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Mayim Bialik Declines to Host ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!’ Amid Strikes, Replaced by Ken Jennings (variety.com)

submitted 1 year ago by GeekFTW@kbin.social to c/moviesandtv@lemmy.film

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Mayim Bialik will not be hosting Season 2 of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” as she continues to support the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Variety has learned from sources.

On Monday, ABC issued a press release with changes to their fall schedule, noting that Ken Jennings will host the new season of “Celebrity Jeopardy!,” which premieres Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. ET.

ABC did not respond to Variety’s request for comment.

“Jeopardy!” showrunner Michael Davies revealed earlier this month that material for the star-studded spinoff series’ second season was completed before the WGA went on strike, so the upcoming season will feature completely original material. While Bialik and Jennings split hosting duties on “Jeopardy!,” the former was the sole host for Season 1 of “Celebrity Jeopardy!,” featuring such guests as Simu Liu, Andy Richter, Aisha Tyler, Michael Cera and more.

Back in May, Variety spoke to “Jeopardy!” writers Michele Loud, Jim Rhine and Billy Wisse on the picket line during the fourth day of the WGA strike.

“Our words are on the screen every night,” Loud said. “There is no ‘Jeopardy’ without writers. Without us it’s just an empty blue screen.”

Davies explained on the “Jeopardy!” podcast “Inside Jeopardy!” how the trivia series would proceed with its next season amid the WGA strike.

“We’re going to open the season with a second chance tournament for players from Season 37 who lost their initial game. Winners from that will advance to a Season 37 and Season 38 Champions Wildcard,” he said, adding that questions on these second chance episodes would be “a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database, and material that has been re-deployed from multiple multiple seasons of the show.”

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[–] DadeMurphy@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I honestly don’t understand why she is on the show in the first place.

Ken is the greatest Jeopardy player of all time and deserves the job.

Whether or not Alex Trebek was really smart, he certainly gave off that vibe like he knew a lot about the subjects he quizzed the contestants on.

I understand she is some sort of scientist, but they are a dime a dozen.

[–] reverendsteveii@beehaw.org 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why does being good at the game make you a good host? I'm not saying he isn't, but being a good host requires an entirely different skill set than being a good player. Bialik was there because her brand is intellectual nerdiness that Jeopardy wants to leverage, but also because she's been making TV off and on her whole life. That kinda feels more relevant to the skillset required to making TV.

[–] midorale@lemmy.villa-straylight.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bialik's delivery of questions is really good. The only downside of her hosting is she sometimes has very long pauses before she says someone is correct. I'd heard speculation that it's because she made a slip up early on when she awarded points for an incorrect answer and the producers wanted to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Since Ken is arguably the Jeopardy goat*, he's much less likely to make this type of mistake.

*Brad Rutter should be up there because he beat Ken a few times in tournaments of champions and was unable to have Ken's streak because Brad was from the 5-wins-and-go-home era.

[–] DadeMurphy@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

While I agree with your last paragraph, I also disagree. Yes, he was from the original format, but to me, that just shows how good Ken really is. I’m not saying he was unbeatable, as you pointed out some examples of his losses, but I honestly don’t see anyone ever coming close to his record.

It’s one thing to win 5 in a row, it’s a whole other thing to win 74. I can’t even comprehend that level of pressure.

[–] DadeMurphy@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

For the reason I mentioned about Alex. If you’re going to host a show about knowledge, it seems logical to assume the host would fit the part. We’re not talking about hosting let’s make a deal. And having the greatest player of all time, host, would certainly garner more viewers than people who watched blossom or big bang theory, and would certainly be taken more seriously.

If I’m being honest honest, Alex didn’t really have the greatest personality either, but he had presence to make up for it.