'Jeopardy!' Needs a New Host
by EG
After the passing of Alex Trebek this week, Jeopardy!, the game show he hosted for almost 40 years, faces the prospect of needing to replace him. Trebek himself apparently never expressed any preference for a replacement (although he did make one joking suggestion), and the show's producers have many potential candidates to choose from. Read on for details.
Via The New York Post.
Who can replace the irreplaceable Alex Trebek?
That’s the question on “Jeopardy!” fans’ minds after the beloved host died at age 80 following a battle with pancreatic cancer on Sunday.
After he announced his diagnosis in 2019, speculation began over who will take on the hosting gig he’s manned since 1984. However, he might truly be irreplaceable. A 2019 poll from Morning Consult found that 50% of “Jeopardy!” fans would stop watching the show if Trebek, a bona fide pop culture icon, wasn’t the host.
That leaves a tough job ahead for ABC, which owns the syndication rights, as well as distributor CBS Television and producer Sony Television, all of which have declined to put forward any names officially.
Even Trebek, while battling cancer, was hesitant to nominate candidates — and insisted on carrying on his hosting duties until whenever it began to negatively impact his performance — although he did jokingly name one: Betty White.
He also said it’s up to TV bigwigs. “It’s not a decision that would be up to me, and I would not make myself available to presenting an opinion,” Trebek told TVLine in January. “I would leave it up to the people in charge.”
Producers also have maintained that Trebek had not expressed interest in naming candidates to take over.
“[Alex] really has no interest in being involved in that process,” “Jeopardy!” executive producer Harry Friedman told TVLine. “We would welcome his opinion, obviously, but he feels like it’s really not up to him. And he has said that for a long time.”
“Jeopardy!” executive producer Mike Richards doubled down on that notion in an interview with Entertainment Tonight following Trebek’s death.
“He never mentioned names to us. He really wanted to be the host of the show, while he was the host of the show,” Richards explained. “So we didn’t say, ‘Hey, what about this person? What about that person?’ It was his show until he told us he was going to retire and, amazingly, he never did. I think that’s a blessing.”
Having pretaped episodes until the end of October, Trebek will still be seen in episodes slated to air in December (the last one is Christmas Day), but it won’t be long until the long-running show will be forced to move on with a new host.
Get the rest of the story at The New York Post.
Who do you think should be the new host of Jeopardy! Let us know in the comments below.