“Jeopardy!” has been testing out new hosts for four months now.
That audition process will continue for the rest of the show’s 37th season. But by the time filming for the new season beings in late July or early August, “Jeopardy!” will have an official host in Alex Trebek’s place, “Today” reported.
Who will replace Alex Trebek on ‘Jeopardy!’?
Although there’s a timeline in place for naming a new host, the decision is still up in the air.
- “It’s going to come down to the heads of Sony (Entertainment) to make that decision, ultimately, and it’ll come down to testing,” “Jeopardy!” Executive Producer Mike Richards told The Wall Street Journal’s podcast “The Journal.” “They’ve been a part of it. They know what’s going on in the studio. They’re watching the feed, the tapings. It’s very extensive. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of, as far as testing in its size and scope.”
- “You want to make an informed decision,” Richards continued, according to “Today.” “In the end, we’re a pretty cerebral group, the ‘Jeopardy!’ team. We want to go at this with real analytics and real testing and not just go, ‘Hey, how about this guy?’ which is kind of how a lot of these decisions have been made historically.”
Richards — who was the second person to fill in as guest host — said he believes the show will extend the job to someone who has served as guest host during the show’s 37th season.
That list includes Ken Jennings, Richards, Katie Couric, Dr. Oz, Aaron Rodgers, Anderson Cooper, Bill Whitaker, Mayim Bialik, Savanna Guthrie, Sanjay Gupta, LeVar Burton, George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, David Faber and Joe Buck, the Deseret News reported.
What do the ‘Jeopardy!’ ratings say about the hosts?
The Wrap has reported that in terms of ratings, Cooper — who hosted “Jeopardy!” from April 19-30 — had the lowest debut of any guest host so far. But Cooper’s first couple of days hosting also overlapped with the Derek Chauvin trial.
Cooper’s first week as host dropped “Jeopardy!” out of the top game show spot, placing it behind “Family Feud,” according to The Wrap. The 5.1 rating for Cooper’s first week — ratings for his second week have not yet been revealed — put the CNN news anchor slightly below Dr. Oz, who set the previous low with a 5.2 rating.
Based on the ratings, Jennings is the strongest contender to replace Trebek, the Deseret News previously reported.
Jennings also had the advantage of being the first guest host following Trebek’s death. During the first week of his six-week hosting run, the “Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time” champion drew in an average of 10.3 million viewers — second this season only to Trebek’s final week, the Deseret News reported.
After Jennings, the ratings favored Richards, followed by Rodgers, Couric, Dr. Oz and Cooper. Ratings have not yet been revealed for Whitaker, a correspondent for “60 Minutes” who is hosting through May 14.