"What Is A Bad Decision?" - Jeopardy Announces That Ken Jennings And Mayim Bialik Will Continue To Co-Host Jeopardy After This Season
Oh Jeopardy, Jeopardy, Jeopardy. What the fuck are we doing here?
How in the world can a game show that was so great completely botch a situation this badly?
We all knew when Alex Trebek passed, getting someone to fill his size 1 million shoes was going to be impossible. Which is why nobody had a problem with them trying out every person that politely asked for a shot at the gig in the longest casting call ever. Some of them were alright, some of them stunk. But it was all a part of an important if not drawn out process to find the perfect host for the show, which ended with the executive producer just happening to name himself the new host of the show.
Then this happened.
Then this happened.
And just like that, we had an outright debacle on our hands followed up by Jeopardy calling an audible to have Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik run out the clock on the season before figuring out what to do for the longterm in the future. Well the future is here and that longterm plan appears to be to just continue using the temporary plan and hope it works out in the end.
As a lazy person that has gone with that strategy for way too many things in my life, let me assure you it won't work out in the end. If it did, every game show would have two game show hosts. Jeff D. Lowe would be hanging over his microphone on The Dozen whenever he needed to get a haircut to Rone or KFC or someone else with the hosting chops. As Bill Parcells once famously said, "If you have two game show hosts, you really have none" and the Big Tuna ain't never told a lie.
Jeopardy didn't have to go with someone well known, whether it was Jennings, Bialik, or Aaron fucking Rodgers. It just needed to be someone that could resonate with the audience by letting the game be the star. Trebek was merely a random albeit devastatingly handsome Canadian when he got behind the podium in front of a live studio audience. He evolved over the decades with Jeopardy until he became the Game Show GOAT, capable of adding the perfect amount of entertainment while three nerds matched wits.
Sidenote: I miss that dude soooooo much
Instead Jeopardy did the one thing they couldn't do, which was pass on the guy Trebek said he wanted to take over (Jennings), waffle between a bunch of different hosts to give the audience no real presence of a replacement, and leave the show's future in limbo by rolling with a strategy that was a perfectly fine Band-Aid in a pinch but will work out about as well for the longterm as supernerds answering basic sports questions.
Alright, I've had enough negativity for the day. Let's watch this week's Dog Walk Draft that just so happens to be Best Game Shows and put on a brave face.