Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek once swapped shows and pulled off the greatest TV prank no one saw coming

TV fans were surprised when an old video of the legendary TV hosts Alex Trebek and Pat Sejak resurfaced online. The videos showed the duo taking over each other's show on April 1 just to confuse the audience. Trebek was the long-running host of the quiz show "Jeopardy", which he hosted until his death at the age of 80 back in 2020. Sajak, on the other hand, hosted "Wheel of Fortune" since 1981. His last episode aired on June 7 this year.  

Back in 1997, during a special episode of "Wheel of Fortune" 1997, Trebek took the stage to host the show with no sign of the regular host Sajak anywhere. "Welcome to our special, Tuesday, April 1 edition of Wheel of Fortune. I'll leave you to figure out why I am here today," he said in the video posted to X. 

Trebek soon welcomed Sajak's wife Lesly to the stage and asked her if she had ever played an April Fool's prank on somebody. "As a matter of fact, I did today, I called Vanna (White) at home and I told her not to come into work today because the taping's been canceled," she joked at the time. 

The same day, Trebek revealed that he had previously hosted "Wheel of Fortune", and said, "I was the guest host for an entire week and I had done such a good job that producers couldn't wait to ask me back. And so here I am today 16 years later."

He then went on to introduce the contestants who turned out to be real co-hosts, White and Sajak. They soon played a full game to raise money for charities and managed to win $25,000 each. "I've got to start by saying I admire your courage because I'm often asked if would I ever be a contestant on my show and I say 'never, not even in a super senior's tournament,'" he said at the time.

Later, Sajak returned the favor and hosted Jeopardy! but Trebel didn't appear as a contestant on the show. Fans of the show went wild when they watched the video after many years. "That's incredible," read one tweet, while another added, "This was fire." Many also took to the post to pay tribute to the late host and expressed how much people miss him on TV.

Sajak and Trebek were pretty close to each other until Trebek's death in 2020. Sajak at the time took to X and wrote, "Alex Trebek's courage, grace, and strength inspired millions and awed those of us who knew him. A tremendous loss for his family, friends, co-workers, and countless viewers. I was honored to be a friend and a part of his professional family for all these years. A very sad day."

In another Reddit thread where u/Betsy-DevOps posted the same video people talked about how these shows bring back memories from their childhood. "I remember this! I hated both those shows as a child. Now, I remember them fondly," writes@Michalusmichalus. Another user u/insertcaffeine recalls the day, "I remember that! My mean aunt was furious, which just made the whole thing so much funnier."