Chuck Woolery, Polarizing Game Show Host turned Conservative Pundit, Dies at 83

Chuck Woolery, the original host of Wheel of Fortune and Love Connection whose infectious laugh and self-deprecating style endeared him to millions of viewers over the span of five decades, passed away at the age of 83 at home in Texas after a very brief illness.

Born on March 16, 1941, in Ashland, Kentucky, Woolery began his career as a musician in the 1960s, achieving some success as part of the musical duo The Avant-Garde. He later transitioned to television, making appearances kn shows such as the children’s program New Zoo Revue. 

In 1973, Jeopardy creator Merv Griffin, known for making unconventional choices in casting his hosts, selected Woolery to host Shopper’s Bazaar, an invention of Griffin’s that combined a frenetic game of hangman with luxury shopping. After some format tweaking and a change in title, the pilot would make it to series two years later; Woolery served as the original host of NBC’s Wheel of Fortune from 1975 to 1981 (alongside letter-turner Susan Stafford) before passing the reins to Pat Sajak after an acrimonious contract dispute with Griffin. Woolery and Griffin never spoke again. 

He later hosted Love Connection, a relationship show that combined computer dating with coy he said-she said storytelling and became a cultural phenomenon in the 1980s. It was on the syndicated Love Connection that Woolery originated a catch phrase and accompanying hand gesture that would become his trademark. While throwing to a commercial break—a period of two minutes, bracketed by two seconds of black—he held up two fingers and slickly flipped them sideways while telling viewed he’d see them in “two minutes, and two seconds”, later shortened to “two and two”. This gesture would become synonymous with Woolery; during the dot-com boom of the early 2000s, Woolery served as spokesperson for 2and2.com, one of the internet’s first dating services. 

Throughout his career, Woolery became synonymous with game show entertainment, also hosting programs like Scrabble, The California Lottery’s Big Spin, and a late-90s revival of The Dating Game. The FOX series Greed, an answer to the big-money craze launched by the success of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on ABC, brought Woolery to national prime time airwaves for the first time in his career.

In 2002, Woolery hosted a revival of a word game with Dutch roots which briefly aired in first-run syndication in 1987. Twenty episodes of Lingo were filmed on the original Dutch set with Woolery—and American contestants—to form the first season of the new GSN series. The game show, which intriguingly combined Word Mastermind with bingo, would go on to become GSN’s most popular original series, airing new episodes until 2007 with Woolery at the helm.

The success of Lingo, as well as reruns of Greed, made Woolery, for a time, the de facto “face” of GSN. He starred in many commercials for the network, as well as in a reality series titled “Naturally Stoned”, a reference to his most popular song from his time with the Avant-Garde. 

Woolery first gained attention for his conservative political views in 2012 when he launched Save Us Chuck Woolery, a syndicated radio program based on his earlier YouTube commentaries. This evolved into the long-format podcast Blunt Force Truth, where he discussed conservative ideals and current events alongside co-host Mark Young. He has been a vocal supporter of the Second Amendment, serving as a spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, making him one of the few game show hosts to have a pronounced political presence.

Woolery became more active in the public political discourse during the 2010s, frequently sharing his views on social media and aligning himself with Republican causes. Notably, he stirred controversy with tweets criticizing Democrats, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the mainstream media, including a notable post deriding the worldwide concern over the COVID-19 pandemic. Woolery’s Twitter account went silent, however, after his son Sean contracted the disease.

He is survived by his wife, Kim Barnes, and his children, Melissa, Michael, Katherine and Sean. No funeral arrangements have been announced at the time of publication.