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Ken Jennings had a moment while hosting “Jeopardy!” when he didn’t want to be a part of the show anymore.
During an interview with Rolling Stone, Jennings admitted that when he was asked to take over for Alex Trebek after his death in 2020, he wasn’t worried about his first episode.
He was more concerned about the grief and mourning he and the show’s staff were experiencing over the loss of Trebek.
“Everybody there was very emotional, and I had to be the one talking through it, even though I probably knew him least of all 100 people on set, crew and the staff. It was very scary. You’re aware that the audience does not want you there. They’re like me, they want the other guy, and I was missing him too. I’m like, ‘I don’t want to be here. I would give anything to not be here right now,’” Jennings told the outlet.
“Jeopardy!” showrunner Michael Davies told Rolling Stone that the original plan after Trebek’s passing was to rotate among several hosts to helm the show, but Jennings stood out from the potential candidates.
“I saw the look that the contestants would have when he’d walk out on the stage. Or his facility with the material,” Davies said. “I remember at one point, somebody buzzed in and gave the wrong response, and they said, ‘Who is Gainsborough?’ And he said, ‘Oh, no, I’m sorry, it’s Gainsborough’s great rival,’ and named some other obscure artist. It was just a moment, [but] who on earth other than Ken Jennings could have that moment?”
In 2021, Jennings and Mayim Bialik were named as the new permanent hosts of the show. In December 2023, Bialik announced that she’d been let go from the job.
Jennings also shared that he had discussed the idea of taking over the game show with Trebek, saying the first time was when he spoke with him about recording a portion of his audiobook, which was released in 2020.
“That was the first time I ever had a conversation with him that was [about] torch passing, and even that was kind of very unspoken,” Jennings said.
Jennings’ career with “Jeopardy!” began 20 years ago as a contestant. Over the course of 74 consecutive games, Jennings won more than $2.5 million.
In his interview with Rolling Stone, he addressed the future of “Jeopardy!” and said the game show has the power to “unify” people.
“‘Jeopardy!’ is a weirdly unifying thing,” Jennings said. “Young people, old people, red states, blue states – it’s an institution that has this universal acceptance. Whatever the forces of anti-science and fake news and whatever are, they seem to have some carve-out for ‘Jeopardy!’ Maybe because it’s a game?”
“This is a place where nobody says, ‘Why are you doing a category about dinosaurs? Dinosaurs aren’t real.’ Or, ‘Why are you mentioning the moon landing? We never went to the moon.’ For whatever reason, ‘Jeopardy!’ seems to be immune from that, and maybe that’s a good sign,” he concluded.
