On occasion, Wheel of Fortune's regular announcer has been unavailable. In these instances, guest announcers have been employed.
Substitutes for Jack Clark
The first known instance of a substitute announcer came in August 1980, when original announcer Charlie O'Donnell left in wake of the show's cancellation (which was, of course, overturned). Don Morrow filled in for the week of August 4, with Jack Clark succeeding him as the official announcer one week later. It is known that both O'Donnell and Johnny Gilbert filled in for Clark when he was not available.
Clark remained with the show until shortly before his death on July 21, 1988. M.G. Kelly filled in as announcer on both versions of the show, although both Pat and Vanna read newly-recorded fee plugs for the reruns that aired that summer. Also, Don Pardo announced the two weeks of nighttime shows taped at Radio City Music Hall, which aired November 14 and 21, 1988; this is the only work that Pardo did on a game show since the NBC version of Jackpot ended in 1975.
Substitutes for Charlie O'Donnell
Kelly remained with the show until February 17, 1989, with Charlie returning to both versions of the show on the 20th (although no mention was made on-air of his return). Charlie is known to have missed only two weeks of nighttime episodes due to illness; Johnny Gilbert filled in for him on these episodes, which aired the weeks of November 27 and December 4, 1995.
Charlie also stayed with the show until just before his death on November 1, 2010. He had evidently fallen ill at least a few weeks prior, as Gilbert was once again sent in as a substitute for the episodes that aired the week of November 1.
Substitution table
Asterisks indicate weeks where the guest announcer was dubbed over Charlie.
| November 1 | Johnny Gilbert |
| November 8* | Johnny Gilbert |
| November 15 | Johnny Gilbert |
| November 22* | Rich Fields |
| November 29* | Rich Fields |
| December 6 | Rich Fields |
| December 13 | Rich Fields |
| December 20* | Jim Thornton |
| December 27* | Jim Thornton |
| January 3 | Jim Thornton |
| January 10 | Lora Cain |
| January 17 | Jim Thornton |
| January 24 | Jim Thornton |
| January 31 | Rich Fields |
| February 7* | Jim Thornton |
| February 14 | Lora Cain |
| February 21 | Jim Thornton |
| February 28 | Jim Thornton |
| March 7 | Joe Cipriano |
| March 14 | John Cramer |
| March 21 | Jim Thornton |
| March 28* | Jim Thornton |
| April 4 | John Cramer |
| April 11 | Joe Cipriano |
On every week except the week of March 28, Vanna White read the SPIN IDs instead of whoever was guest announcing that week. Vanna also handled the Jackpot and Mystery plugs on the week of January 10, even though Lora was not announcing in post-production.