Sony Pictures Television has fired Jim Thornton, the longtime announcer of “Wheel of Fortune,” closing out the suspension it handed him while it investigated allegations tied to a flight from earlier this year. Law enforcement met that American Airlines flight at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on May 14, 2026. “Following a thorough investigation, Jim Thornton’s employment with Wheel of Fortune has been terminated, effective immediately,” a Sony spokesperson told Closer, which reports that the studio let the 61-year-old go on Friday, September 4. Thornton has neither been arrested nor charged, and his attorney denies that he did anything wrong.
What the allegations involve went unexplained in the studio’s September 1 statement. “He has been suspended from Wheel of Fortune and we are recasting while we conduct a thorough investigation,” Sony said, adding that it had recently learned of allegations concerning the announcer. At that point the studio framed the move as a suspension and a recast for the duration of the inquiry, not a dismissal.
Officers met Flight 1276 at the gate when it landed at LAX on May 14 after a customer on board raised concerns, American Airlines confirmed. The plane had come in from Charlotte, N.C., bound for Los Angeles.
What a Passenger Reported Onboard
A woman on the flight said Thornton’s laptop screen was showing messages and images from a chatroom she believed was used by pedophiles. One of the messages, she said, referred to “CP,” which she understood as shorthand for illegal material involving children. He was wearing a “Wheel of Fortune” jacket at the time.
The woman flagged a flight attendant and handed the crew photos of what she said she had witnessed. After the captain notified authorities, law enforcement officers were waiting when the aircraft reached the gate. They questioned Thornton once the plane was down and let him go. Custody never followed, and prosecutors have filed no criminal charges against him.
Attorney Denies Any Wrongdoing
Allison Hart, Thornton’s attorney, says her client broke no laws, was never arrested and faces no criminal charges. Officers spoke with him for no more than five minutes after the landing, found no wrongdoing and told him he was free to go, by her account. “In short, my client did nothing wrong,” Hart told TMZ.
Hart also explained how Thornton came to be in an online chatroom at all. A close family member died by suicide two years ago, she said, and he became an advocate for suicide prevention afterward. He began spending time in support forums for people struggling with suicidal thoughts, and those included the chat service and website of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
An acquaintance from that advocacy community, Thornton says, sent him a link to a separate chatroom, one meant for people with pedophilic thoughts and unconnected to the suicide hotline’s forum. Understanding what it was, he says, prompted him to leave immediately, though timestamps on the material appeared to indicate a stay in the room of at least 57 minutes. Hart laid out the same account of the chatroom mix-up for Page Six, and said law enforcement determined no crime had been committed.
The site itself is not unlawful, Hart further said. Illegal material involving children, she added, is something her client has never viewed, downloaded or consumed, on the May flight or on any other occasion.
Thornton’s Path to the Announcer Booth
A West Virginia native, Thornton has announced on radio and television, acted in voice work and anchored news since the mid-1980s. The death of Charlie O’Donnell, the show’s longtime announcer, brought him to “Wheel of Fortune” as a guest announcer in 2010, and he took over the role permanently in 2011. He has announced “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” since 2021 as well, and before that voiced episodes of the CBS mainstay “The Price Is Right.”
Away from the game shows, he has been a fixture at KNX news radio in Los Angeles since 1985. An Emmy and an Edward R. Murrow Award sit on his résumé.
Marshall University, Thornton’s alma mater, appears to have taken multiple references to him off its website, including pages identifying him as its 2026 Spring Commencement speaker and its 2025 Homecoming Grand Marshal; links to them now lead to 404 pages, according to a September 8 report. A Marshall University spokesperson told TMZ: “At this time, Marshall University is aware of the media reports regarding Jim Thornton and is actively monitoring the situation.”
Millions of viewers hear him every week, even if his face is far less familiar than those of hosts Ryan Seacrest and Vanna White. Sony Pictures Television produces both “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!,” the country’s two biggest syndicated game shows. “Wheel of Fortune” ranked No. 1 in syndication with more than eight million viewers in Nielsen’s early-August snapshot.
On screen, the fallout is already visible. Producers had taped the new season’s first month before the allegations surfaced, and they are re-editing those episodes with another announcer in time for the September 14 premiere, a job one source described to TMZ as a “major undertaking.” As of September 8, the show had also begun stripping Thornton from its social media accounts and replacing his announcing work in the already-taped episodes. He still surfaced on a rerun that aired Tuesday, September 1, after the investigation began. The show airs on local television stations and streams on Peacock and Hulu.
Joshua Beach, a former “Wheel of Fortune” contestant, came to Thornton’s defense in a Facebook statement over the weekend. “I’ve said for years that Jim Thornton is one of my heroes. His career and his voice were a huge part of what encouraged me to pursue voice-over and acting myself. Seeing what has happened over the last several days has been genuinely difficult for me to process,” he wrote in part. Beach also wrote: “If evidence eventually establishes that Jim did something criminal or harmed someone, then I’ll have to reconcile that with the person I’ve admired for so many years.”
The allegations remain unproven for now: Thornton has not been charged, and Hart maintains he broke no laws.
