The unanswered ‘Jeopardy!’ question: Who’s the new host?
LOS ANGELES – “Jeopardy!” needed a host, and Lucille Ball had an enthusiastic suggestion for creator Merv Griffin: The smooth-voiced, debonair emcee of the “High Rollers” game show.
That was 1984. Decades later, filling the void left by the late Alex Trebek involves sophisticated research and a parade of guest hosts doing their best to impress viewers and the studio that’s expected to make the call before the new season begins taping later this summer.
Think of Sony Pictures Television as clutching the rose, and Mayim Bialik, Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric and “Jeopardy!” champs Ken Jennings and Buzzy Cohen among the suitors so far, with more to come including Robin Roberts, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Levar Burton.
Sony has “the most robust team of people I have ever seen looking at this and analyzing it in a very cerebral way,” said executive producer Mike Richards. “It’s a real change from the way casting has traditionally been done on television.”
“It’s usually been a gut instinct of the head executive: ‘How about that person?’” Richards said.
That was producer-entertainer Griffin’s approach when he brought a syndicated version of “Jeopardy!” to TV, five years after the quiz show’s last network iteration wrapped in 1979 on NBC. A word from Ball, of “I Love Lucy” fame, and Trebek’s skill and experience sealed his hire.
Audience and critical regard for the Canadian-born Trebek grew over the years, which makes finding a worthy replacement both a gesture of respect for the late host and the means to protect a corporate asset. While ratings have shifted under the guest hosts, “Jeopardy!” remains among the top-ranked syndicated programs in viewership.
Trebek helped build the show’s “display of excellence with his own excellence. And it’s tremendously difficult to find somebody to replace him, not only because of the status that he had in the American imagination,” said Deepak Sarma, a Case Western Reserve University professor and Netflix cultural consultant. “Anyone who is going to take his position will be judged in the end against this model of perfection.”
Game show hosts of Trebek’s era were usually radio and TV broadcasting veterans steeped in the genre, and almost invariably white men. Among the “Jeopardy!” subs are men and women of color and prospects from a variety of fields, including NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
The approach makes sense to Louis Virtel, a longtime fan whose vantage point is informed by writing for a game show (“Match Game”) and competing on “Jeopardy!” in 2015.
“It’s great to see all these different fillins. I’m open to suggestions, and I think most people are,” said Virtel, a “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” writer and co-host of the “Keep It” podcast. “‘Jeopardy!’ is a oneof-a-kind show, and the replacement should be tailored to the game.”
What makes for a good “Jeopardy!” host?
“I think establishing a sense of comfort (so) the audience just eases into the game,” Virtel said. “Also a sense of stakes, that a real tough game is being played. It’s called ‘Jeopardy!’ for a reason. The host is there to make sure we’re all on our toes.”
The try-outs are an unusually public form of auditioning. For actor Bialik of “Blossom,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Call Me Kat,” any nerves were crowded out by the demands of the job – and she’s a neuroscientist.