# Who should be the next host of "Jeopardy!"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** reality-or-game-show\ **Created:** [November 12, 2020, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460 "2020-11-12T20:49:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/262 "2021-03-30T13:08:27Z")
Hard to believe this movie came out eight (!) years ago. How time flies… 😧 > **[Saving Mr. Banks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Mr._Banks)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > Saving Mr. Banks is a 2013 biographical drama film directed by John Lee Hancock from a screenplay written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith. Centered on the development of the 1964 film Mary Poppins, the film stars Emma Thompson as author P. L. Travers and Tom Hanks as film producer Walt Disney, with supporting performances by Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford, Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson, and B.J. Novak. Deriving its title from the... ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/263 "2021-03-30T14:46:38Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Hard to believe this movie came out eight (!) years ago. How time flies… 😧 I love that movie, but the irony is so thick you could spread it on toast. A movie about Disney-fying Mary Poppins ends up Disney-fying Walt Disney. And if it wasn’t for that movie I wouldn’t have got the FJ answer. ---
**Author:** ![Allecher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@Allecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Allecher)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/264 "2021-03-30T15:19:15Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > And I still had to pick up my phone and look up P.L. Travers to make the connection. It looks like we were not the only ones struggling to make the connection. The page views on her Wiki page were up by about 26K yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/265 "2021-03-30T15:25:06Z")
Yeah, not explaining who P.L. Travers was is an odd omission, something that Trebek would have added as a matter of course. I’m surprised they didn’t re-record that segment, or even just have Dr. Oz dub in something like “author of Mary Poppins.” The camera usually isn’t on the host when the FJ responses are being revealed, so it seems like it would have been easy enough to edit a mention of Mary Poppins into the audio. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/266 "2021-03-30T16:10:06Z")
> [@Allecher](#): > > > [@Arcite](#): > > > > And I still had to pick up my phone and look up P.L. Travers to make the connection. > > It looks like we were not the only ones struggling to make the connection. The page views on her Wiki page were up by about 26K yesterday. Maybe the fact that they made a movie about it in the past decade was the reason this was something people would be expected to know? I vaguely recall the movie’s coming out, but I never saw it. I don’t ever recall thinking that the author of Mary Poppins was much of a household name in America. In fact, I wasn’t even sure that the movie Mary Poppins was based on a book. My thought process on FJ was more like “Hmm, they could be referring to Mary Poppins. Was that based on a book? I don’t know, but if I did know, _and_ I knew the author’s name, that would be my guess. Should I whip out my phone and Google it right now? Nah, I’ll just wait till they reveal the correct response.” ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/267 "2021-03-30T16:14:58Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Maybe the fact that they made a movie about it in the past decade was the reason this was something people would be expected to know? Heck, even if I _had_ seen the movie (which I haven’t) I wouldn’t have remembered the name of that character. That FJ was pretty obscure. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/268 "2021-03-30T17:08:18Z")
It was very considerate of the NCAA to have their basketball tournament this week, and last. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/269 "2021-03-30T17:09:03Z")
Growing up in the early '60s, I think it was unusual _not_ to have known of Mary Poppins or PL Travers, since our teachers (at least where I went to school) would often read chapters from the books to us in class. I didn’t read the books myself until I was middle-aged, and I was surprised by how different they were from the 1964 movie (which is still one of my happiest childhood memories). Some parts are downright creepy and gave me the chills reading them alone in my apartment at 2:00 in the morning. Definitely not the stuff you’d expect to see in a Disney film! I remember a woman coming to my second grade class and giving a presentation centered on the word “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” There was another who talked about “Do, re, mi,” and children whose father wouldn’t allow them to sing. I realize now these must have been promos aimed at raising awareness of _ **Mary Poppins** _ and _ **The Sound of Music** _, neither of which would be released for another couple of years. Did anybody else have a similar experience when they were in grade school? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/270 "2021-03-30T17:19:30Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Did anybody else have a similar experience when they were in grade school? I remember the movie, but I don’t recall any mention of the book in grade school. So it wasn’t a universal thing. (I went to grade school in the 60s too.) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/271 "2021-03-30T17:20:49Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Heck, even if I _had_ seen the movie (which I haven’t) I wouldn’t have remembered the name of that character. That FJ was pretty obscure. The weird thing is, my brain skipped a groove in processing the clue, but I got the right response, anyway. It went something like… "Oh, there was that movie a few years ago, about an English author, didn’t like the movie that Disney made of her book, What Disney movie was it in the '60s? _Peter Pan_, that’s it. So who was the author? Something-Travers, I think; maybe P.L. Travers, that sounds familiar. Anyway, I don’t need the whole name, just the last name is usually good enough. Who is Travers?" My brain is really quite a wonder, sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/272 "2021-03-30T17:33:24Z")
Lateral thinking. I once had a similar experience playing “The Name [That Celebrity] Game”: John Joseph Ryan. → Definitely Irish. → Probably an actor. → An actor who played an Irishman? → “John.” Hmmm, maybe “Jack”? → Jack “Steve McGarrett” Lord! All of which went through my mind in less than two seconds. Sometimes I amaze even myself! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/273 "2021-03-30T22:10:45Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Growing up in the early '60s > [@Procrustus](#): > > (I went to grade school in the 60s too.) I think we need to remember that if you grew up in the 1960s, you are much older than the typical Jeopardy contestant today. (Typical _viewer_, less so, but typical _contestant_, definitely.) Just last night or the night before, there was a triple stumper where the correct response was George Burns. IIRC the clue even contained a reference to “good night, Gracie” and none of them even ventured a guess. It was at that moment that I realized all three contestants were likely younger than I. And I was in grade school in the 80s. Regarding Mary Poppins, yeah, maybe this is a generational thing, but I saw the movie several times in childhood, and have always had at least a passing interest in literature, and it’s always been my impression that at least in the USA, Mary Poppins is known almost exclusively as a movie. It’s not like Harry Potter or the Chronicles of Narnia, which you’d expect any above-average-intelligence person to know were originally book series. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/274 "2021-03-30T22:28:41Z")
I’m amazed whenever they show a photo of, say, Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant, and none of the contestants even hazard a guess. I always think to myself “Oh, crap. Am I really _that_ old?!?” I vaguely remember Burns and Allen being on TV in the '50s, but I never really watched their show until it was on in reruns late at night on a local MPS/SP station in the '80s. I suspect most of the young’uns from that era would know George from the _ **Oh, God!** _ movies only. In my experience, the cultural horizons of most 30-somethings nowadays extend maybe to the 1990s. They can’t be bothered to consider anything that came before. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/275 "2021-03-30T23:01:49Z")
I’m amazed when they have categories of modern music, and I seriously want to ask “did you just make up those band names?” ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2021, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/276 "2021-03-31T00:13:12Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Jennings and Couric both started rough, but got better by the end of their runs, imo (she actually ranged into ‘good’, while he got to ‘I wouldn’t _hate_ if he became the permanent host, even though he’d still be way down my list’), but I swear Oz is actually getting WORSE. Back to the topic at hand, this pretty much encapsulates my attitude as well. Couric even managed to tone down what was, for me, her most aggravating quirk (the near-rapturous “You found the Daily Double!!!”). When Oz started, my reaction was that he wasn’t as bad as I’d feared; now, while I still watch, I mute the sound and depend on closed captions. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2021, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/277 "2021-03-31T01:35:58Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’ll bet a lot of people were going “Travers? Who’s Travers?” 🤨 I noticed that and even rewound to make sure. Don’t they have producers talking in their ear? ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/278 "2021-04-02T17:20:17Z")
Aaron Rogers is up next (April 5-16) Brian ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/279 "2021-04-02T18:23:07Z")
Had to Google “Aaron Rogers”, still don’t really know who that guy is. But I won’t miss Oz. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/280 "2021-04-02T18:28:21Z")
He’s the star of several State Farm commercials: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Fo5jKB2jbqE/maxresdefault.jpg "Aaron Rodgers Commercials Compilation All Ads") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo5jKB2jbqE) Brian ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460/281 "2021-04-02T18:34:01Z")
ESPN article: > **[Prepped? Rodgers tried to 'crush' 'Jeopardy!' role](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31183282/what-film-room-aaron-rodgers-studied-no-other-crush-jeopardy-guest-host)** > > Even though Aaron Rodgers has watched hundreds of episodes of "Jeopardy!" and was a celebrity contestant in 2015, he went back to the film to prepare for his role as guest host in episodes that begin airing Monday. Brian [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/925460.md?page=15)