Common Jeopardy! viewers like myself are all too able to overlook the internet hosting drama that befell the present following the dying of among the best recreation present hosts ever, Alex Trebek. Whereas issues have actually modified in Ken Jennings’ period of Jeopardy!, the brand new host has actually come into his personal, enduring a revolving door of visitor hosts and a co-hosting stint with Mayim Bialik earlier than incomes the full-time job. Now, as some acquainted faces are welcomed again for match season on the 2025 TV schedule, certainly one of Jeopardy!’s largest winners admitted one factor he discovered “a bit of irritating” about Bialik throughout that point.
Matt Amodio holds the excellence of competing underneath seven completely different Jeopardy! hosts throughout his 38-game win streak in 2021, together with Mayim Bialik, and he candidly revealed to Rolling Stone one purpose he was glad to see Ken Jennings take over internet hosting duties on a everlasting foundation. Amodio stated of Bialik:
She was an ideal individual to be round on the stage. Very good, very enjoyable. [But she] clearly just isn’t the Jeopardy! fan that Ken is, and was simply unable to carry that very same stage of data and power. As an skilled participant, like myself, it’s a bit of irritating when the host doesn’t know to do one thing that I’d have recognized simply as a viewer of the present.
Throughout the time when Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik have been co-hosting, Jeopardy! followers weren’t shy about choosing favorites. The talk over who ought to win the everlasting gig continued till the 2023 WGA strike, when Bialik selected to skip the ultimate week of Jeopardy! tapings to face in solidarity with the writers.
Ken Jennings stepped in for that ultimate week, and by the point new episodes resumed after the strikes, it was introduced that Mayim Bialik wouldn’t return. Government producer Michael Davies defined how Ken Jennings in the end received the job, saying:
I noticed the look that the contestants would have when he’d stroll out on the stage or his facility with the fabric. I bear in mind at one level, any individual buzzed in and gave the flawed response, they usually stated, ‘Who’s Gainsborough?’ And he stated, ‘Oh, no, I’m sorry, it’s Gainsborough’s nice rival,’ and named another obscure artist. It was only a second, [but] who on earth aside from Ken Jennings may have that second? As time went on, we began to listen to extra from our tv stations that they have been beginning to see Ken was making a whole lot of progress as he obtained extra makes an attempt. After which Mayim, which was completely her proper, elected to not cross the picket line in the course of the [SAG-AFTRA] strike. And as Ken obtained extra reps, I believe he obtained higher and he earned the job.
It’s fairly spectacular when Ken Jennings throws out little tidbits of additional info, and he even admits to the contestants when he will get stumped by a specific clue. That’s a fairly distinctive ability that seemingly no actor or athlete would surpass Jennings in.
Jeopardy! is at present airing its Second Likelihood Match every day in syndication, so examine your native listings, and catch Ken Jennings internet hosting Celeb Jeopardy! at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on ABC. Followers with an Amazon Prime subscription also can catch Pop Tradition Jeopardy!, the place host Colin Jost is completely crushing it, even when he doesn’t know all of the solutions.