So now we have Bill Whittaker, one of the dozen or so hosts of 60 Minutes.
I think he’s challenging Dr Oz for Worst of the Lot.
Disagree. He’s in the upper half. Better than Couric.
He’s worse than Oz. Even when he’s speaking extemporaneously, he sounds like he’s reading from the phone book.
Except for Mike Richards, I don’t think any of the people we’ve seen have previous game show experience. They might want to start by looking at those type of people.
As noted upthread, there aren’t a lot of “professional game show hosts” anymore, the way there were in the '50s through '80s, and of which Alex Trebeck was one of the group.
There are only a handful of daily game shows in production anymore, plus some prime-time gameshows, and nearly all of them are hosted by celebrities who gained fame as actors or comedians before being tapped for the role.
I’m not really sure I’d want the modern day version of Wink Martendale or Chuck Wollery (or even Pat Sajak) on Jeopardy!.
Now Joe Garagiola I could see - if he weren’t dead. Or Bill Cullen.
sigh Trebek. And, I knew that, too. That’s what I get for multi-tasking.
I thought Bill Whittaker did all right, a little low-key.
After one week with Bill Whitaker, here are my rankings:
- Anderson Cooper
- Ken Jennings
- Mike Rogers
- Bill Whitaker
- Katie Couric
- Aaron Rodgers
- Dr. Oz
Whitaker is perfectly competent at running the game, but as @Dung_Beetle said, too low-key, and not great with the interviews. He doesn’t bring anything unique to the show.
Here are my current rankings:
- Anderson Cooper
- Mike Richards
- Ken Jennings
- Aaron Rodgers
- Katie Couric
- Bill Whitaker
- Dr. Oz
Time will tell. Are the auditions going to continue until the fall?
The season ends sometime in the summer, I think, and most observers assume that the permanent host will be named after that; how soon after is anyone’s guess.
Updating and correcting my previous post, this page has the complete schedule of guest hosts and says that the last show airs on August 13.
And I just found this article.
According to executive producer (and recent guest host) Mike Richards, when filming for season 38 kicks off in late July or early August, it will do so with its next official host at the helm. That means fans will learn who’ll get the chance to follow in the footsteps of the late Alex Trebek this summer.
But for now, that remains a mystery — even to Richards.
“It’s going to come down to the heads of Sony (Entertainment) to make that decision, ultimately, and it’ll come down to testing,” the 45-year-old told The Wall Street Journal’s podcast “The Journal.” “They’ve been a part of it. They know what’s going on in the studio. They’re watching the feed, the tapings. It’s very extensive. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of, as far as testing in its size and scope.”
So the permanent host will have been selected, and will be taping new shows, by the time the last show with a guest host airs. Which in my mind means that the last few hosts, each of whom is only doing one week, will NOT be the permanent host. This includes fan favorite LeVar Burton.
I think it strange the way they mentioned his age. Don’t know why.
FYI, folks over at the Jeopardy Contestants Facebook group are saying they
finished taping the current season on May 4. So the process of selecting and prepping the new host is probably under way already.
Someone there also believes there will be a new set when the next season starts.
Finally, for any former contestants here, John Lauderdale, stage manager since season three, retired with the close of this season’s taping. He was a great guy.
He was the stage manager when I was on, in 1988. Every time I see his name in the credits I’d think: Damn! He’s still there!
Harvey Pekar’s dead now, which is starting to hamper my options, so I might have to start gunning for (a hopefully still long-haired) Sean Penn, who hopefully might lend the show a slightly steelier edge, brimming with an unpredictable blend of malaise, aggression, self-doubt, and existential panic.
“Hey…HEY!!! Listening to me? It is not your fucking turn.”
(well, as long as he doesn’t get as beleaguered as Alex Trebel )
Kind of off topic but something I just ran across is that Mike Richards was a producer on The Price Is Right and was in the running to take over the show until Drew Carey was chosen over him.
Also, he was part of a lawsuit by a model who was fired for taking time off while having a difficult pregnancy.
Quote from the article:
And producers pressured her to announce her pregnancy on air after repeatedly telling her she was “showing,” according to the lawsuit. After the on-air announcement, Cochran said she revealed that she was carrying twins. Executive producer Mike Richards put his face in his hands and “asked her twice, in an annoyed tone, ‘Twins? Are you serious? You’re serious?'”
After that, Cochran claimed her bosses cut back her hours and continually changed her schedule.
After the death of one of Cochran’s twins in utero and the premature birth of the other by emergency Caesarian section, Cochran needed several months to recover and nurse her newborn daughter back to health.
When she was ready, Cochran told her bosses “she had lost her excess weight and was ready to work.”
But Greco and Richards gave her the cold shoulder and refused to schedule her.
I agree except I’d put Dr. Oz between Jennings and Rodgers.
With Oz at the bottom of most of the lists here, I wonder if that is his reputation versus his actual performance.
Even if that’s the case, it shouldn’t be discounted. Oz as the host would lose a lots of viewers and seriously tarnish the reputation of the show. Surely his “actual performance” should be the most important factor, but hardly the only factor.
These are my exact rankings at this point. I intentionally didn’t watch any of Oz’s episodes, and for the last few weeks have found myself forgetting to turn Jeopardy! on - I think Whitaker is incredibly boring. I joked to my husband that the networks had to allow extra time for each episode because he speaks so slowly.