Jim Thornton, the Wheel of Fortune announcer, has been suspended from the show while Sony Pictures Television recasts the role. The company says it is conducting a thorough investigation, putting a long-running on-air job in limbo without saying what allegations prompted the action.
Sony Pictures Television said, “We have recently been made aware of allegations concerning Jim Thornton.” It added, “He has been suspended from ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and we are recasting while we conduct a thorough investigation.”
Jim Thornton Since 2010
Thornton has been with Wheel of Fortune since 2010 and with Celebrity Wheel of Fortune since 2021. He joined Wheel of Fortune after the death of Charlie O'Donnell, the previous announcer, and the suspension now interrupts a role he has held for more than a decade.
That kind of substitution is operationally simple but publicly consequential: the show still has to go on, yet the voice tied to its daily cadence is being replaced while the company sorts out the matter.
TMZ And The May Flight
TMZ first reported the suspension and said it came in light of an incident on a commercial flight in May. According to that report, a passenger told a flight attendant expressed concerns about Thornton, and sources with direct knowledge said the pilot called ahead to have law enforcement meet Thornton when they arrived at the gate.
What makes this unusual is the gap between the announcement and the allegation itself. Sony Pictures Television has moved quickly enough to remove Thornton from the role, but the company has not said what allegations it is weighing, leaving the recasting to proceed before the facts behind the suspension are spelled out.
KNX To Wheel Of Fortune
Thornton’s profile stretches well beyond the game show. He first joined KNX 1070 Newsradio in 1985 as a traffic reporter with Metro Traffic, later worked as an afternoon anchor on KNX 1070 Newsradio, and also provided traffic reports on KCBS-TV. His credits include Westwood One Radio Networks, four years as the voice of L.A.'s KCOP-TV, an Edward R. Murrow award, Golden Mike awards, and an Emmy.
He has also been heard as Johnny Gomez on Celebrity Deathmatch, as an announcer on The Cleveland Show and Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, as a commercial narrator in Monsters, Inc., and in the 2011 Oscar-nominated short animated film Let's Pollute. For Wheel of Fortune, the immediate issue is narrower: a familiar announcer is out, a recast is underway, and the company is making the replacement before the underlying allegations are public.
