The Host of Jeopardy? Ken Jennings

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PGage

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Dec 16, 2023, 2:13:24 AM12/16/23
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It took several years but they finally came up with the right answer (question?) to the hosting problem. I would be celebrating more aggressively but for fear that somewhere assholes are doing the same in an antisemitic vein.

“Sony has informed me that I will no longer be hosting the syndicated version of Jeopardy!” Bialik wrote. “I am incredibly honored to have been nominated for a primetime Emmy for hosting this year and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of the Jeopardy! family”…

Sony Pictures Television in a statement noted Bialik was the one who announced her departure.

“We made the decision to have one host for the syndicated show next season to maintain continuity for our viewers, and Ken Jennings will be the sole host for syndicated Jeopardy!” Sony said. “We are truly grateful for all of Mayim’s contributions to Jeopardy!, and we hope to continue to work with her on primetime specials.”





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David Bruggeman

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Dec 16, 2023, 3:43:19 AM12/16/23
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I notice that all the reporting and the statements specify "syndicated version" of Jeopardy!

I'm not clear why there's a need to be that specific here.  It seems to leave a door open for Bialik to host non-syndicated versions of the show, but the tone of the statements and the coverage sound to me like this is a complete break.

AFAIK, the only current non-syndicated format of the show in the U.S. is Celebrity Jeopardy!, where Bialik opted to step down (or step away, I suppose) from the second season as it started while the various strikes were in full effect.

I may have missed any official word with respect to Bialik's future with Celebrity Jeopardy! but I think it reasonable that her leaving, even if intended as temporary on her part, was made permanent by Sony, officially or otherwise.  (And if that show isn't picked up for a 3rd season, this is all moot.)

I guess it could also be confusing if the statements didn't reference 'syndicated version' but I don't know that it would be more confusing that the apparent wiggle room I see here.

But it's late on a Friday, and I'm probably overthinking it.

Best,
David

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JW

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Dec 16, 2023, 5:21:59 AM12/16/23
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> I notice that all the reporting and the statements
> specify "syndicated version" of Jeopardy!
> I'm not clear why there's a need to be that specific
> here.  It seems to leave a door open for Bialik to
> host non-syndicated versions of the show, but the
> tone of the statements and the coverage sound to
> me like this is a complete break.

Sony says, “We are truly grateful for all of Mayim’s contributions to Jeopardy!, and we hope to continue to work with her on primetime specials.” That would seem to leave the possibility of Celebrity Jeopardy!, or some other kind of network special. Of course, that assumes that Mayim hasn't closed the door.

PGage

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Dec 16, 2023, 11:05:10 AM12/16/23
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I agree that use of “syndicated” creates an ambiguity, and this was created not be media sloppiness, but by Bialik and Sony themselves, who both specifically used that modifier in their statements. 

Are they intentionally leaving the door open for her to return to C-Jeopardy? Maybe. Alternatively, It occurred to me that they may be still paying her the C-J Host salary for some period of time as a settlement, and to underline that they did not fire her in retaliation for honoring the picket line, and the syndicated language makes room for this.

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Tom Wolper

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Dec 16, 2023, 2:17:49 PM12/16/23
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Michael Davies is always talking about expanding the Jeopardy franchise and they might want her available for a new prime time spinoff. The celebrity tournament wasn’t the only prime time show, there was also the masters tournament.

There are too many unknowns to be able to speculate about what happened and why. Call Me Kat was cancelled, Mayim and her agent talked to Sony about scheduling, and the result was the press releases.

Jeff Metzner

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Dec 16, 2023, 4:37:36 PM12/16/23
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Unless they come up with another primetime show -- always a possibility with Michael Davies -- it seems like she's out. Nobody but Ken could handle Masters, and if this season of Celebrity does well enough to get renewed it seems unlikely ABC would want to change horses again.

PGage

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Dec 16, 2023, 7:14:39 PM12/16/23
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I have been re-reading media reports from back in August about Celebrity Jeopardy! My memory had been that that Ken was filling in for her while she honored the Strikes, but it seems that was only true for the final week of the previous season. In August they announced that Bialik would not be hosting the new season of CJ.

So, it now seems to me that she had two separate contracts, one to be the sole host of CJ, another to be one of two alternating hosts of regular (or, significantly, syndicated) Jeopardy! In August they announced she was not going to return as the host of season 2 of CJ, and yesterday they announced that she was not going to be returning as a host of syndicated Jeopardy! I can only assume the details of her contract allowed for the decision to be made now.

As I feared, there has been antisemitic shit online about her. What I should have anticipated but did not was there has been even more MAGA posturing that she was fired because she was Jewish or pro Israel.

For the record, I believe it is clear that she was let go because she so clearly is not nearly as good at the job as Jennings. That became more and more clear with every show either one of them did. In the long history of the show they have never had alternating hosts, and there is no reason why that is needed or would be a good thing now. As much as I prefer Ken, I think I would have rather they make Bialik the sole host than continue to alternate, as I found it impossible to get close to habituating to her style when I still hoped I would be seeing Ken. Every Monday show when they introduced Bialik was a frustrating let down for me. The reverse may be true for those who preferred Bialik, but I think knowing it’s Ken or nothing will help most of those adjust.

===========

“Mayim Bialik will not be hosting Season 2 of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” as she continues to support the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Variety has learned from sources. 

On Monday, ABC issued a press release with changes to their fall schedule, noting that Ken Jennings will host the new season of “Celebrity Jeopardy!,” which premieres Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. ET.”



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PGage

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Dec 18, 2023, 1:04:41 AM12/18/23
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Puck News’ Matt Belloni reports this evening that Bialik’s ouster is very much about her refusal to cross the picket lines (though Is till think if she were better at the job they would have kept her). He also says it’s possible she could return next year for Network Jeopardy!, but don’t bet on it:

============

“…while Sony insists the parting is to “maintain continuity” for viewers, Bialik’s actions during the strike were at least a contributing factor, according to three sources close to the show. Sony declined to comment beyond its statement. 

Sony TV executive Suzanne Prete and executive producer Michael Davies were furious when Bialik said in May that she would step away from the final week of filming last season in solidarity with the show’s striking writers. After all, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune are well-oiled machines, requiring precise timing to make the show’s five-episodes-a-day schedule. Plus, Bialik wasn’t loved on set, and Sony had switched up shooting that season to accommodate her Fox sitcom, Call Me Kat. Bialik’s reps were told that by refusing to perform, she was in breach of her contract, which began with an annual salary of $4 million (that includes her primetime Jeopardy! work), and has increased by $1 million each year. Jennings, who stepped in on those final episodes, is paid the same.

Post-strikes, Bialik had expected business as usual, but Sony recently informed her that her services won’t be needed next season. She was offered the chance to stay on for the rest of this season, but she said no thanks. Assuming the primetime Celebrity Jeopardy! and the college tournament are renewed by ABC for 2024-25 (a safe bet), she may still stay on those. But given her anger, I’ll be a bit surprised if that happens.”

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Tom Wolper

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Dec 18, 2023, 1:54:29 PM12/18/23
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In the Trebek succession the producers brought in a diverse group of guest hosts hinting that Jeopardy might have a new host that wasn’t a straight white man. The backlash to the Mike Richards debacle showed that Jeopardy was vulnerable to another misstep. So they hired Mayim to host. Whether they knew beforehand that she had limited availability or they asked her to give up Call Me Kat and she refused, that left an opening to bring Ken in.

What happened since the spring is that Ken took over hosting full time and there was no backlash, specifically the ratings didn’t drop, which made Mayim expendable.

M-D November

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Dec 19, 2023, 11:43:58 AM12/19/23
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While there was a case to be made for having a more diverse host (Laura Coates, Alex's personal choice, comes to mind; I never bought into the notion of having LeVar Burton succeed Alex - it just wasn't a good fit), I think there's a large segment of the Jeopardy audience who wanted Ken to host from the beginning, making the whole affair with Richards & the appointment of Bialik more distasteful.  Thus, to Tom's point, Mayim goes on strike, Ken steps in, the show stabilizes with the GOAT properly (and finally) succeeding the GOAT, and (again, to that large segment of the audience) all is right with the world.

Tom Wolper

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Dec 20, 2023, 2:15:08 PM12/20/23
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In any internet pile-on most participants are expressing their own outrage or pushing their agendas with no regard for the well being of the object they’re outraged about. Sony was right to be sensitive about choosing their host as they didn’t want to be at the center of an outrage storm that could tank ratings. And Ken probably did better than expected in settling in as the host.

Bob Jersey

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Dec 26, 2023, 4:43:28 PM12/26/23
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THR's Alex Weprin discusses things with Ken... the celebrities, he said, appear to be far more terrified than a regular-show contestant...
B

Tom Wolper, to M-D November, Dec 20th:

Diner

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Dec 28, 2023, 10:02:57 AM12/28/23
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And now Claire McNear, whose reporting helped bring down Mike Richards, tells the story of Mayim's departure:

PGage

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Dec 28, 2023, 11:07:49 AM12/28/23
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This is a helpful piece, not so much because of a lot of new reporting, but because it brings together just about everything that has been reported into one place. 

I was glad to have confirmed what I thought was true, which is that ratings were not significantly different for the two hosts (syndicated or prime time). I think in the end this hurt Bialik, as the main logic I can see for her hosting is that she would expand the popularity of the show to a new audience, drawn either because of a female host, or familiarity with her sit com work. If that was not happening, then the hosting question becomes more “which is serving the traditional Jeopardy! Audience better? And the answer to that question was always clear.

I do wish that McNear had been able to identify the main reason they let her go. Instead she provides three main reasons: 1) She irritated producers with her refusing to work during the strikes; 2) She was not as good at hosting as Ken; 3) She had more hard, polarizing edges than Ken. 

Of these, I think #2 is the most important, in that if she was widely seen by the core fan base as better at hosting the show than Ken, I think the producers would have had to swallow #1 and #3. Since she wasn’t, one can see why they would not want to put up with #1 and #3.

I have done deep dives into her pseudoscience on brain health and vaccines, but was only imagining what she might have been saying about Hamas attacks and Israeli response in Gaza, and how that might have influenced the hosting decision. I will just say that any friend of Israel (among which I have long counted myself) who in October of 2023 thought it would be helpful to make “You might be an Antisemite” jokes online had serious judgement impairment, approaching delusional intensity if they thought Bialik linking that kind of thing with the Jeopardy brand would somehow enhance her chances to keep working for the show.

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