(CBS) Pat Sajak has admitted to HWI - hosting while intoxicated.

In an interview with ESPN2's Dan Le Batard, the longtime "Wheel of Fortune" host came clean when asked if he had ever hosted the show drunk.

"Yes," Sajak laughed. "When I first started and was much younger and could tolerate those things. We had a different show then."

He explained that in the show's earlier format, there was "endless time" between tapings. During the two-and-half-hour dinner breaks, he and Vanna White would stop by a Mexican spot in Burbank, Calif., for margaritas.

"Vanna and I would go across and have two or three and six and then come and do and the last shows and have trouble recognizing the alphabet," he told Le Batard.

Sajak said he no longer drinks on the job, but added that those old episodes would be "really good tapes to get hold of."

"I had a great time," he said." I have no idea if the shows were any good, but no one said anything, so I guess I did okay."