Mayim Bialik Sounds Off Over Major Jeopardy! Debacle
"Jeopardy!" has been in limbo ever since longtime game show host Alex Trebek died in November 2020. Trebek was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer back in 2019, but continued to work until just before his death. Trebek was the face of the show and, without him, producers were at a loss as to how to replace him. They eventually came up with a plan that involved a series of guest hosts while they tried to suss out who could possibly fill Trebek's shoes.
Producers finally settled on executive producer Mike Richards, but things didn't go as planned. Within months of becoming the official host, he was forced to step down amid a slew of complaints that involved reportedly bigoted and misogynistic behavior on his behalf.
The exhausted producers turned to "The Big Bang Theory" star Mayim Bialik to co-host in the interim, along with former "Jeopardy!" champion Ken Jennings. Bialik, who played a genius on the show, is actually pretty clever in real life. She has a BA and Ph.D. in neuroscience — so yeah, she was a pretty strong choice for the role. Besides being super smart, Bailik also has some strong opinions about the Richards scandal and the future of the franchise.
Mayim Bialik isn't sure about the future of Jeopardy!
Ever since Mayim Bialik signed on to co-host "Jeopardy!" with Ken Jennings, there has been much debate about who could (and should) become the full-time host, a la Alex Trebek, or if the two would simply continue co-hosting for the foreseeable future. "It is a huge thing to lose Alex [Trebek] — not just for the larger community, but for the 'Jeopardy' community. It's a huge loss," Bialik told the Daily Beast.
Bialik also explained that she thinks some, if not all, of the controversy surrounding the struggle to find a permanent host is thanks to social media. "It's a completely different media landscape now," she continued, alluding to the Mike Richards scandal. "I think 'Jeopardy' was a perfect example of all the things that can go wrong in terms of social media and the handling by social media of certain information that normally people would know very little about," the actor explained.
As for the future of "Jeopardy!" and her role, Bialik isn't so sure. "At this point, I only know through the end of this 'Jeopardy' season what I do, and hopefully I'll find out at some point what happens next." Bialik might not be so sure, but according to many recent reports, there's no reason to think producers are eager to switch up the "Jeopardy!" roles anytime soon. As of December 2021, Bialik and Jennings are slated to continue hosting through the end of Season 38, per NBC. And, as Bialik told Entertainment Tonight, she'd be happy to take to the podium permanently. "[W]hat I know is I'm hosting until May 6, and beyond that, hopefully."