R.I.P Alex Trebek

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Don't forget that Jason Z is still in it. In case you forgot, he was the player who beat our own BBB.

Wow, I'm late to the party. Congrats on your appearance, BBB!

That makes two internet friends I have who had the unfortunate luck of playing Jeopardy against a megachamp.

Mayim Bialik is hosting this week, so I tuned in today in time for the start of Double Jeopardy. I enjoyed her as a host. It's weird to scrutinize every little thing about the host — something I never did with Alex. That is, until some comedian pointed out "It's the cards! Without the cards, he's Chuck Woolery!"

Anyway, I've become a big fan of Bialik after I learned that she is an actual neuroscientist, which I didn't know until after "the Big Bang Theory" went off the air. I also didn't know she was the star of "Blossom," which was a show that I never watched. I recently watched "Beaches," the Bette Midler movie, with my wife because she always teased me about "The Wind Beneath My Wings," a song that I used to hate, but now because we joke about it so much, I actually like it. It's so bad, it's good. But I digress. Mayim Bialik, in her first acting role, appeared in "Beaches" as the child version of Bette Midler's character.

I haven't watched "Jeopardy!" in years, so a few observations:
• They punctuate with commas and periods outside quotation marks, which seems to be a scientific or non-U.S. style.
• Instead of em dashes ( — ), they use a double-hyphen ( -- ) which really bugs me — the em dash is elegant punctuation!
• I correctly knew the Final Jeopardy question, but figured I must be wrong because it seemed too obvious.
• Bialik is endorsing some kind of pharmaceutical product that aired during a commercial break in my market — has this kind of thing been happening with any other host?

Quote: smoothgrh

• Bialik is endorsing some kind of pharmaceutical product that aired during a commercial break in my market — has this kind of thing been happening with any other host?

I have not seen another host with a commercial appearing during the show. My guess is that it was just a coincidence as that commercial of hers has been airing a lot on multiple channels.

Yeah. I can't find a single negative comment about her. It's all "rave reviews" online. Why not? She's smart; she can tell a joke; she's comfortable in front of the camera; she wants the job. She'd be a very acceptable Trebek replacement. The only fly in the ointment for her is she got into some trouble for a tweet she made during the Weinstein scandal.
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Another thing I'm having trouble finding is updated odds for the new host position. I did find one site with an interesting ranking system. Here are the top three contenders so far (it does not include those who have yet to appear including Bialik)...

Ken Jennings
-Hosted from January 4, 2021 to February 19, 2021
-Received 44,275 unique Twitter mentions including “Ken Jennings” and “Jeopardy”
-Shows he hosted had the highest average Nielsen rating of all guest hosts so far with a 6
-Mentioned in 8,840 news stories and blog posts

Aaron Rodgers
-Hosted from April 5, 2021 to April 16, 2021
-Received 76,129 unique Twitter mentions including “Aaron Rodgers” and “Jeopardy”
-Shows hosted had an average Nielsen rating of 5.5
-Mentioned in 10,006 news stories and blog posts

Mike Richards
-Hosted from February 22, 2021 to March 5, 2021
-Received 4,146 unique Twitter mentions including “Mike Richards” and “Jeopardy”
-Shows hosted had an average Nielsen rating of 5.9
-Mentioned in 5,278 news stories and blog posts

Full story at bookies.com

Savannah Guthrie begins her second week as Jeopardy! host. Reviews for her have been mixed. Some describe her as "engaging" and able to "think on her feet". Many, however, find her "wooden", "monotone" and "bleh". After a correct response, she seems to use the phrase "you got it" too much for the hardcore fans.

Quote: Twitter

“Another dreadful Jeopardy guest host...if Savannah Guthrie said ‘You got it’ one more time...I was ready to scream!"

Surprising, I suppose, considering news personalities often make great game show hosts, consider Pat Sajak. Anyways, Guthrie has made it clear she's not in the running for permanent host. Like some of the other guests, she's just doing it for fun/honor/bucket list reasons.

Much like Katie Couric, Savannah is too upbeat for me. I think it also shows when the host doesn't understand the clues and responses, which is the case here. Finally, her pronunciation of Mount Iztaccihuatl made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has completed his first week of hosting Jeopardy! to mostly positive reviews. Viewers found him to be "Trebek-ish", "calm, cool, collected" having a "nice voice" and a "gentle style". They also liked his big smile. There were calls for him to immediately be named permanent host.

Detractors, however, felt that his style and smile made him come across like a "used car salesmen". He was "smart" but "not very entertaining". Gupta himself was rather critical of his first few episodes...

Quote: Dr. Sanjay Gupta

“My pacing was off. My language skills suddenly declined. I forgot to walk to certain parts of the set at the right time, and I repeated the cardinal sin of calling a response an answer.”

Hardcore fans were also annoyed that he would often not phrase the correct response in the form of a question if none of the contestants knew it.

Still, I would say he has a chance -- a long shot perhaps but still a chance -- to be offered the permanent host position. Unfortunately, current betting odds are hard to come by. Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik are probably the the front runners. Aaron Rodgers is now handicapped by his contract dispute. LeVar Burton is yet to be seen.

Note that Gupta is the last 2 week host. After him, starting with George Stephanopoulos, all guest hosts will be 1 week affairs.

Quote: Gialmere

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has completed his first week of hosting Jeopardy! to mostly positive reviews. Viewers found him to be "Trebek-ish", "calm, cool, collected" having a "nice voice" and a "gentle style". They also liked his big smile. There were calls for him to immediately be named permanent host.

So far everybody has done a good job, including Sanjay. However, if your forced me to rank the guest hosts, he would not make my top half. Somehow I don't feel hosting the show is his calling. Maybe a lack of charisma and he seems a bit nervous and uncomfortable, trying to mask it with smiling too much.

If you put a gun to my head, I'd go with Mayim and Bill Whitaker as my top two.

Also, on another topic, is it just me or has the show had a lot more women since Alex left?

Quote: Gialmere

Hardcore fans were also annoyed that he would often not phrase the correct response in the form of a question if none of the contestants knew it.

Well that's pretty silly, considering Trebek often did the same thing.

Quote: Wizard

Also, on another topic, is it just me or has the show had a lot more women since Alex left?

Perhaps before. I remember BBB picking up on the producer's "we need more women" vibe when she was a contestant.

For this season, the big topic (apart from guest hosts) has been the 3-fingers hand gesture. A tempest in a teapot I suppose but too political to discuss here.

I find myself growing tired of guest hosts. On the other hand, I find myself tuning in much more often to see how the host du jour is progressing. So what do I know about how TV works? Then again, I am old enough to remember Trebek getting raked over the coals when he first started for falling shy of the Art Fleming standard.