TheJeopardy!co-host (and its greatest champion) settles into his dream job.
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(He even competed against acomputer systemfor our pleasure.)
Instead, the job was awarded to an unknown executive producer witha history of questionable workplace behavior.
How was Richards able toDick Cheney himselfinto the gig?
Were the guest-host auditions fixed from the start?
Would this all have been avoided if Jennings wasntextremely online?
Until now, that is.
Ana de Armas revealedshe was hauntedby Marilyn Monroe while filmingBlonde.
Have you received any visits from Alex Trebeks spirit?I wish.
He was a believer, as I understand it.
Its hard not to feel his presence there.
He was there for almost four decades.
You do kind of feel like he must be in the building.
But its nice to feel like hes still there and part of the show.
Its nice to still have that connection with his family and his legacy.
What do you remember about your final conversation with Alex?It was the same weekend he passed away.
It was a tough moment.
At one point, he started talking about tennis players he compared to variousJeopardy!champions.
But the thing that stuck with me is he thanked me for coming in to fill in for him.
That just broke me.
I said, Alex, are you kidding?
We should be thanking you.
Id take a bullet for you, Alex.
Im happy to help.
Of course, I didnt know that he would be gone within 36 hours.
It was really nerve-wracking.
Its a difficult job.
And I totally get that.
They wanted to see Alex.
I still do, too, every night.
Alex often said, Lets go to work!
at the beginning of every game.
Thats a pretty apt description ofJeopardy!.
Weve only got half an hour to get to 61 answers and clues.
After my first day, I called my wife and said, Well, Im no Alex out there.
And she responded, You know what?
Maybe he wasnt on his first day either.
That was a real insightful moment for me.
You had 37 years to get really, really good at this.
Maybe give yourself some allowances there, Ken.
One of the producers motioned to a little box that was sitting in front of me.
That was such a lovely gesture.
And Im in his dressing room, so Im thinking about him anyway.
How did you interpret such a thoughtful gift?Shes thinking about the legacy of the show.
Alex and I had a professional relationship.
It struck me, and a lot ofJeopardy!fans, as an approval of successorship.
He asked me to readhis audiobookwhen his voice wasnt up to doing every chapter towards the end.
I felt like that was a very nice gesture of successorship that he didnt have to make.
The audience seemed to accept the idea of a guest host.
By the time I had done my six weeks, I was like, You know what?
This isnt a bad idea.
I feel like I could actually grow into this job and learn how to do it.
So when the studio went in a different direction, it felt like a missed opportunity for me.
But I was relieved that I was stillconsulting withJeopardy!It wasnt like I was out on my rear.
All I wanted was to continue to work with the show.
He had notes that were exactly on point.
I cant think of a bad thing to say about him.
Did you two ever communicateafter he stepped downas host?I dont believe so.
And he agreed that he did.
Those were the last conversations we had about the show.
During that guest-host carousel, we learned that its an extremely hard job on a technical level.
Alex had mastered it, so he made it look easy for viewers and staff alike.
Because I had played almost a hundred games on that set, I had a leg up coming in.
I feel like I understand the gameplay part of the show as well as anyone.
Now, Im not a broadcaster.
The virtue of it is thatJeopardy!has a huge audience and a really diverse one.
Young folks, old folks, red states, blue states.
Its going to be very hard in todays polarized environment to find someone about whom you know nothing politically.
When Im onJeopardy!,I absolutely think its a show that brings comfort to so many people.
You shouldnt be aware of something jarring like politics or ideology when youre watchingJeopardy!.
When youre a contestant onJeopardy!, youre a bit of a cog.
Youre there for a while and then youre gone.
Youre proud of what the show represents to America, but youre only a temporary part of it.
Some comforting quality TV that the families watch together, that friends watch together.
Its a real bonding thing.
Its intergenerational and thats not true of many TV shows.
You had the unprecedented challenge of preparing to host.
Where did you begin?
DidJeopardy!give you training?There was a bootcamp.
With all those guest hosts coming through, they needed an orientation and I was the guinea pig.
They would pronounce things slightly wrong; they would pause in weird places.
How did you prepare privately?I watched a lot of game tape.
It was all about Alex and the tiny mechanics you dont realize hes doing.
I started jotting down the 20 different ways he used to say that a contestant was correct.
You dont want to keep repeating the same yes, yes, yes or right, right, right.
He had a way of mixing it up and honing it over the years.
I would jot down every time he had a great turn of phrase.
Gradually it got a little smoother.
Whats been the biggest learning curve for you?Final Jeopardy is harder than I thought it would be.
But revealing the responses in the appropriate order requires some sense of building drama.
Also, theres a ton of math.
The host is not doing it on the fly.
Youve got all these numbers youre juggling.
I often found myself reading the wrong number and somebody having to yell at me.
No, no, no, no, no!
Alex hosted the show for 37 seasons.
How long do you see yourself in this role?Look, its a dream job.
Ill be candid: I wanted this job.
I pinch myself every time Im out there because it doesnt seem real that it could happen to me.
Im going to keep doing the job for as long as theyll have me.
I think Im going to figure it out if you give me 37 years.
Do you get the sense that this is also Mayims dream job?[Pauses.]
I think so, but possibly for different reasons.
That she can be an example of someone who has done and excelled at that.
Theres no better platform thanJeopardy!for honoring knowledge and education.
Mayim takes that part of the job very seriously and also clearly enjoys it.
How would you like to seeJeopardy!evolve over the next few years?
I think thats the right way to seeJeopardy!.
I noticed this way back in 2004 when sports writers would interview me about my streak.
And so, Im 100 percent onboard with Michaels dictum.
Which is treating the show like a sport.Exactly.
It has champions, it has tournaments, it has statistics.
Attentive fans ofJeopardy!love that kind of detail and drama.
Youre going to see more of that.
Its our World Series.
I want more moments like that.
Do you agree with that?
The game has evolved to this point where everybody has a strategy.
Its just like watching a football game at home.
The tape will tell who really played the right game that day.
As host, I can see some of the virtue of going in order.
I see mistakes because players didnt go that route.
Its fascinating to see how strategies play out, especially when different styles collide.
Do you endorse any particular strategy?It depends on the player.
Youre going to play better doing something else.
You dont ask the umpire whether players should be shifting in the infield or not.
Theres been a noticeable uptick in mega-champions of late, fromMatt AmodiotoAmy SchneidertoMattea Roach.
Well see if last season was a blip or whether the game has fundamentally changed.
Theyre going to have an advantage.
I want to see people play the best they can.
Same with James Holzhauers run.
Its possible with every long-running champ.
I remember hitting a plateau during my games where everything just went so smoothly and I was so confident.
Thats a powerful advantage against new players coming in, knowing the stakes and the records.
I thought somebody like Amy or James could absolutely hit that plateau.
Matt Amodio as well.
Its just a matter of one clue in the wrong place.
The GOAT tournament is all a blur for me.
Debbie Harry!Basically, I was 30 years off.
These are called … it has key in it.
Doesnt it have key in it?
I dont think Alex wouldve given me credit for that.
Well end with the best category, Potpourri.
This mother of Alexander the Great was in the cult of Dionysus and liked to sleep with snakes.Wow.
If you had asked me, Have you seen that clue before?
I would say no.
Its just such a fugue state out there onJeopardy!because its so fast and intense.
I mean, shes literally a queen.
Shes queen of Macedonia.
Wait, she probably did slay.
