“Jeopardy!” Will Be Hosted By Mayim Bialik And Ken Jennings For The Rest Of The Season
When Mike Richards was fired as the new host of Jeopardy! after just one day on the job, it was reported that Mayim Bialick (who was hired to host Jeopardy! specials and spin-offs) would fill in, along with a bunch of guests hosts. But TMZ reports that producers have dropped the idea of a carousel of guest hosts and that Mayim and Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings will share the hosting duties until a permanent host is named.
Jeopardy! producers were in a panic when their first pick, Mike Richards, “stepped down” from the gig (and later, from his producing job on the show as well), due to several not-great moments from his past resurfacing. Like his involvement in several discrimination lawsuits from when he worked as a producer on The Price is Right, and some shitty stuff he said on his old podcast. Producers reportedly wanted to make Mayim the full-time permanent host, but she doesn’t have the time since she also films the FOX sitcom, Call Me Kat. So for the rest of the season, Alex Trebek’s original rumored successor, Ken Jennings, will help out. via TMZ:
Jeopardy! won’t be going back to its revolving door of guest hosts after the quick exit of Mike Richards – TMZ’s learned it’ll be Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings for the rest of this season.
Sony production sources tell us the quiz show is going to keep it semi-consistent from here on out – at least for this season – with Mayim on hosting duty for more than half of the episodes, and Jennings shooting a few weeks worth of episodes.
We’re told execs have not decided about next season yet, but are still searching for a full-time, permanent replacement for Alex Trebek, and as we’ve told you…Mayim still seems to be the frontrunner.
Also, like Mayim, Ken has another show to film, the ABC game show The Chase. But none of this has been officially confirmed by Sony or Jeopardy!.
Aside from scheduling, there is one other problem here, and that’s that Ken Jennings does have skeletons in his closet…er, excuse me, his Twitter. People only mildly familiar with Ken Jennings might think the worst thing that could get dragged up in a job interview is his friendship with Bean Dad. But Ken’s Twitter feed has been known to get messy and problematic, which is something he’s been called out on numerous times, like by Yvette Nicole Brown. It was even reported last month, that Ken was a serious contender for the hosting job, but that there was no he was going to get it, because of his old tweets. Ken did end up apologizing for his old tweets.
If Sony has changed their mind and Ken is announced as the permanent co-host of Jeopardy!, he can just direct any offended parties to his previous apology. Although something tells me Sony Pictures Television and Jeopardy! can handle one angry Facebook comment from Tim Allen.
I love this show they have on airplanes called Last Man Standing
— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) July 19, 2021
Pics: Sony Pictures Television