By Heidi Konow, Contributing Writer
Like much of the continent—even those that don’t test their trivia knowledge five nights a week—I was shocked to hear in early November 2020 that Alex Trebek had lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. And, like much of the “Jeopardy!” audience, I began to ask the question: “What comes next?”
Over the first half of 2021, there came countless guest hosts. Some were celebrities, some past victors (why didn’t they let James Holzhauer give it a try? The other two Greatest of All Time competitors did). One—ironically the most popular among the viewers—got thrown in last minute as new COVID-19 cases took hold. And yet, somehow, more than a year later, we still don’t have a host.
To be sure, they announced Mike Richards would take the gig, but the people who had supported him proved turncoats and struck him down over internet comments they didn’t like. So now we’ve got former champion and “The Chase” host Ken Jennings and actress Mayim Bialik (whom the crew hopes will stay on, even as it is being reported that she “doesn’t fit in” backstage). But nothing permanent has been announced. This is keeping a program as American as Walt Disney in limbo and putting it in jeopardy.
It seems to me that there are only three ways to handle this debacle. The first is unspeakable: let the game peacefully die with Trebek. But it is also impossible; they have already gone through the trouble of attempting to select a host and are still hosting online auditions, though they have not had a college tournament (or at least auditions for it) since the shutdowns in early 2020. And it feels borderline disrespectful—Trebek knew that, at one point or another, he would have to step down and they would need to replace him. He even joked about it, saying in his autobiography that he would like Betty White to replace him. However, considering that she also recently passed away, that would have been a very temporary fix and we’d be back to square one.
The second solution is outrageous, not to say impossible: find someone brand new, with nothing. No social media. No experience. A completely blank slate that can be trained exactly as the production team wants. In this day and age, to find someone like that is about as likely as catching a unicorn. They exist (maybe not in the form people expect; a one-horned goat is still, by definition, a unicorn), but are so rare that to find one with the qualifications and the knowledge to host this show for decades to come will likely yield just as fruitless a search as the one they’ve already attempted.
The third—and seemingly most sensible option—is to just pick someone who fills the podium well and isn’t busy with another show. After all, Ken Jennings is currently filming three trivia shows when he is taking his turn at hosting—”Jeopardy!,” “The Chase,” and “Master Minds.” With “Jeopardy!” putting out a new episode over 100 days out of the year, it would eventually become a choice for Jennings between his shows as to which he wants to give up and which he wants to continue. Which would get back to square one. So, let the producers pick a selection of three or four guest hosts that they liked. Let each one fill in for a few weeks so they can determine who works best with the team backstage—crew and production both—and maybe give a poll to see what the nation thinks. And then, if someone finds something online and hollers, ignore it. People are allowed to have opinions that differ from other people, or else we would all be robots (which is something a blogger online suggested they use as a host, with Trebek’s voice. That’s as disrespectful as option one). After the first month or so, people would either let it die down or just not tune in. Things could go on as normal.
There has been some recent speculation regarding the recently unseated 39-day champion, Amy Schneider, following an interview with the LA Times. The resulting headline of this interview, in which the question as to whether Schneider would be interested in hosting temporarily, has led many to believe that this is a potential outcome. The asking of this question unfounded was not overly wise; the question itself and the particular person that they asked it of will easily divide people into camps the same way that the initial hosting debacle has. Some will be more willing to watch the show for a transgender host, some less, and some couldn’t care who is hosting. However, to ask and report on the question the way that the reporter did will only raise speculations that ought not to have been there to begin with. Currently, no changes will have been announced to Jennings’ and Bialik’s hosting schedule.
But if they continue as they have been for the past year, “Jeopardy!” will become less a game of trivia and more a game of “I wonder who the host will be today?” And that question is never the correct response to Final Jeopardy.
