Wheel of Fortune announcer Jim Thornton has been fired after photos surfaced appearing to show him in a pedophile chat room while on a flight. A Sony Pictures Television spokesperson confirmed the firing to E! News in a statement dated Sept. 4, saying, "Following a thorough investigation, Jim Thornton's employment with Wheel of Fortune has been terminated, effective immediately."
E! News said it reached out to Thornton's lawyer for comment on the firing but had not received a response.
Suspension came days earlier
Sony had announced on Sept. 1 that Thornton was suspended while it investigated undisclosed allegations against him. Thornton joined Wheel of Fortune in 2011. He worked alongside host Pat Sajak, who led the show for decades before retiring, and continued in the role after Ryan Seacrest took over as host.
A fellow passenger on an American Airlines flight later came forward to TMZ, saying she saw Thornton on his laptop in what appeared to be a chat room for pedophiles during a May flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Los Angeles.
What the photos allegedly showed
Photos obtained by TMZ showed Thornton seated on the plane with his laptop open to a screen displaying chat messages discussing a recent trip to a Golden Corral restaurant, where users described seeing "a couple of cute boys and a hot little girl," with one framing the restaurant as an "all-you-can-eat Boyffet."
The chat also referenced "CP," which the passenger who reported it believes stands for child pornography. Other messages described sexual activity in the plane's restroom, according to the photos.
Lawyer disputes the allegations
Thornton's lawyer, Allison Hart, told TMZ the chat room itself is "not unlawful" and that "there is no unlawful child pornography or other pedophilic content" in it. She said, "My client never viewed, downloaded or consumed any child pornography whether on that commercial flight in May or at any other time."
Hart said Thornton was "active in suicide-prevention advocacy" and had been visiting chat rooms that offer support to people with suicidal thoughts. She said an acquaintance from one of those groups sent him a link that led to a different website containing sexual content, and that "when my client understood what the website was about, he left the page and has not visited since." TMZ reported, however, that the photos showed Thornton remained in the chat room for 57 minutes.
Police were called after the flight landed
Hart had previously confirmed details shared by American Airlines that law enforcement met Thornton's flight upon landing at Los Angeles International Airport in May, after the passenger's complaint, but said her client had done nothing wrong.
"When questioned about the complaint made by a fellow passenger on the flight," Hart told TMZ on Sept. 1, "law enforcement spoke to him for five minutes or less, immediately determined that no wrongdoing had occurred and told my client he was free to go."
Sony Pictures Television has not released further details on its investigation, and it remains unclear whether Thornton's employment status will be addressed further by the network or law enforcement.
