‘Jeopardy!’ Boss Hopes to Name Permanent Host ‘Very, Very Soon’

Kelli Boyle June 27, 2022, 10:57 am

Jeopardy Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik — Jeopardy!, Inc.

Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik have been sharing Jeopardy! hosting duties for the better part of a year now. But a permanent Jeopardy! host announcement could be coming soon. At the Daytime Emmys on Friday, June 24, executive producer Michael Davies said the shows hopes to announce the permanent host “very, very soon,” adding that more versions of the beloved game show are on the horizon.

Speaking backstage, Davies teased that there could be not just one new host, but several. “We hope to have a hosting announcement very, very soon,” he said. “But with all of our plans for Jeopardy! — which is more Jeopardy!, not less, more versions — we’re going to need multiple hosts to represent the entire audience, to represent the entire country, in order to take this franchise forward.”

Just last week, rumors circulated that Buzzy Cohen might be getting a permanent position on the show when the popular former champion said that he was working on a “secret project.”

Meanwhile, show boss Davies also addressed the Mike Richards hosting controversy, calling that time period after Richards was hired as host and swiftly fired for offensive past comments “the awkward months.”

“The scandal was, as we call it at Jeopardy!, ‘the awkward months,’” Davies said, per Variety. “But it showed the power of our audience and how passionately our fans care about the program, which is just so important. What’s happened over the course of the season — Matt Amodio, and Amy Schneider and Mattea [Roach] and Ryan [Long] — really made us just remember how incredible the game is. The stars of our show and Mayim [Bialik] and Ken [Jennings] have done incredible job hosting.”

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Jeopardy! won Outstanding Game Show for the third year in a row at the 2022 Daytime Emmys and has taken home the top honor seven times in the last 10 years. The syndicated trivia show has also won Outstanding Game Show more than any other series in the history of the category.

The late Alex Trebek, who died on November 8, 2020, won Outstanding Game Show Host eight times in his nearly 37-year hosting stint, the last being a posthumous award in 2021. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2011.

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