Tag / Alex Trebek

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Why Make A Choice?

After a tumultuous 38th season of Jeopardy! that saw the initial choice to replace Alex Trebek removed after a week due to a scandal related to inappropriate comments he had made on an earlier podcast, the producers decided to keep their current jury-rigged hosting situation as is.  Sony Pictures Television has signed both Mayaim Bialik and Ken Jennings to long-term deals that will see the two continuing to split duties on the syndicated game show, while Bialik will continue to host primetime editions of the show as well as the new Celebrity Jeopardy! slated for ABC this fall.

With more versions of Jeopardy! on the air than ever before, and with Bialik continuing to star on Call Me Kat, which has been picked up for a third season, producers felt that multiple hosts would be needed to handle the load.  The search for a new host has been a laborious one, with a parade of celebrity guest hosts completing the show’s 2020-2021 season following Trebek’s death to the naming of Mike Richards as the permanent host before that imploded.

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Double Jeopardy

After Alex Trebek passed away in November, Jeopardy! producers must have hoped that their chosen replacement would rival his 36 year stint as host of the long running quiz show, becoming just as beloved.  Unfortunately, it’s back to the drawing board on that one. Mike Richards, the executive producer who was announced as Trebek’s successor a mere 9 days ago, has stepped down from the role after a long week of scandal reveals and inappropriate comments from a podcast he hosted years ago.  Richards began filming the start of the 38th season on Thursday, and those shows will air for the sake of the contestants.

For the time being, Richards will remain as the executive producer of both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, but you have to imagine that is a temporary measure as his credibility is shot, especially for whoever ultimately replaces him as host.  I can’t imagine a way this could have been handled worse by Sony Pictures Television, who seemingly did no background investigation on Richards prior to hiring him for either job. Or, even worse, they did and didn’t see a problem until the public was made aware.  His podcast was troublesome enough that when asked to comment on it, he deleted both the episodes and the server that hosted them.

In the long run, this may turn out to be a good thing.  Whoever replaced Trebek was going to be under unbelievable scrutiny from fans and players alike.  Now, whoever ultimately gets the job is replacing Richards, and they really have nowhere to go but up.

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A New Era

Nearly 9 months after the death of Alex Trebek, Sony Pictures Television has found their new hosts (yes, hosts) for Jeopardy!.  Mike Richards, who became the executive producer of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune for the 2020-2021 season, has been named the host of the daily syndicated version of the show.  Richards, who guest hosted for two weeks at the end of February and into March, had previously hosted the 2012 revival of The Pyramid for Game Show Network and was the executive producer of The Price is Right and Let’s Make A Deal for over a decade before joining Sony in 2020.

In addition to Richards, Mayim Bialik will host primetime and spinoff series, including the upcoming Jeopardy! National College Championship set to air on ABC next year.  Bialik, the former Blossom and Big Bang Theory star, guest hosted for two weeks at the end of May and the beginning of June.

When word first leaked of Richards getting the job, complaints about harassments lawsuits during his time at The Price is Right surfaced, along with him seemingly having lied about the circumstances around his guest hosting stint.  A skeptic might say the Bialik move was an attempt to head off criticisms of yet another white man gaming the system to get a job, although I also wonder how much someone like Bialik would be interested in the main gig, given her other commitments.

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The End Of An Era

Later today, the final episode of Jeopardy! featuring Alex Trebek will air and an era will come to an end.  Trebek, who died in November after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, had taped episodes prior to his death that would have aired through Christmas Day, but produces inserted two weeks of his best episodes over the holidays to avoid pre-emptions.  His final week aired this week, culminating with today’s episode.  Trebek had hosted the syndicated program since its premiere in 1984.

A new, permanent host of the program has not been announced as of yet.  Former champion Ken Jennings, who won the show’s Greatest of All Time Tournament in early 2020, will fill-in for episodes that start airing next week, with other guest hosts expected to finish out the 37th season.

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2020: The Year In Books

As we wrap up 2020, a year where I should have been setting records due to the pandemic and stay at home orders, I managed to read only 23 books, a decrease of 5 books over last year.  Of those 23, 8 were non-fiction and, of the 15 novels, only 2 were tied to a TV show.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer and 15 were e-books.  I read just over 7,800 pages, my seventh highest total of all time.

For the first time in years, a majority of the books I read this year were by authors I have read before. The 11 authors that I read for the first this year were:

  • Ken Harrelson
  • Jeff Snook
  • Liz Phair
  • Megan Abbott
  • Greer Hendricks
  • Sarah Pekkanen
  • Cameron Esposito
  • Rich Lindberg
  • Sara Schaefer
  • Alex Trebek
  • Trevor Noah

Tom Perotta, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Karin Slaughter were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2020.

6 of the books I read were released this year, while 5 of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1933.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  My vacation to Hawaii in February and being off in December certainly helped pad its totals a tad bit. Continue reading →

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Book 14 (of 52) – The Answer Is…

The Answer Is… Reflections On My Life – Alex Trebek

Alex Trebek is dying. The long-time host of Jeopardy!, who turned 80 last month, announced that he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer last March.  With that backdrop, he finally decided to put pen to paper and write a memoir, with, as the subtitle indicates, brief reflections on the important moments of his life and a behind the scenes look at one of the most popular game shows of all time.

Born in Sudbury, Ontario on July 22, 1940, Trebek introduces us to his parents, a Ukrainian-immigrant chef father and a French Canadian mother, while detailing his early years.  After gaining early notoriety as a CBC announcer and host, he came to the US in the early 70s to become host of a new game show, The Wizard Of Odds.  This led to a string of hosting gigs, most for game shows whose lifespans were measured in weeks instead of years.  In 1984, he was hired as the host of a syndicated revival of Jeopardy!, where he has remained for the past 36 years.

Some of the most memorable Jeopardy! champions get chapters devoted to them, including Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer, Chuck Foster, Frank Spangenberg, and Eddie Timanus, the first blind contestant on the show.  Trebek also brings us behind the scenes of the show, with a typical shooting day starting with his review of the day’s game boards and the production meetings to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Trebek continues to receive treatment for his cancer, but is forthright about the limited amount of time he has remaining.  For him, the shutdown of the world due to the corona virus may have been a blessing in disguise, as it has given him the opportunity to spend additional time with his wife and grown children.  As someone who has been welcomed into millions of homes over the past 36 years, including mine, this was a worthwhile read and a rare opportunity to learn more about the person we all think we know.