Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings will continue sharing Jeopardy! hosting duties through summer 2022
Who will be the next permanent Jeopardy! host? It looks like that question will drag on well into 2022.
Jeopardy! announced Wednesday that Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings will continue to share hosting duties for the rest of the current season, which runs through July 29, 2022. The quiz show previously tapped Bialik and Jennings to host through the end of 2021. At the time, there was some speculation a permanent daily host could be in place by the start of 2022, but it appears that decision has been put off a bit longer.
After the death of longtime host Alex Trebek, Jeopardy! brought in a rotating series of guest hosts, including Jennings and Bialik. By August, Sony made the surprise announcement that the show's own executive producer, Mike Richards, would be the new daily host, while Bialik was hired to host primetime and spinoff series. But Richards quickly stepped down amid controversy over resurfaced offensive podcast comments and discrimination lawsuits.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Since then, Bialik and Jennings have been rotating Jeopardy! hosting duties, but no permanent plan has been announced. Fans have speculated the show could potentially either have Bialik and Jennings share hosting duties permanently, the same way Bialik would have shared hosting duties with Richards, or hire Bialik full time. In August, in fact, TMZ reported Sony was originally interested in Bialik for the permanent job, but she was too busy, including with her Fox sitcom Call Me Kat.
Jennings has been another fan favorite to get the permanent hosting job, though The Wall Street Journal has reported he wasn't selected during the initial job search because of his offensive old tweets. Bialik, meanwhile, has expressed interest in the permanent gig. If the hope is to eventually have a single daily host, though, don't expect that to happen until at least the start of the show's next season, which typically begins in September.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
-
Political cartoons for January 17Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include hard hats, compliance, and more
-
Ultimate pasta alla NormaThe Week Recommends White miso and eggplant enrich the flavour of this classic pasta dish
-
Death in Minneapolis: a shooting dividing the USIn the Spotlight Federal response to Renee Good’s shooting suggest priority is ‘vilifying Trump’s perceived enemies rather than informing the public’
-
‘One Battle After Another’ wins Critics Choice honorsSpeed Read Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, won best picture at the 31st Critics Choice Awards
-
Son arrested over killing of Rob and Michele ReinerSpeed Read Nick, the 32-year-old son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, has been booked for the murder of his parents
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
