Alex Trebek hinting at retirement from Jeopardy

You forget Art Fleming. Thank you, Don Pardo!

 

My hope is that Vanna has taken in how the game works in her 35 years of watching it. We'll see if she has what it takes.

Nice of the producers to let her keep her multi million dollar paycheck for a job that has been automated out of existence! Vanna could never carry Susan Stafford's jockstrap as a letter turner, anyway.

As far as Alex goes, his replacement will be a name, someone with established stage presence whose career is not riding on Jeopardy! Jon Stewart, for example. Some unknown or a former contestant bombs in the job, you never get those viewers back. The producers will not be taking chances.

 

No. My statement is correct.

Good day.

 

Ben Stein could fill in for Alex. He knows everything.

jerol

 

Emma is Kim Darby, circa 1969

 

That was a sweet little Jeopardy! moment. You can tell how much the show must mean to Alex.

Everybody's replaceable, though. Nobody could imagine Price is Right without Bob Barker or the Tonight Show without Johnny. But Drew Carey and Leno did just fine.

 

And then when Pat comes back, *HE* should turn letters for a while, and let Vanna host.

Or at least for one whole episode (if not a whole week, even). Seriously.

 

And wear a dress while doing it?

 

At least in heels.

 

Did anybody else watch the new episodes last week from this year's new season?

Ken Jennings was a guest clue giver-I wonder if having him give some answers might be the show's way of kind of easing him into taking over Alex's duties when that time comes...

 

No, I don’t think so. There’s been a lot of speculation about this. But Ken is not a professional broadcaster and doesn’t have the screen presence to succeed Alex.

 

When Alex said Jennings has "joined the Jeopardy crew" I took it as a clue that he'll be taking over, or at least is in the bullpen warming up.

 

That's pretty much the same way I took it too.

 

I don't think Conan O'Brien had any real professional broadcast experience to speak of either when he took over Letterman's spot on NBC (and Letterman left some pretty big shoes to fill, at least IMO). I remember the first time I watched Conan, he was stiff as a board and I didn't think he was gonna last at all and that he should return to his gig on "The Simpsons" ASAP, because he wasn't going to cut it as an on-screen persona.

But, he grew better as time went on, once he had some experience under his belt. He's still not my favorite host of anything, but I can still see that he grew into the gig with time. I'm sure the same could be done with Ken Jennings.

 

Definitely. And if it doesn't work out with Jennings, they can find someone else.

Just because Trebek stayed in the job for decades doesn't mean that his successor must be there forever! They can replace him if needed!

 

I've seen him on this week. He doesn't have the charisma to take over Alex's job.

Alex looks great. There are some cracks in the voice but other than that you would never know what he is going through. He's one tough guy. I still hope he can beat this or at least have some years left without suffering.

 

I like the idea of transiting to someone with a lot of experience with (and nearly within) the Jeopardy ‘organization’.

Ken may not have a broadcasting background, but he does bring a ton of credibility to the role. Which, for Jeopardy fans, may be the more important factor. Plus, surely Alex would have hand-picked him as well, only adding more to his credibility to (presumably) take over Alex’s role.

This isn’t Family Feud we’re talking about. Most Jeopardy viewers probably aren’t as focused on pizazz and flash, and (I’d argue) traditional “game show host” personality even.

 

The idea of replacing Trebek with Jennings seems a strange one to me. Trebek isn't there because of his intellect, he's there because he's a likable presence that people feel comfortable "inviting" into their homes. Broadcasting is a skill people don't notice because the best broadcasters make it look easy and natural. But people do notice the lack of broadcasting skill when it's missing. Former athletes often work out well as color commentators, but making Jennings the host would be more akin to having a former athlete doing play-by-play, something that that has rarely (if ever) worked. It does seem like they are considering trying Jennings in the role, but I don't think it will work well at all if they do.

 

Jennings is ‘only’ 46, which is still relatively young by any measure (for a role like this). Yes, I know Trebek was only ~36 when he started in Jeopardy.

But what I’m saying is that Jennings at 46 is WAY closer to Trebek’s (then) 36, than his current 80.

I’d have to think a lot of Jeopardy’s viewership skews well into the boomer generation. Ken is clean cut, and reads an “all-American” sort of guy, maybe even a little bit “small town” too. (Or, rather, he doesn’t read as a big city or “coastal” sort of guy.

I would think a lot of middle-America would warm to Ken (and probably already has), given his quiet and unassuming manner and style.

He’s no Alex Trebek, but neither is he an unknown quantity that people aren’t familiar with. In wouldn’t discount that calculus in all this.

 

Maybe William Hung? Honey Boo-Boo? Or one of the gals who does a cake-baking series on YouTube?

Too bad Grumpy Cat's not with us anymore...his q-ratings were through the roof...

 

One other thing with Ken-He does do a podcast.

Now I know doing television broadcasting/hosting a show is an entirely different animal than doing a simple podcast. I just bring the podcast thing up because it would give Ken a small/minor idea of how to host something.

 

My wife and I don’t watch Jeopardy all that often ourselves, but my 93-year old father never misses an episode - and whenever I (or we) are visiting my Dad, we inevitably see Jeopardy every day we’re there.

So I never saw Jennings’ original run (or maybe just a few parts here and there, I really can’t remember). But I’ve seen enough clips on-line, and other appearances - enough that I could immediately call his face and demeanor to mind see him mentioned in this thread.

Anyway, I’ll go so far as to say that “on paper” (and I’ll stress that I do mean “on paper”) - that Jennings seems like a perfect replacement (of the sort that there don’t seem to be many of).

Alex Trebek has nothing to prove. He’s hosted the show since 1984, and by now he “is” Jeopardy.

Anyone tasked with filling Trebek’s shoes would have to be some sort of known-quality in the minds of long-time viewers (most of whom have been watching for 10-20 years by now, at a minimum).

I’ll admit I haven’t personally seen Jennings enough to know whether he’s really the right person for the job. But again, “on paper”, it’s difficult to think of anyone under the age of 50 (or even 55) who would appeal to genuine fans of the show, and ALSO seem/“feel” like one of them.

Jeopardy isn’t like anything else on all of broadcast TV - a true quiz show based entirely on “knowledge of facts”, including history going back several centuries, geography, science, literature, and the like.

Whoever gets the job, HAS to seem up to the task of operating in that sort of “world of smarts”. Yeah, they have to also being affable, good-natured, likable, and a good communicator.

But I’d argue that almost no-one with any sort of traditional broadcast TV experience would be quite up to the task. And anyone outside of broadcast TV would (maybe?) be too unknown for viewers to feel comfortable with right from the get go.

With Jennings, viewers also get to have someone who’s all theirs, unsullied by anyone else but Jeopardy viewers even knowing him (or having any experience of him through anything other than Jeopardy, or his post-Jeopardy resulting mini-fame).

 

Jennings has had some other TV gigs such as 'Master Minds' on the Gameshow Channel. While not hosting, it did/does give him some on-air experience.

Interesting to note that Jenning's new title at Jeopardy! is 'consulting producer'; so, it may be inferred that he's there for more than just the 'clue crew' questions.

 

Will Ferrell has done it a few times, but Eugene Levy would be more Canadian! Anyway, I hope Alex just confuses eveyone and goes on for ten more years.




The real deal;


https://www.cbc.ca/archives/alex-trebek-hosted-so-many-cbc-shows-before-jeopardy-1.4754826