Chuck Woolery, smooth-talking game show host of Love Connection and Scrabble, dead at 83

Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of Wheel of Fortune, Love Connection and Scrabble who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, has died. He was 83.

Mark Young, Woolery's podcast co-host and friend, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, present. "Chuck was a dear friend and brother and a tremendous man of faith, life will not be the same without him," Young wrote.

Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978.

In 1983, Woolery began an 11-year run as host of TV's Love Connection, for which he coined the phrase, "We'll be back in two minutes and two seconds," a two-fingered signature dubbed the "2 and 2." In 1984, he hosted TV's Scrabble, simultaneously hosting two game shows on TV until 1990.

Love Connection, which aired long before the dawn of dating apps, had a premise that featured either a single man or single woman who would watch audition tapes of three potential mates and then pick one for a date.

A couple of weeks after the date, the guest would sit with Woolery in front of a studio audience and tell everybody about the date. The audience would vote on the three contestants, and if the audience agreed with the guest's choice, Love Connection would offer to pay for a second date.

Woolery told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003 that his favourite set of lovebirds was a man aged 91 and a woman aged 87. "She had so much eye makeup on, she looked like a stolen Corvette. He was so old he said, 'I remember wagon trains.' The poor guy. She took him on a balloon ride."

Other career highlights included hosting the shows Lingo, Greed and The Chuck Woolery Show, as well as hosting the short-lived syndicated revival of The Dating Game from 1998 to 2000 and an ill-fated 1991 talk show. In 1992, he played himself in two episodes of TV's Melrose Place.

Woolery became the subject of the Game Show Network's first attempt at a reality show, Chuck Woolery: Naturally Stoned, which premiered in 2003. It shared the title of the pop song in 1968 by Woolery and his rock group, the Avant-Garde. It lasted six episode and was panned by critics.

Woolery began his TV career at a show that has become a mainstay. Although most associated with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, Wheel of Fortune debuted Jan. 6, 1975, on NBC with Woolery welcoming contestants and the audience. Woolery, then 33, was trying to make it in Nashville as a singer.

Wheel of Fortune started life as Shopper's Bazaar, incorporating Hangman-style puzzles and a roulette wheel. After Woolery appeared on The Merv Griffin Show singing Delta Dawn, Merv Griffin asked him to host the new show with Susan Stafford.

"I had an interview that stretched to 15, 20 minutes," Woolery told The New York Times in 2003. "After the show, when Merv asked if I wanted to do a game show, I thought, 'Great, a guy with a bad jacket and an equally bad mustache who doesn't care what you have to say — that's the guy I want to be."'

NBC initially passed, but they retooled it as Wheel of Fortune and got the green light. After a few years, Woolery demanded a raise to $500,000 a year, or what host Peter Marshall was making on Hollywood Squares. Griffin balked and replaced Woolery with weather reporter Pat Sajak.

"Both Chuck and Susie did a fine job, and Wheel did well enough on NBC, although it never approached the kind of ratings success that Jeopardy! achieved in its heyday," Griffin said in Merv: Making the Good Life Last, an autobiography from the 2000s co-written by David Bender. Woolery earned an Emmy nod as host.