Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings
Jeopardy! remains in search of a permanent host, but the game show has lined up two people to share hosting duties for the remainder of the year.
Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings will serve as hosts of the syndicated show for the rest of 2021, Jeopardy! announced via Twitter on Thursday. Bialik taped three weeks’ worth of episodes beginning in late August following the firing of host/executive producer Mike Richards, and she and Jennings — the winningest player in the show’s history and the first guest host to fill in for Alex Trebek following his death — will carry the show through the rest of 2021.
Bialik’s episodes will run from Sept. 20 through Nov. 5; following that, Jennings and Bialik will split hosting duties as their schedules allow. Bialik also stars in Fox sitcom Call Me Kat, which has yet to begin production on its second season.
Richards, who became executive producer of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune in 2019, was named as Trebek’s replacement in August, shortly before the show began taping episodes for the 2021-22 season. Bialik was tapped to host primetime specials, including the upcoming Jeopardy National College Championship.
Video: Mayim Bialik to fill in as host of ‘Jeopardy!’ (NBC News)
Mayim Bialik to fill in as host of ‘Jeopardy!’
Sources say that Sony TV prioritized firming up taping Jeopardy! through year’s end, with ialik and Jennings as fill-in hosts and Davies (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Talking Dead) as the substitute showrunner. The studio has not yet begun conversations with anyone on the hosting or showrunning front for a potential full-time role in 2022.
Sources note that Sony has no plans to test anyone else for the hosting role after the parade of trial runs under Richards that many consider to have been performative in nature before the former EP ultimately selected himself for the role.
Additional reporting by Lesley Goldberg.
