And Now, Here Are the New Hosts of ‘Jeopardy!,’ Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik
After months of speculation and a week of rumors, the answer regarding the permanent new host of Jeopardy! is both its executive producer Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik. Here’s more on the move that has named two co-hosts to front the show for the first time in its history.
Richards and Bialik announced as new co-hosts of ‘Jeopardy!’
It’s official: Mike Richards really is a host of Jeopardy!, in an unexpected partnership with a recent fan-favorite guest host Mayim Bialik.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to join the Jeopardy! family,” Bialik said in a statement. “What started out with my 15-year-old repeating a rumor from Instagram that I should guest host the show has turned into one of the most exciting and surreal opportunities of my life! I’m so grateful and excited to continue to work with Mike Richards, and I’m just over the moon to join forces with him and Sony. After all the conversations we’ve had about this partnership, I am just so ready to get started!”
Richards also expressed his gratitude for his new role. According to Deadline, he will remain executive producer on the game show as well.
“I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to host the syndicated version of Jeopardy!,” said Richards. “Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being chosen to step into a role of this magnitude. Alex believed the game itself and the contestants are the most important aspects of the show. I was fortunate to witness his professionalism, intensity and kindness up close and that will serve as the ultimate blueprint as we continue to produce the show we love.”
How the new Richards-Bialik hosting arrangement will work
The hosting duties will be broken up between the two new permanent hosts. Richards is the new host of the quiz show, officially assuming the late Alex Trebek’s mantle, according to Sony Pictures Television.
Bialik has been given the duties of hosting the game show’s primetime and spinoff series, “including the upcoming Jeopardy! National College Championship,” which will debut in 2022.
Sony Picture’s chairman released a statement as well, noting that the search for Trebek’s successor has been undertaken with great thought and consideration to fans.
“We are thrilled to begin the next chapter of America’s Favorite Quiz Show with Mike hosting our daily show and Mayim hosting new versions of Jeopardy!,” Ravi Ahuja, Chairman of Global Television Studios and Corporate Development for Sony Pictures said. “We took this decision incredibly seriously. A tremendous amount of work and deliberation has gone into it, perhaps more than has ever gone into the selection of hosts for a show – deservedly so because it’s Jeopardy! and we are following the incomparable Alex Trebek.”
Ahuja noted that so intense was the hunt for a new host that “a senior group of Sony Pictures Television executives pored over footage from every episode, reviewed research from multiple panels and focus groups, and got valuable input from our key partners and Jeopardy! viewers.”
Trebek might have been proud of the move
In 2019, at a Television Critics Association press tour, Trebek addressed the topic of who he would love to have replace him. Perhaps his answer at that time offers a small amount of satisfaction that the late and beloved host would have been pleased with today’s news.
“When people ask me who I’d like to see replace me, I say, ‘Well, it’s probably going to be a woman, and she’ll have to be bright, she’ll have to have a good sense of humor…” Trebek said.
Trebek jokingly suggested Betty White as his pick, but Bialik’s partial appointment as host is great news today.
RELATED: ‘Jeopardy!’: Celebrity Reactions to Mike Richards as the Game Show’s Presumptive Host Are Not Pretty
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