Former US game show host Chuck Woolery dies at 83

Chuck Woolery, the smooth-talking US game show host who later became a podcaster accusing the Washington government of lying about Covid-19, has died aged 83.

The podcast co-host and friend died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, by his side, Mark Young said Sunday.

“Chuck was a dear friend, brother and man of tremendous faith, life will not be the same without him,” Mr. Young said.

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

In 1983, he began an 11-year run as host of the TV show Love Connection, for which he coined the phrase “We’ll be back in two minutes and two seconds” with a two-fingered signature called “2 and”. 2″.

In 1984, he also hosted Scrabble, and until 1990 he presented two game shows simultaneously on TV.

In Love Connection, published long before the advent of dating apps, the idea was that a single man or single woman would watch audition tapes of three potential partners and then choose one for a date.

A few weeks after the appointment, the guest was sitting in front of the studio audience with Woolery and telling everyone about it. The audience will vote for three contestants, and if the audience accepts the guest’s choice, Love Connection will offer to pay for a second date.

Woolery told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003 that his favorite lovebirds were a 91-year-old man and an 87-year-old woman. She recalled: “She had so much eye make-up she looked like a stolen Corvette. He was so old he said, ‘I remember wagon trains.’ Poor man. He took her on a balloon ride.”

Other career highlights included hosting the shows Lingo, Greed and The Chuck Woolery Show, as well as a short-lived revival of The Dating Game from 1998 to 2000 and an ill-fated talk show in 1991. In 1992, she portrayed herself in two episodes of Melrose Place.

Woolery began his TV career with a show that became a mainstay. Although most associated with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, Wheel Of Fortune debuted on NBC on January 6, 1975, with Woolery welcoming contestants and viewers. Woolery, then 33, was trying to make it as a singer in Nashville.

Born in Ashland, Kentucky, Woolery served in the U.S. Navy before attending college. He played double bass in a folk trio, then formed the psychedelic rock duo The Avant-Garde in 1967 while working as a truck driver to support himself as a musician.

Touring in a retooled Cadillac hearse, the Avant-Garde had a Top 40 hit in Naturally Stoned.

After The Avant-Garde disbanded, Woolery released her first solo single, I’ve Been Wrong, in 1969 and several more singles with Columbia before moving into country music in the 1970s. He released two solo singles, Forgive My Heart and Love Me, Love Me.

After his television career ended, Woolery started podcasting. In an interview with The New York Times, he called himself a gun rights activist and described himself as a conservative, libertarian and constitutionalist. He said he did not reveal his politics in liberal Hollywood for fear of retribution.

In 2014, Blunt teamed up with Mr. Young for the podcast Force Truth and soon became a full-fledged supporter of Donald Trump; while arguing that minorities do not need civil rights and causing a firestorm by tweeting an antisemitic comment linking Soviet Communists to Judaism.

In the early stages of the pandemic, Woolery initially accused medical experts and Democrats of lying about the virus in an effort to hurt the economy and Mr. Trump’s re-election chances.

In July 2020, he wrote: “The most outrageous lies are those about Covid-19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, the media, the Democrats, our doctors, the ones we are told to trust, not all of them, but most of them. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from bouncing back, which is about the election. “I’m tired of this.”

Mr. Trump retweeted the post to his 83 million followers. By the end of the month, nearly 4.5 million Americans had contracted Covid and more than 150,000 had died.

Just a few days later, Woolery changed his tune and announced that his son had contracted Covid.

Before her account was deleted, she shared: “To further clarify and put it into perspective, Covid-19 is real and it is here. “My son tested positive for the virus and I feel sorry for those who are suffering, especially those who have lost loved ones.”

Woolery later clarified on his podcast that he never called Covid-19 a “hoax” or said “it’s not real”, just that “we’re being lied to”. Woolery also said it was “an honor that your president retweeted your thoughts and thought it was important enough to do so.”

Mr Young said Mr Woolery was survived by his wife, sons Michael and Sean, and daughter Melissa.