It’s interesting that Mayim Bialik will be hosting prime-time specials on ABC, like the college tournament. I wonder what the non-ABC stations that broadcast the show locally think about that.
That’s where I am, too.
I’m more ‘okay’ about Bialik, but as has been mentioned, that pick has the air of being a distraction from Richards’ record of being accused of inappropriate conduct.
In any case Bialik’s time hosting will be a tiny fraction of Richards’–there just isn’t that much Jeopardy! in prime time. (And there will be even less prime-time content if Richards doesn’t attract the ratings that Trebek did.)
So one host is likely to get caught up in future harassment suits and the other is an anti-vaxxer. I didn’t think the pickings were that slim.
she is a single parent and she has another show she is an actress on. And she likely has plenty of money from past shows. She may have said she only wanted the job part time .
I’m disappointed about both selections. Bialik has pushed some disturbing medical views, (anti-vaxx-ish, pro-homeopathy, anti-antibiotics and analgesics), and was deservedly called out for the strong implications of victim-blaming in her NYT op-ed. (She said she protects herself by dressing modestly and never flirting. After a firestorm of criticism, she apologized.)
Yes, I know she’s smart, has the PhD, is a feminist (sort of: see above), but she’s got some truly disturbing views. And Mike Rogers was a terrible choice for reasons others have mentioned. Looks like my Jeopardy!-watching days are over. 
My final rankings
- Aaron Rodgers
- Ken Jennings
- Mayim Bialik
(gap) - Anderson Cooper
- Sanjay Gupta
- David Faber
- Buzzy Cohen
- Mike Roberts
(gap) - Joe Buck
- LeVar Burton
- George Stephanopoulos
- Robin Roberts
(gap) - Katie Couric
- Bill Whitaker
- Savannah Guthrie
(huge gap) - Oz
I would have been extremely happy to see any of my top 3 get the permanant gig. Weird to see Mayim as the host, but appearing very rarely…what a waste.
It’s too bad that LeVar Burton struggled early in his week. I think he improved tremendously and he had the most enthusiasm and desire for the job. He would have worked very hard and would have improved greatly if they would have given it to him. He was my fourth choice.
I’m fine with both of them. Honestly I don’t really care who the host is. I watch the show to see how well I can answer the clues, not to pay attention to the host.
Ugh. I didn’t know about any of this. How can you be against antibiotics?
From the link posted by Bijou_Drains above:
Richards told numerous media outlets, including The Ringer , that his presence was a last-minute decision: The intended host had fallen through, he said, leaving him just days to prepare. “I was never meant to be a part of that process,” he later told Broadcasting + Cable . Audiences warmed to what was widely viewed as the-show-must-go-on panache, an echo of the departed host of more than 36 years.
But two sources close to Jeopardy! tell The Ringer that that’s not an accurate depiction of how Richards came to host. Instead, a planned host had a minor conflict during one of the show’s upcoming tape days. Jeopardy! staff and crew told the host that they could work around it—only for Richards to step in and insist on hosting himself, according to the sources, one of whom described feeling surprised that Richards characterized his presence onstage as an emergency substitution.
Maserschmidt called it:
Levar Burton is around 65 , the 2 picked are in their 40s. That probably played a role in who got picked.
I think this is probably right. I saw a bunch of people on social media talking about how boring they found Mike Richards… I wasn’t aware that Trebek was Mr. Excitement. The show runners are probably looking for someone suitable boring for the role.
The reason why LeVar didn’t get the job was because of his performance, not merely his age.
IMHO, the reason LeVar didn’t get the job was that he was never in the running. He made a big deal of saying he wanted the job long ago, but he wasn’t among those originally tapped as guest host and only seemed to be grudgingly added very late in the game when fan pressure built to a peak.
I don’t know why TPTB at Sony didn’t want him; I expect age played a large factor, and perhaps the fear that long-time (old and white) J! fans wouldn’t accept that big a change from Alex. (Which is probably why Mayim didn’t get the big job.) But I’ve been saying for a while that I thought the decision was made before LeVar ever set foot in the studio.
Frankly, I’m not crazy about the choice of Richards. He wasn’t a bad host, but he had no unique spark of personality, either. I’m also uncomfortable about the allegations swirling around him. And it will be a real black mark for the show if something more substantial crops up in a few months and they have to dump him. (If that happens, they will probably be forced to give the job to Mayim to make it clear they’re turning things around.)
I think it’s a losing move to cater too much to an aging majority demographic rather than try to draw in new audiences, as a female/POC/LGBTQ host might have done. (And I say this as a white, 65-year-old male.)
I’ll give Richards a week or two in September, mainly to keep an eye on Matt Amodio (assuming he wins today and tomorrow), but I’m not excited about the new season. I think Sony missed a chance to do something really new and different, and instead they played it safe and boring (but possibly problematic).
When people started talking about who should replace Alex Trebek, LeVar Burton’s name didn’t pop into my head, either. I would have thought of other game show hosts, maybe news anchors, but probably not actors. I like LeVar Burton, and once he expressed a desire to host I’m glad he got the chance to do it for a week. But he’s not such an obvious choice that it was an obvious snub that he wasn’t on the initial list.
I think the host of Jeopardy! is supposed to be boring. The host is supposed to be like a referee; read the clues clearly, apply the rules fairly, and keep the game moving. You probably only get noticed when you do it badly. Trebek was boring and reliable, he just did it for so long that people grew to appreciate it.
I’ve seen the opposite argument: that they wanted Bialik but there was no way she could do it full time, so they also used Richards. Since his is a promotion from within, he could be cheaper.
I’ve also heard people suggest that the idea is that she’ll transition to fulltime host over time. But, obviously, that could just be wishful thinking.
I offer this as someone who hasn’t been following this all that closely myself. I checked out videos of the various guest hosts, and I though most of them did fine, but don’t have huge preferences. Since I only have Internet TV, I haven’t watched Jeopardy as a show in a long time.
I’m just reporting some stuff I’ve seen in discussions elsewhere. Maybe they’re dumb, but maybe they offer something of value by getting non-Doper opinions.
Two bad choices … and since one had harassment suits, it looks like “blossom” is about to be shoved down our throats.
< open wide & hold your nose >
Just comparing two of the guest hosts, why would Mike Richards be selected over Ken Jennings? It makes absolutely no sense to me. They have a lot of similarities, but Ken Jennings is a much more prominant figure in the Jeopardy universe, he is the most successful champion in the show’s history and in my honest opinion, he was much better as a host than Richards was. Maybe it was the executive producer thing (Jennings is listed as a consulting producer). Jennings has a much more prominant history with the show and presence…Richards has only been there since 2018. The whole thing is just really strange to me.
If his ratings are not good and her ratings are they could very well try to make her full time.
reminds me when Leno took over Tonight his ratings were not as good so they secretly offered the job to Letterman. He asked for the offer in writing but they refused unless he agreed verbally to take the job. I guess they were worried the document could leak. Of course NBC kept Leno and his ratings ended up better than Letterman
As executive producer, it seems likely that Richards himself had some say (maybe a large say) in the choice. Apart from the harassment allegations, some other kind of shady stuff is starting to emerge about him as well. As mordecaiB points out above, the story of how he came to guest-host in the first place has turned out to be highly inaccurate, suggesting that Richards was really the plan all along.
Just as a host, I thought he was fine, if a bit bland. If the allegations against him are true, then as a person he is pretty repulsive. I liked Mayim Bialik much better as a host, but she’s got her own baggage as well.
I’m not sure how the “prime time” thing is going to work. It feels like they may be wanting to compete with prime-time trivia shows like The Chase or The Weakest Link or Millionaire. I wonder if we might start to see the traditional syndicated daily Jeopardy!, and also a weekly prime-time Jeopardy!, perhaps with a bigger prize budget.
It’s kind of a pity that Matt Amodio had to be on the show during a time when all the public attention is focused on the Who Will Be The New Host question, because he’s having a truly remarkable run, and it doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of publicity. He’s now third on the list of top money-winners in regular season play, behind only Jennings and Holzhauer, and fifth on the list of consecutive games won. It’s too bad he’s not getting more accolades in the press.
Actually, I haven’t heard that he did anything awful. I read that he was dismayed to hear one of the models on TPIR was pregnant, and that he was responsible for them having to wear bikinis more often… 