Woolery, which was later turned into a podcast Blunt Force Truth, which he hosted with Young. A vocal supporter of Donald Trump, Woolery called the committee investigating the 2021 attack on the Capitol a “witch hunt.”