After 40 years hosting the popular game show, ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ Pat Sajak has officially made a rookie mistake.

On last Thursday’s episode, the longtime host accidentally blurted out the answer to the bonus round, as the contestant struggled to guess a phrase with the letters         ‘_ _ _TE  _ RAN_L_.’

‘Well, I’d rather be standing here than there, quite frankly,’ Sajak, 74, said.

As it turned out, the term ‘quite frankly,’ which Sajak tried to mumble, was the answer to the puzzle.

Fortunately for him, the contestant did not seem to catch on to the slip of the tongue, and failed to guess the answer in the allotted 30-seconds.

Pat Sajak, not pictured, could be heard saying ‘Well, I’d rather be standing here than there, quite frankly’ as the contestant last Thursday struggled to guess the phrase ‘quite frankly’

In the bonus round of the game, the contestant who garnered the most money throughout the show can choose from one of three categories for a puzzle to solve.

They are then asked to choose a card from a wheel with a prize embossed on it that they can win if they guess the answer properly.

The contestants are given the letters ‘R,’ ‘S,’ ‘T,’ ‘L,’ ‘N’ and ‘E,’ and are asked to choose a vowel and three other consonants to help them solve the word puzzle.

In last Thursdays episode, the contestant chose the letters ‘A,’ ‘P,’ ‘G’ and ‘H’ and struggled to come up with the answer, despite Sajak blurting it out.

At the end, his co-host Vanna White, who has been flipping and touching the letters on the board for more than 35 years, asked him if he heard what he said.

‘I did, right after I said it,’ Sajak replied in the final seconds of the show. ‘I wonder how many people at home caught it.’

Sajak, right, and co-host Vanna White, left, addressed the flub in the last few minutes of the episode, and made light of the situation

Sajak has been the host of ‘Wheel of Fortune’ since 1981, after Merv Griffin imposed a moratorium on new episodes until NBC President and CEO Fred Silverman agreed to hire him

‘It goes to show you that people are concentrating and they’re not paying attention to me,’ he said of the incident. ‘It’s funny what your mouth will say that your brain says you shouldn’t do.’

He also made light of the situation, joking at the end, ‘We’ll, quite frankly, see you next time.’

Sajak has been the host of ‘Wheel of Fortune’ since 1981, at the behest of television personality Merv Griffin.

Griffin had asked Sajak a year earlier if he wanted to take over the hosting gig from Chuck Woolery, but Fred Silverman, the president and CEO of NBC at the time, rejected his hiring, calling Sajak a more local celebrity.

In response, Griffin imposed a moratorium on new tapings of the show until Sajak was hired.

He now holds a Guiness World Record for the longest career as a game show, and he and White celebrated the show’s 7,000th episode in 2019.

But, of course, a long career comes with a few mishaps along the way.

Earlier this year, Sajak accidentally opened the prize envelope early, at the start of the puzzle.

He then said, “I’m not sure why I did that” while laughing to himself and leaning onto the prize wheel for support.

He later blamed it on it being a Friday.

Additionally, Sajak came under fire in February, after he asked a contestant what they do for a living.

When Chris Brimble proceeded to respond, it became clear that he had a lisp.

By the end of the conversation, Sajak responded, ‘I thee,’ rather than, ‘I see,’ which some viewers on Twitter called ‘appalling’ and ‘offensive.’