Best of Best ‘Jeopardy’ player is first Trebek replacement host
“Jeopa rdy!” recordholder Ken Jennings will be the first in a series of interim hosts replacing Alex Trebek when t he show resumes production Monday.
Producers announced last week that Jennings, who won 74 games in a row and claimed the show’s “Greatest of All Time” title in a competition last year, will host episodes that air in January. A host to replace Trebek, who died of cancer on Nov. 8, will be named later.
“By bringing in familiar guest hosts for the foreseeable future, our goal is to create a sense of community and continuity for our viewers,” the show’s executive producer, Mike Richards, said.
The show is in its 37th year of syndication. It is still airing shows that Trebek filmed before his death.
Richards said “Jeopardy!” will air repeat episodes for the holiday weeks beginning Dec. 21 and 28, meaning Trebek’s final week of shows will air starting Jan. 4. Jennings’ episodes begin on Jan. 11.
Swift illuminates ‘Folklore’ in a concert
“Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions” is straightforward and cozy. Taylor Swift and her two main collaborators and producers for her album “Folklore” — Aaron Dessner (from The National) and Jack Antonoff (a producer for Lorde, Lana
Del Rey and others) — play through the album’s 17 songs at Dessner’s Long Pond Studio, a rural haven in Hudson, New York. Conversations between the collaborators introduce each song; birds and insects chirp.
“Folklore” was released in July, and the documentary, out now on the Disney+ streaming service, was shot in September. Swift, Dessner and Antonoff perform as a trio on guitars, piano and a handful of other instruments, stripping away some of the fussy intricacies of the album’s studio versions in a way that heightens the songs’ sense of pristine contemplation. Often the music is just a rippling piano pattern and a modestly strummed guitar or two, each note precious.
The big twist is that the September sessions were the first time that Swift, Antonoff and Dessner were together in the same place. During the pandemic, they had each recorded in their own studios, collaborating long-distance.
While “The Long Pond Studio Sessions” is a positioning statement like her recent Netflix documentary, “Miss Americana,” which revealed her struggle to declare herself as a left-leaning thinker amid the conservative assumptions of country music, it’s also, more importantly, a musical experience. Songwriting — mysterious, telegraphic, crafty and personal as well as potentially lucrative — is Taylor Swift’s mission. “Folklore,” made under singular circumstances and challenging old reflexes, is likely to be just one step in her trajectory.