In 1981, Woolery was involved in a salary dispute with the program's producers. Woolery stated in a 2007 interview that he demanded a raise from $65,000 a year to about $500,000 a year because the program was drawing a 44 share at the time, and other hosts were making that much. Griffin offered Woolery $400,000 a year, and NBC offered to pay the additional $100,000, but after Griffin threatened to move the program to CBS, NBC withdrew the offer. Griffin dismissed Woolery, whose final episode aired on December 25, 1981. Pat Sajak replaced him
Years before that, Clint Walker had the same kind of issue with Warner Brothers and ABC on his ‘’Cheyenne’’ show, but Walker survived, and 108 episodes are still in reruns on the Western Encore channel. Plus ‘’Bronco’’ was born out of the dispute