JEOPARDY HOST FIGHT ENDS IN SPLIT DECISION!
Mayim gets prime time & Ken goes traditional
JITTERY Jeopardy! bosses wimped out by choosing to keep Mayim Bialik and her rival Ken Jennings as permanent show hosts and now sources blab fireworks are looming!
Insiders snitch Mayim, 46, is quietly steaming because she wanted to be the sole host and now she’ll have to share the podium with know-it-all Jennings, 48.
“She was really kissing up to everyone on the set, bringing
GLOBE / August 15, 2022 them cupcakes and other homemade goodies, ingratiating herself to the bosses and crew like Ms. Congeniality, but it backfired and she’s pissed off,” dishes a spy.
“She’s grumbled to a few people she’s always going to feel like Ken’s always there, always meddling.”
Show kingpins chickened out with a split decision since they “clearly wanted Mayim, but the fans wanted Ken,” says the snitch. “So they took the easy way out by keeping them both.”
But the new hosting partners will be keeping their distance!
Mayim will front the game show’s prime-time editions and ABC’s new Celebrity Jeopardy! as she continues to work on her comedy series,
Longtime host Alex Trebek congratulated Jennings after he won the Greatest of All Time tournament in 2020
Call Me Kat, which is entering its third season. Ken will focus on the traditional version with an occasional assist from Bialik, according to sources.
Ironically, Jennings reportedly would’ve been happy with a consulting role, the mole claims.
“But now that he’s been made a permanent co-host, he’s in a position of power and won’t put up with Mayim’s sourness,” says the source. “He’s there because the show needs him.”
People in the loop “predict it’ll lead to tension because these two just don’t get along,” blabs the source. “Ken has the fans’ support and most fans don’t seem to like Mayim no matter how hard she tries to sway them.”
And fans are uncertain the new arrangement will work, with one online poster calling it “stupid.”
Says the source, the situation is driving home how beloved host Alex Trebek was before he died from cancer in November 2020.