Alex Trebek RIP

And she's a neuroscientist! That's some cache baby, cache up the yin yang!

 

I really think you need someone with a generic feel, a dull newscaster type for this show. Alex was not brimming with charisma. He was pretty stiff, as most old school game show hosts were. An actor is probably going to be too charming and distract from the show. The way she reads the question here, I think she has too much inflection in her voice. Her voice is exciting and interesting, which distracts from this very thought-oriented game. Having someone with a more calm, monotone, robotic voice seems more appropriate.

 

If you bring in a host with personality, some viewers may not like that personality. If you have as bland a host as possible, the viewers can focus on the game.

 

I'm not sure which old school hosts you're thinking of that were stiff. Richard Dawson? Nope. Gene Rayburn? Nope. Monty Hall? Nope. Wink Martindale? Nope. Even Bill Cullen and Allen Ludden had their moments. Maybe Bob Eubanks, but he was just boring.

I'll keep saying it, because people seem to think of Alex only as he was the last couple of years when he was undergoing treatment and was very reserved, but for much of his run he had a lot of inflection in his voice and was very animated. As an example think of all the fun he had dressing up for opera questions. What drew viewers in over the years was Alex's personality, which was NOT boring. This "Jeopardy host needs to have gravitas" BS is not borne out by the actual history of the show.

johnK

 

Bill Cullen, Alan Ludden, Jack Narz, Jim Perry, Dick Clark, Bob Barker. I think Monty and Wink were also pretty stiff. Just see Monty hosting Split Second, a quiz show. And Pat Sajak is still being dull every night to this day. Alex told more jokes on Classic Concentration, and some of these other guys do too, but not well. They were not charismatic and could never be actors. I think Meredith Vieira could be a host like that, and any number of other newscaster types.

Dawson was one of the first charismatic, actor hosts. The show was about him, where he'd go off on huge tangents to joke around or make fun of the contestants, and that's why it worked. Jeopardy is a much more substantive show, where people take the game very seriously, and the questions require intense thought. Alex and Pat are the old school game show hosts we don't seem to have too many of anymore, now that they usually use comedians and actors.

 

I would think there'd be a way she could do both her FOX sitcom *and* Jeopardy...

Now this one may be a bit different because it's a talk show vs. a sitcom, but look at Kelly Clarkson: She's doing both her daytime talk show and 'The Voice'... Steve Harvey had his daytime talk show while also hosting Family Feud, and someone like Ryan Seacrest was doing American Idol and Kelly & Ryan (and who knows what else) at the same time...

There's ways people can work it out to do different gigs at the same time.

 

There are, but the Jeopardy producers want someone who is devoted to the show full time, and I don’t blame them. If they have to work around a sitcom, then that means that they have toshift around the production schedule for a show that’s been in production for 40 years and ask the staff to change their already-established schedules. For one person. I wouldn’t do that either. There are other people who can host the show if Bialik isn’t available for the weekday show.

 

This show has become a circus. .... they knew Alex, was terminal.. you think higher minds in that production
would just picked somebody with good speaking voice.. ratings are going down ..
Some people don't care for revolving door gimmick it's not cute or clever.

 

I wish Alex would've groomed a successor. It would have been cool to have him introduce his own successor. And maybe help the fans accept it instead of going through this turmoil over it.

This article says Alex "likely" would've chosen Ken Jennings:

Here's Every Famous Person Who Has Auditioned For "Jeopardy" Host, Ranked From Worst To Best

 

I dunno how GREAT that would have gone. Alex was an old-school television game show host and a Baby Boomer to boot. If there were any cries on social media about diversity in the selection process they would have fallen on deaf ears as Alex would have likely waved them off and chosen a middle-aged white male with a game show hosting background. You know, someone like Mike Richards!

 

Not necessarily. In a 2018 interview he suggested CNN legal analyst Laura Coates and L.A. Kings hockey announcer Alex Faust. Only one of them is a white male. It's interesting that neither of his suggestions was given a shot.

 

What you say publicly does not always match with what you mean privately.

 

Or, the people who own Jeopardy don't really care what Alex Trebek thought about succession.

 

Yep, or they simply didn’t work with him long enough to value his opinion. Richards is relatively new to the producers position as is the current president of Sony.

As a manager, when I’ve had to replace employees, I make the call on the successor, not the person who is leaving. That said, if the departing employee is someone who has performed well in the role, then their input can be really valuable.

 

John Madden.. lol..

 

Mike Richards Out As EP On ‘Jeopardy!’ & ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ – Deadline

 

Ken Jennings’s Dumb Tweets Reportedly Cost Him the Jeopardy! Host Job

 

Oops.

Guess LeVar's a pretty good choice after all. Not thrilled about Bialik after some of her comments either.

What about that Joe guy people were raving about?

 

I think they should pay Savannah Guthrie a ton of money and name her as the permanent host. By the way Mike Richards in now out as EP on both this show and Wheel. The awesome thing is that I never saw him once.

Oh, GOD I'm old.

 

Given the initial promises to handle the replacement of Alex Trebek with the dignity that he deserved, this has turned into a total clown show. Hollywood at its finest...

 

The idea that every joke you've ever told or every opinion you've ever had on an issue should be looked at to see if you qualify for a job is ridiculous. It's almost impossible for any rules this strict to be applied consistently. Ted Danson is still working after at all, after the infamous blackface incident in the '90s. It's taking the scrutiny that used to be applied only to political candidates and now applying it to anyone in TV or movies, or even other jobs. But yet, if someone gets arrested for drugs, we want to rehabilitate them and cheer them when they make a comeback. But if someone has an opinion or tells a joke we don't like, they need to be banished forever. The reality is, the general public doesn't care about these minor things. Cancel culture is something the media alone is obsessed with, and that factions of people use solely as a war tactic to silence people they oppose for whatever reason. It would take a very high bar for the public to want someone to lose their job over something they did in the past. It would have to be something both immoral and illegal. This is turning into the Oscars all over again, where no one will ever be considered acceptable as host, and no one will ever want to apply as host because their past will be dug into as much as a presidential candidate.

 

At this point, just get Alexa to read the clues. Unless she, too has said troubling stuff through your smart refrigerator about vegans and the like.

 

Not so. It's typically the general public who is getting agitated and protesting (via social media) when past comments emerge. Blaming the media makes no sense unless you mean social media. But social media IS the general public.

So-called "cancel culture" is nothing new, just ask Al Campanis and Jimmy the Greek. The difference is that because of social media, the general public has a louder voice and can protest in a wider and more extensive manner.

But ultimately if someone loses their job, it's because the heads of private companies are making a decision that the negative publicity makes a given employee not worth the trouble. That is their choice in a capitalist system. Also, in the case of Richards losing his EP job, it appears (based on the article you posted) that his removal was based in part on unnamed internal problems with staff just as much as on negative publicity.

 

Usually this happens when a handful of people crow about something on Twitter, the internet "news" sites who don't even pretend to follow journalistic standards pick it up, and then some of the mainstream press picks it up. No, just because a hashtag is trending on Twitter does not mean it represents what the general public is thinking.

Cancel culture isn't new, but it is resurgent. People haven't been more blacklisted from so many jobs for more inconsequential and frivolous reasons since the McCarthy era.

Yes, I'm protesting the decisions of a private company, as well as anyone who would seek to get someone fired because of jokes they've told or beliefs they've held.

 

A quote from Claire McNear, who wrote the article in Ringer that precipated Richards’ firing:

But really, what emerges through these episodes over, you know, this year-and-a-half run of the show is a lot of really troubling language and comments by Richards. He uses a lot of sexist language, uses a lot of ableist language. He uses classist language.

It’s clear to me she had an agenda. Certainly this was not an objective journalist.

Why The 'Jeopardy!' Host Search Drama Outraged Fans