Jeopardy was short on guest hosts after Ken Jennings’ stint expired, so a chief showrunner had to take charge. Executive Producer Mike Richards stepped in Monday to serve as host of the quiz program, kicking off the broadcast by introducing himself and explaining to viewers at home why there wasn’t a more well-known face on their TV sets. COVID fears was the short answer.
The final five-time champion of Jeopardy while Alex Trebek was still host died unexpectedly last week, according to a statement from his mother. Brayden Smith, of Las Vegas, was 24 years old when he died on Feb. 5. The family did not release the cause of death.
The next round of Jeopardy guest hosts has been announced, and it includes Dr. Oz, Anderson Cooper, Savannah Guthrie and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. For each guest host’s appearance, a donation will be made to a charity of their choice equal to the cumulative winnings of the contestants on their respective episodes.
The show announced Wednesday that Katie Couric, the journalist and former Today host, will become the first woman ever to host the show. Others on tap are Mayim Bialik, Aaron Rodgers and journalist Bill Whitaker.
The show is currently using a series of interim hosts to replace Alex Trebek, who died of cancer on Nov. 8. That process began when record-holding contestant Ken Jennings made his debut on an episode that aired Monday.
Exclusives
On Monday, former Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings debuted as the show’s first post-Alex Trebek guest host. Jennings paid tribute to Trebek just after he walked out on stage. “Sharing this stage with Alex Trebek was one of the greatest honors of my life,” he said.
The same producer who helped Drew Carey succeed Bob Barker on The Price Is Right is now working on the Jeopardy succession.
The 90-second montage, set to Hugh Jackman singing the Peter Allen song Once Before I Go, is a lighthearted and laughter-filled remembrance showing Trebek’s changing look through his 36 years as host, with moustache and without, with black hair and with grey, with suits from several decades.
Stirr, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s over-the-top service, is exclusively streaming the late Alex Trebek’s last episodes as host of Jeopardy. The episodes are available on demand in markets where Sinclair stations air the syndicated show. And they will only be available until five more episodes air. At that point, the new episodes will be available on demand.
Johnny Gilbert, 92, started on the game show with Trebek in 1984. Now, he must imagine a Jeopardy without his longtime colleague.
The former Today co-anchor will be among a series of fill-ins after the final Alex Trebek episodes air this week.
Alex Trebek’s Last ‘Jeopardy’ Episode Airs This Friday — I Am Not Ready
Michael Ausiello: “While I appreciate the fact that Sony Pictures Television prolonged the inevitable by scheduling two weeks of curated reruns over the holidays (Trebek’s last airdate was originally slated for Dec. 25), I now find myself wishing and hoping for another continuance.”
The first of the five episodes will air Monday and start with Trebek’s “powerful message about the season of giving,” producer Sony Pictures Television said in a release Wednesday.
Jeopardy will air repeat episodes for the holiday weeks beginning Dec. 21 and 28, meaning lat host Alex Trebek’s final week of shows will air starting Monday, Jan. 4. Jeopardy record-holder Ken Jennings’ episodes begin on Jan. 11, to be followed by shows with other interim hosts.
Some famous faces, including the likes of ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, have reportedly tossed their hats in the ring to take on the post that Trebek held for nearly 37 years. Here are some of the top successor candidates in the rumor mill.
Alex Trebek, who died Sunday at 80, was a household name during his 37 years as the host of Jeopardy, and his authoritative presence spread far from that show into pop culture at large. Here are some of his most memorable cameos.
The day after Trebek died at age 80 following a battle with cancer, the show’s executive producer, Mike Richards addressed viewers from the Jeopardy set in a taped introduction.
In The Dumbest And Darkest Of Times, Alex Trebek Maintained A Safe Space For Intelligence
At its essence, Trebek’s Jeopardy was a nightly recognition of intelligence and competence, and there were times when the show seemed to be one of the last places where it’s a wonderful thing to be a know-it-all — where broad, general knowledge is something to be celebrated rather than scorned or resented. Above, a shrine to Trebek near his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Monday, Nov. 9.
Following Alex Trebek’s death on Sunday at age 80, George Stephanopoulos’ reps are already lobbying for the ABC News anchor to become the next host of the hit game show Jeopardy, a highly placed person with knowledge of the situation tells TheWrap.
Alex Trebek, Longtime ‘Jeopardy’ Host, Dies
Alex Trebek, Jeopardy host and TV personality, died Sunday after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 80. Trebek revealed in March 2019 that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, but vowed to battle the disease. He presided over the beloved quiz show for more than 30 years.
After an unprecedented three-month coronavirus-imposed hiatus, Jeopardy will be back on the air with fresh episodes beginning Monday, Sept. 14. “I feel good, and I feel excited because once again Jeopardy! has demonstrated that it’s at the forefront of television programming,” host Alex Trebek said. “I believe we are the first quiz show to come back on the air in the COVID-19 era.” In addition, newly-minted Jeopardy G.O.A.T. Ken Jennings is joining the show as a consulting producer.
Two of America’s longest-running game shows, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy are heading back to the studio. Both shows were hit by the COVID-19 production shutdown, but both syndicated shows, which come from Sony Pictures Television and CBS Television Distribution, are set to start filming this week and next. There will, however, be a few adjustments.
The long-running game show kicked off a week of “from the vault” episodes with Alex Trebek’s first time as host.
Jeopardy will soon be in all-encore mode. The iconic Alex Trebek-hosted game show — which halted production roughy three months ago due to the coronavirus pandemic — will air its last original episode on Friday, June 12. Reruns begin airing on Monday, June 15, and will continue until the show deems it safe to resume production.
Today, Friedman is closing out a 25-year run at Sony Pictures Television, the studio behind both game shows, as he opts to move on after the end of his contract. The well-respected television veteran holds a Guinness World Record for having produced 12,540 game show episodes, more than any other individual, and is the only producer to have won two Emmys in the same category in a tie with himself. For the week of April 6, Jeopardy averaged 11.6 million viewers each weeknight, while Wheel averaged 11.3 million, outperforming nearly all the nightly news shows across networks and all primetime programs on both network and cable.
Jeopardy is bringing back reruns of Ken Jennings’ 74-game winning streak from 2004. From May 4 to 15, reruns of select Jeopardy episodes will air in syndication in place of regularly scheduled episodes, which stopped production in March. The two-week-long event will start with a re-airing of Jennings’ first game ever, which originally aired June 2, 2004.
Nibir Sarma, a sophomore from Eden Prairie, Minn., won the two-week tournament in an episode airing Friday night, earning $100,000 and a berth against regular Jeopardy winners in the annual Tournament of Champions.
The popular gameshows are the latest television project to shift plans due to the new coronavirus. Last week, CBS announced that it was suspending production on The Amazing Race in response to the outbreak.
“I’d be lying if I said the journey had been an easy one. There have been some good days, but a lot of not-so-good days,” the longtime Jeopardy host said in a video message posted online Wednesday.
‘The Greatest of All Time’ game-show event is part of the network’s effort to have one big live (or live-feeling) special on its air each month.
“I’m out,” said Ken Jennings, the veteran who beat young hotshot James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter to take a $1 million prize in the tournament that stretched out over four entertaining nights on ABC’s primetime schedule. “I’m really happy to get one last hurrah,” he said, “but I don’t think I can top this.”
Ken Jennings won his third match in the Jeopardy “Greatest of all Time” contest televised on Tuesday, an event that’s been a primetime hit for ABC. He pocketed $1 million by dispatching James Holzhauer, who won one match, and Brad Rutter, who came up empty.
While treatment for pancreatic cancer is taking a toll, Alex Trebek said he’s not ready to retire from hosting Jeopardy although he’s mulled it in recent years. He spoke during a panel promoting Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time with top contestants Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer, The primetime contest is airing this week on ABC.
