Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings to Host Remaining 2021 ‘Jeopardy!’ Episodes
Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings will host the remaining 2021 “Jeopardy!” episodes, Sony said on Thursday.
Starting Monday, Bialik will head behind the podium once more. Her run will last for a few weeks on episodes that will air through Nov. 5.
After that, Bialik and the show’s consulting producer Jennings “will split hosting duties as their schedules allow,” show reps said.
Bialik and Jennings were among the rotating panel of celebrities who guest-hosted “Jeopardy!” after the passing of beloved host Alex Trebek in November 2020.
Bialik has been on board to host primetime “Jeopardy!” specials and potential spinoffs. Jennings, the show’s greatest champion, had been seen as the frontrunner to replace Trebek as host of the syndicated series. Mike Richards, who is now the former “Jeopardy!” executive producer, got the role.
Just as quickly as that happened, however, backlash over past comments Richards made as a podcast host led to the game-show veteran stepping down from the public-facing role. When that did not seem to remove the distraction, Richards also lost his executive producing job at both “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune.”
Richards exited as permanent host of the syndicated Sony quiz show, which has just entered its 38th season, just one day after it returned to production, following the resurfacing of a gender discrimination lawsuit from his time with “The Price is Right” and multiple misogynistic comments he made on a podcast he co-hosted last decade. Richards taped five episodes, which began airing this week.
The temporary solution while the show sought a new full-time host was to go back to the guest-host model “Jeopardy!” had been using since Trebek’s passing to audition potential candidates, with Bialik (who was named the host of the game show’s primetime specials and spinoffs) taping for following three weeks worth of episodes. Now it’s been decided the longterm solution through the end of the year is for Bialik and Jennings to split those hosting duties.
There’s no word yet on the search for the permanent day-to-day host for “Jeopardy!”
“Jeopardy!” is produced by Sony Pictures Television and distributed domestically by CBS Media Ventures and internationally by ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group.