The list of “Jeopardy!” guest hosts continues to grow.
On Tuesday, the beloved quiz show announced four more guest hosts to help keep things running following Alex Trebek’s death: Dr. Oz, Anderson Cooper, “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the chief medical correspondent for CNN, according to a news release sent to the Deseret News.
When the news broke, “Jeopardy!” fans immediately expressed dissatisfaction with the appointment of Dr. Oz, in part because of what they called his misleading medical claims — including his push for hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment back in March, according to The Wrap.
“Hey @jeopardy: Not on board with Dr. Oz and STRONGLY call for this not to go forward,” former “Jeopardy!” champ Dan Pawson wrote on Twitter. “He stands for misinformation: exactly the opposite of what Jeopardy’s supposed to be. Please reconsider.”
The other names were greeted with substantially less disdain. In 2014, Cooper was in discussions with the distributors of “Jeopardy!” to be a possible replacement following Trebek’s retirement, the Deseret News previously reported. The CNN anchor has competed on “Celebrity Jeopardy!” a number of times and is a longtime fan of the show.
Guthrie covered “Jeopardy!” and Trebek on “Today” for years, according to NBC-San Diego. After Trebek’s death, she spoke with “Jeopardy!” executive producer Mike Richards about the late host’s final games.
“We didn’t know it was going to be his final episodes and neither did he,” Richards told “Today,” according to the Deseret News. “He was in enormous pain. … You will not sense any of that in these episodes. He is strong, he sounds great, he’s funny and he’s amazing.”
Gupta — who is also an associate professor of neurosurgery at Emory University in Atlanta — shared his love for “Jeopardy!” in a post on Twitter, calling it an “honor to be an upcoming guest host.”
“I used to watch @Jeopardy with my parents and now with my own kids,” he wrote. “The thing is: there is just something so beautiful and reassuring about facts, simple straightforward facts. I cherish that. An honor to be an upcoming guest host, but seriously miss the great Alex Trebek.”
Each guest host will make a donation to the charity of their choice during their time on the show, according to the news release.
The announcement comes a few weeks after “Jeopardy!” revealed its first series of guest hosts, including journalist Katie Couric, NFL star Aaron Rodgers, “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker and “Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik, according to the Deseret News.
Ken Jennings, who won 74 “Jeopardy!” games in 2004 and became the “Greatest of All Time” champion in 2020, is about halfway through his stint as the inaugural guest host. Fans have largely been supportive of Jennings in this role, admiring everything from his obvious love of the game to his nightly “Thank you, Alex” sign-off on “Jeopardy!”
“Sharing this stage with Alex Trebek was one of the greatest honors of my life,” Jennings said at the start of his first game as “Jeopardy!” guest host, according to the Deseret News. “Not many things in life are perfect, but Alex did this job pretty much perfectly for more than 36 years — and it was even better up close. We were dazzled by his intelligence, his charm, his grace — really, there’s no other word for it.
“Like all ‘Jeopardy!’ fans, I miss Alex,” he continued with emotion. “Very much. And I thank him for everything he did for all of us. Let’s be totally clear: No one will ever replace the great Alex Trebek, but we can honor him by playing the game he loved.”