The off-screen host of the American television program “Wheel of Fortune,” known in Russia as “Field of Miracles,” was fired in connection with an incident on board an airplane. According to TMZ, Jim Thornton was caught communicating in a pedophile chat room, where so-called child pornography, “cute boys” and “hot girls” were discussed.
Another passenger on an American Airlines flight in May noticed suspicious messages on the TV presenter’s laptop screen and complained to the flight attendant. She asked Thornton to stop using the computer.
Police questioned the man upon arrival at Los Angeles airport, where he was flying from Charlotte, North Carolina, but did not find evidence of a crime, Thornton's lawyer told the publication.
The presenter's employer, Sony Pictures Television Studio, recently decided to terminate cooperation with him based on the results of its own investigation.
'Wheel of Fortune' announcer Jim Thornton fired after in-flight pedophilia chatroom incident https://t.co/Ict2xbwW0S pic.twitter.com/vcCL6yKKgI
— New York Post (@nypost) September 4, 2026
TMZ was able to obtain screenshots of the computer screen that caused concern for Thornton's neighbor on the plane.
The host, going by the name NicholasB77, bragged about logging into a chat room called Lifeline from an airplane, and also joked that he was going to open a website with “galleries,” likely consisting of photographs of minors.
Wheel of Fortune's Jim Thornton: See Pedophilia Chatroom Photos Behind Suspension https://t.co/CWeGYmo9oP
— TMZ (@TMZ) September 3, 2026
Thornton also made remarks about plans to “go masturbate” in the toilet of the Boeing 737. He called his behavior a “middle finger” to those who are “taking away all the fun activities” and recalled a certain story about “the guy who watched child porn on the plane.”
His interlocutors sent a link to the news that he probably had in mind – about a man detained for watching child porn in the subway. They also warned Thornton of the danger of being arrested for such actions.
After the correspondence was noticed, Thornton began searching through Google on his smartphone to find out what he might be in danger of, TMZ notes.
Thornton's lawyer Allison Hart, in a conversation with the portal, stated that her client became interested in the topic of suicide prevention and initially went to a site called 988 Lifeline, from where he accidentally went to a resource for people with pedophilic tendencies via a link.
“There was no illegal child pornography or other pedophile content. My client never viewed, downloaded or consumed this type of child pornography content, whether on a commercial flight in May or at any other time,” Hart said.
