Celebrity Wheel of Fortune has erased Jim Thornton from its premiere and every episode ahead after Sony fired the longtime announcer over online activity allegations tied to a passenger’s laptop photos.
Producers went back into already-taped material and re-recorded Thornton’s work with a temporary stand-in before the show’s return, an unnamed source told The U.S. Sun.
The source said Thornton is gone for good from the celebrity spinoff. A full-time replacement has not been hired. The move follows Sony Pictures Television’s decision to end his employment after an investigation into allegations surrounding his online activity.
Ryan Seacrest and Vanna White still front the program. Friday’s premiere episode features Gillian Jacobs, Omarion, and Matt Iseman. It airs 8 to 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.
Thornton, 61, had been the familiar voice of Wheel of Fortune since 2011, taking over after Charlie O’Donnell’s death. His duties later expanded to the celebrity version.
That run ended after a fellow passenger on a May flight photographed his laptop screen and alerted a flight attendant. The images were later published by TMZ. They appeared to show access to a website described as a support chat for people with pedophilic thoughts, with conversations visible on the screen.
Records characterized in coverage put the alleged activity at roughly 57 minutes. Law enforcement questioned Thornton after the plane landed at Los Angeles International Airport. He was not arrested or charged.
On September 4, Sony confirmed his employment had been “terminated, effective immediately” after what the company described as a thorough investigation into the online-activity allegations, as first detailed when Sony fired the Wheel of Fortune announcer following that review.
The celebrity edition’s producers did not leave his voice in the can. They scrubbed the segments he had already cut and laid down new tracks with a temporary announcer before premiere night.
"Jim won’t be on any episodes tonight or at all moving forward. He’s out. For good."
That is how the source described the break to The U.S. Sun. The same source added that the re-records were finished and that no permanent successor is in place yet.
Thornton’s attorney has rejected the worst reading of the episode. Counsel maintained that Thornton meant to visit a suicide-prevention forum, was directed to the wrong website by mistake, did not engage in illegal conduct, and left once he realized the nature of the site.
That defense tracks the line his lawyer took when he called the TMZ report defamatory and insisted the announcer committed no crime.
No charges have been filed. The public record, as reported, stops at the airline photos, the police interview at LAX, Sony’s internal probe, and the firing.
Still, a major studio cut ties effective immediately. A prime-time franchise then spent production time wiping its announcer from finished tape rather than risk his voice airing on ABC.
The spinoff’s return puts the focus back on Seacrest, White, and the celebrity players. Viewers will not hear Thornton introduce prizes or cue the wheel.
That outcome closes a rapid sequence that began with the in-flight screenshots and ran through suspension coverage, the completed Sony inquiry, and now the scrub of the celebrity show itself. Earlier reporting on how the airline laptop incident led to his firing laid out the same core chain of events.
For a voice that had been part of the Wheel brand for more than a decade, the exit is total: daytime strip and celebrity edition alike.
"They re-recorded the segments he already did with a temporary replacement announcer."
The source’s second point leaves little ambiguity about production priorities. The third is just as plain.
"A full-time replacement has not yet been hired."
Networks and studios rarely spend money re-cutting announcer tracks unless they have decided the original hire is finished. Sony’s “effective immediately” language matched that posture.
Thornton’s camp continues to stress intent and the absence of criminal charges. The company that signs the checks treated the investigation’s results as enough to end the relationship and clear the audio.
Parents watching a family game show expect a clean product. When passenger photos, a police interview, and a studio termination land in the same file, producers do not wait for a courtroom finale to protect the brand, and the initial suspension over the flight allegations already signaled how seriously the workplace took the claims.
Friday’s episode will sound different. The wheel still spins. The announcer who spent years calling out the letters is not on the track, and the temporary voice filling the gap is a reminder of how fast a trusted job can disappear once the private screen becomes public.
Entertainment companies answer to advertisers and audiences long before they answer to an announcer’s explanation. Sony and the Wheel producers made that hierarchy plain.
