Wheel of Fortune’s Jim Thornton Officially Fired After Alleged Pedophile Chat Room Incident
Content warning: This story discusses child sexual abuse images.
Jim Thornton will lend his voice to Wheel of Fortune no more.
One day after photos surfaced showing the game show announcer in an apparent pedophile chat room while aboard a flight, the ABC program announced he has been fired.
As a Sony Pictures Television spokesperson told E! News in a Sept. 4 statement, “Following a thorough investigation, Jim Thornton’s employment with Wheel of Fortune has been terminated, effective immediately.”
E! News has reached out to his lawyer for comment on the firing but hasn’t received a response.
Sony announced on Sept. 1 that Thornton—who joined the show in 2011 before Ryan Seacrest took over for host Pat Sajak—had been suspended while it was looking into undisclosed allegations against him.
A fellow passenger from an American Airlines flight then came forward, telling TMZ she saw Thornton on his laptop in what appeared to be a chat room for pedophiles while aboard their May flight from Charlotte, N.C., to Los Angeles.
In photos obtained by the outlet, Thornton sat on the plane with his computer open and the screen displaying messages in a chat room discussing a recent trip to a Golden Corral restaurant, where there were “a couple of cute boys and a hot little girl,” with a user framing the restaurant as an “all-you-can-eat Boyffet.”
