Ranking the Jeopardy! Guest Hosts

 

When the news broke that Alex Trebek passed away in 2020, I started watching a lot of "Jeopardy!" And when I say "a lot of 'Jeopardy!'," I mean that I watched a ton of "Jeopardy!"

As a work-from-home, first-time father, I spend a lot of time on the couch, so I just started watching as much of it as I could. I started recording the syndicated episodes so I could catch the tail end of Alex's 37-year run, I watched literally every single episode that was on Netflix at the time and I even read Mr. Trebek's 2020 autobiography, The Answer Is....

My enthusiasm for the show didn't wane when the show announced an upcoming schedule of celebrity guest hosts - perhaps to find a permanent replacement for the late, great Alex Trebek. I was intrigued to find out how these guests would perform and anxious to find out who they'd ultimately pick as a successor. Needless to say, I feel qualified to write this blog because I've watched nearly every single episode with a guest host, other than a couple shows that didn't record, due to weird glitches with my DVR.

If you've got nothing else going on and need something to read, I'll share my knowledge with you and then we can compare notes if you're still with me at the end.

Early Expectations

My early money was on legendary "Jeopardy!" champion Ken Jennings - who I interviewed for the Deseret News in 2014 - but a few other names stood out, like longtime news anchor (and iconic Early 2000s reality TV show host) Anderson Cooper, piqued my interest.

One notable omission from the first guest host list was LeVar Burton, who has for some time been an Internet darling for Alex Trebek's ultimate replacement. Burton was kind of the television voice of my childhood education, as host of "Reading Rainbow," and I met him back at a Salt Lake Comic Convention a few years back, so I thought he'd do a great job, if given the chance.

The Internet did what it does and campaigned to get Burton a "Jeopardy!" hosting gig; an online petition at change.org garnered (at the time of writing this post) digital signatures of 267,377 people who wanted Burton to become the permanent host. In addition, Burton himself actively campaigned for the job on Twitter. Here's one of his tweets:

Not gonna lie, I feel like I’ve been preparing my whole life to occupy the @Jeopardy host podium when Alex retires. #Jeopardy https://t.co/N1HrMTCaYI

— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) September 22, 2020

Eventually, Burton, along with several others, were tacked onto the list of guest hosts, for a total of 16 stand-ins. It was time to usher in a new era for one of America's favorite game shows.

A Brief Breakdown of the Guest Hosts

Ken Jennings had, arguably, the toughest job of all: being the first to step into the gigantic footprints left by the beloved Alex Trebek. But as a familiar face who has spent more time on that stage than any other contestant in the history of the show, he fit in seamlessly. His familiarity with the game was evident, his pacing was perfect and, although he wasn't Alex, he felt like the next best thing. Jennings remained at the podium for six weeks - three times more than any other guest host.

Replacing Jennings was the executive producer of "Jeopardy!," Mike Richards. I'd never heard of the guy, but he ended up being a great moderator, as well. He was fast-paced, friendly and interesting enough that I Googled him to learn more about him. At the time, I thought he'd also be good as a full-time host, but thought I'd reserve my final judgment until I'd seen more guest hosts.

Not all of the celebrities were a home run, though. The next two guest hosts were Katie Couric and Dr. Oz, and I didn't particularly care for either of them. Couric came off as an annoying mom trying to be cool (I still remember her referring to the contestants as "you little braniacs," and that just drove me absolutely nuts), and Dr. Oz had a great "game show host" voice but reportedly rubbed people the wrong way while he was there.

The immediate celebrity frontrunner, according to Twitter, was current NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers - a Celebrity Jeopardy! champion with an unapologetic love of the show. First of all, there is no chance on the good, green Earth that Aaron Rodgers is quitting his day job to host a game show. Not a chance in the world. I'll give it to him, though. Rodgers actually ended up doing a good job. His presentation was rather slow and occasionally awkward. Basically, he came off as a guy who wasn't used to hosting trivia contests. But he was humorous and truly seemed to be enjoying himself, so I forgave him.

A handful of news anchors and reporters filled in, as well. I'm not familiar enough with news and politics to understand whether I'm supposed to hate these people, based on my personal beliefs or whatever, so I went in unbiased. Here's a quick breakdown of what I thought of them:

• I will always love Anderson Cooper because of the classic reality TV show "The Mole" (Netflix just added the first two seasons of, by the way!). He was a solid host, though a bit stiff at times. He eventually lightened up a little bit, which was good to see.
• I had no idea who Bill Whitaker was when he stepped onto the stage. Turns out he's on "60 Minutes." Although he didn't strike me as full-time-host caliber, his voice was extremely soothing and he just seemed like the nicest old grandpa or neighbor you could ever want. I really enjoyed his time on the show.
• Savannah Guthrie from "NBC TODAY"... or as I like to call her, "Katie Couric, Jr." Not unlike Couric, I didn't particularly like Guthrie as guest host. She seemed happy to be there but I would have a hard time tuning in to watch her night after night.
• I have something to say about most of the guest hosts, either good or bad. Such was not the case for George Stephanopolous ("Good Morning America"). I can't remember practically anything about his time on the show.
• Also from the ranks of "Good Morning America" was Robin Roberts, who I was somewhat familiar with from her work on ESPN. I thought she did a good job on "Jeopardy!" She was enthusiastic (sometimes a bit too enthusiastic, maybe) and undeniably likable during her one-week stint.
• The penultimate guest host was CNBC's David Faber - a "Celebrity Jeopardy!" champion in his own right! I was a bit behind when he took over but had seen people online saying that he was great. After wrapping up his episodes earlier today, I have to agree! He was fast-paced and not a distracting presence. I think he would make a very good host.

At the time I wrote this blog, sportscaster Joe Buck was serving as the final of the 16 guest hosts. I know that a lot of sports fans get irritated by him, but I don't mind him doing sports commentary and I have been liking him on "Jeopardy!" so far, too. He's clearly having a good time, and I always appreciate when Alex and others have found ways to inject humor and personality into the game without derailing the competition.

Two guest hosts that I was really pleased with were Miyam Bialik and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. I know that there are some aspects of Bialik's personal life that are a bit... odd.. but my favorite actor is Tom Cruise, so who am I to judge? She is essentially a real-life genius, so she knows her stuff, and she commanded the game well, unlike several other hosts. I knew nothing of Gupta's life or credits, despite his name sounding vaguely familiar, but he also came off as very well educated and unafraid of the big stage. His attempt to do The Sprinkler remains a top highlight of the Guest Host Era. I tried to find a GIF of it but failed.

There were two guest hosts that I thought let excitement and expectations get the best of them: former "Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions" winner Buzzy Cohen and our old pal, LeVar Burton. Buzzy, whose real name is not "Buzzy" and who literally mentioned to Alex Trebek during his tournament run that his dream was to replace him as host, seemed tickled pink to have a crack at running the show, but his pacing was sporadic and his enthusiasm seemed to get in the way of the game from time to time. I mean, he wasn't bad, but a little Buzzy goes a long way. We'll get to LeVar in just a second.

Last week, a report surfaced, saying that Mike Richards was in "advanced negotiations" to become the permanent host of "Jeopardy!" As you might imagine, the Internet was NOT HAPPY about this news, for a couple different reasons - particularly because LeVar Burton had not been selected. We live in a society where people love to get outraged about things, simply for the sake of it, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the people who were reportedly furious that LeVar Burton probably wasn't going to be the permanent host don't watch "Jeopardy!" and/or didn't see LeVar Burton as guest host. I'm happy to walk that one back if somebody can prove me wrong, but that's the assumption I'm going to make.

My man LeVar put himself in a really tough spot by campaigning so hard for the job. I'd say that the bar was set higher for him than it was for anyone else, other than maybe Ken Jennings - but he did it to himself. So how'd he do?

He was stiff. He was awkward. He was slow. He randomly shouted the verdict of contestants' responses a couple times. Once, he accidentally told someone he got a question wrong, then had to correct himself immediately. He had long, awkward pauses a couple times, including during Final Jeopardy! on his last show. It was really rough, honestly. He's a super nice guy and I wished him nothing but the best for this gig, but it was not good. If you're going to get upset about something in the comments section of a post today, the "LeVar Burton Must Replace Alex Trebek" hill is definitely not the one you want to die on. He wasn't the best guest host. Not by a long shot. And it's too bad. He set himself up to win and didn't even come close.

The Official Announcement

Earlier today, "Jeopardy!" announced their official decision. In an unprecedented move, the show has decided to move forward with not one but two permanent hosts: Mike Richards and Miyam Bialik. Richards will handle the day-to-day, syndicated programming, and Bialik will appear on all "spin-offs," such as prime-time events and tournaments.

Personally, I love this move. I had Richards and Bialik ranked very high on my list, which we'll get to in a moment, and I think they'll do as good a job as anyone.

I know that this decision is causing a lot of dissention among fans (or, as explained previously, people who claim to watch simply as an excuse to argue). People are still pissed that it's not LeVar Burton, but he wasn't good enough. Even if you're the most qualified person in the universe, if you go in and bomb the interview, sometimes you don't get chosen. That's life, bruv. I'm not going to beat that dead horse any further.

People have got issues with the lack of diversity in televised trivia. I saw one random person complaining on Twitter that "Jeopardy!" had a perfectly diverse candidate in LeVar Burton and were opting to go with "a generic white guy" instead. Don't tell anyone I said that, but... isn't that racist? "We shouldn't choose this person because they're a white man." Am I wrong? I say you hire the best person for the job, regardless of gender, race or any other factor. But hey, what do I know?

I was fine with the rumor that it was just going to be Mike Richards because I thought he performed really well "in the interview," so to speak. The fact that we're getting two of my top candidates is awesome news, in my opinion.

Guest Host Power Rankings

As of this exact moment in time, Joe Buck currently still has two episodes left in his stay, so the final section of this blog is subject (but unlikely) to change. I was planning on saving this blog until the weekend, once the Guest Host Era was over, but when the big announcement dropping this afternoon, I needed to fast-track the post.

With no further ado and with no more gilding the lily, here is how I ranked the "Jeopardy!" guest hosts, from first to worst:

1. Ken Jennings

2. Mike Richards

3. Mayim Bialik

4. Sanjay Gupta

5. David Faber

6. Aaron Rodgers

7. Joe Buck

8. Robin Roberts

9. Anderson Cooper

10. LeVar Burton

11. Bill Whitaker

12. Buzzy Cohen

13. Savannah Guthrie

14. Dr. Oz

15. Katie Couric

16. George Stephanopoulos

How'd I Do?

If you're a TV trivia junkie like me, feel free to let me know if I got the list right. Leave me a comment if you think I got it wrong. You can tweet me (here and here). You can text me. You can look me up on the ol' Facebook, if you truly desire.

But do me a favor and just phrase your feedback in the form of a question.

Until next time.