“Jeopardy!” has officially fleshed out its guest hosting schedule for the rest of the show’s 37th season. By the time filming for the new season begins in late July or early August, an official host will stand in Alex Trebek’s place, the Deseret News reported.
And who of the 16 guest hosts is the strongest contender to become Trebek’s replacement?
Here’s a rundown of what the ratings say (so far).
Ken Jennings is still the ‘Jeopardy!’ host front-runner
Based on the ratings, Ken Jennings — who was the first person to take on the guest hosting role back in January — remains the clear front-runner.
Perhaps people are traveling during the summer and not tuning in for “Jeopardy!” as regularly, or maybe viewers feel a sense of fatigue over getting a new “Jeopardy!” host every two weeks. But whatever the reason, it stands that the ratings for “Jeopardy!” have been relatively low during the last several guest hosting stints, according to nexttv.com.
Aside from Mike Richards — the “Jeopardy!” executive producer who unexpectedly filled in for two weeks after Jennings — no guest host has come close to boasting the ratings “Jeopardy!” had during Jennings’ six-week hosting run.
Following Richards, viewership took a dip during Katie Couric and Dr. Mehmet Oz’s guest hosting stints, the Deseret News reported. While NFL star Aaron Rodgers did bring up the ratings a bit, Anderson Cooper then followed with the lowest ratings of any guest host at that point — although his first couple of days hosting also overlapped with the Derek Chauvin trial, the Deseret News reported.
Since Cooper, ratings have remained relatively low as Bill Whitaker, Buzzy Cohen and Mayim Bialik have all taken turns behind the hosting lectern. In her first week, Bialik — who appeared to be a fan favorite on social media — had a 4.9 rating that put her just slightly above Cooper and tied her with Dr. Oz, nexttv.com reported.
Ratings for “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, who is in the middle of her hosting stint, have not yet been released.
What is the ‘Jeopardy!’ hosting schedule?
After Guthrie finishes hosting “Jeopardy!” on June 25, the quiz show will see six more guest hosts, according to the “Jeopardy!” website:
- June 28-July 9, Dr. Sanjay Gupta
- July 12-July 16, George Stephanopoulos
- July 19-July 23, Robin Roberts
- July 26-30, LeVar Burton
- Aug. 2-Aug. 6, David Faber
- Aug. 9-Aug. 13, Joe Buck
When will ‘Jeopardy!’ name a host?
Richards has said he believes “Jeopardy!” will extend the hosting job to someone who has served as a guest host during the show’s 37th season, the Deseret News reported. That decision, according to “Today,” will be made by the time filming for the 38th season beings later this summer.
- “You want to make an informed decision,” Richards told the The Wall Street Journal’s podcast “The Journal.” “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.”
And if the job were offered to Jennings, who is currently a consulting producer on the show, there’s a fairly good chance he’d take it.
- “I did feel like at the end, I was almost starting to get comfortable, I was starting to enjoy it a little bit,” Jennings has said of his hosting stint. “I think with time I am starting to figure this out. So I do hope I get another chance.”