Jeopardy! Ken Jennings Replaces Mayim Bialik Over Strike
Photo-Illustration: Vulture. Photos: ABC
We’ll take Decisions That Should Be Made Permanent for $800, please. Clue sovereign Ken Jennings will be taking over Mayim Bialik’s Jeopardy! host duties for the remainder of season 39, Vulture can confirm, due to Bialik refusing to tape her remaining episodes out of solidarity with the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. Deadline first reported the news, which noted that this was the most prominent case of a game show being affected by the strike thus far. Jennings will be picking up four additional days behind the lectern, which is the equivalent of 20 new Jeopardy! episodes for viewers. Since July 2022, Bialik and Jennings have served as dual hosts of the venerable game show, with the duo splitting duties during the regular gameplay season as well as the extra tournaments. Jennings, for instance, is currently hosting the prime-time Jeopardy! Masters Tournament, which is airing on ABC as an intellectual battle royale of the six most recent megachampions. He told us last year that he indeed wanted the “dream job” following Alex Trebek’s passing, but seemed a bit skeptical that it was Bialik’s dream career move as well. (Up until its cancellation this month, she had been leading the Fox sitcom Call Me Kat for three seasons.) Yeah, we’re buzzing in to agree.
Source: Vulture
