What ought to happen next?

[triviawayne]

A normal season consists of 230 episodes. The rest of the Alex episodes gets us up to 75 shows in S37. Factoring in the two weeks from the vault, that leaves 145 episodes in the rest of the season.

So I wonder if the entire rest of the season will be guest hosts and the permanent one will begin next September.

My guess would be yes.

https://www.fox5vegas.com/news/us_world ... _id=995852

"“By bringing in familiar guest hosts for the foreseeable future, our goal is to create a sense of community and continuity for our viewers,” the show's executive producer, Mike Richards, said."

Not much continuity with a revolving door

[MarkBarrett]

...
I understand from my wife that this sort of rotating tryout idea has been done, in the non-game show world, with the various succession plans for Kelly Ripa's co-hosts. If it works for them I don't see why it wouldn't work for Jeopardy.

In any event, it will be interesting to watch. I'm curious to see who they have serve in addition to Jennings.

Yes, Kelly had months of rotating co-hosts after Regis left. Michael Strahan, Josh Groban and Seth Meyers seemed to be the front runners and they had more appearances then one-offs like Boomer Esiason. Host chat, trivia, celebrity guest, special segment like animals, cooking, holiday projects, etc fill up the hour.

To me it was obvious over time that Strahan was the best choice as when I watched it felt the most like a normal show and not one with a visitor.

After Strahan left when getting bumped over to GMA it was time for Kelly to do some more heavy lifting. John Leguizamo and Jerry O'Connell were the most common cohosts and even Christian Slater got a good look. The hire of Ryan Seacrest was a surprise while clearly the best choice with Anderson Cooper set at CNN.

The show worked fine with extended time of guest hosts and the powers work their way toward a good decision.

The View also had many times of shuffling the deck and trying out a whole bunch of guests at the table. It's been more of a zoo and not always in control as the potential new co-hosts tried too hard sometimes.

To me it's fine for J! to finish out S37 with a variety of hosts. Some will be better than others and I suggest watching with an open mind. Those who can cut it will stand out and those who should not do no more than 5-10 shows will be obvious as well. Move on from those who do not merit a second look and bring back the ones that are promising.

The decision will work itself out and I trust the J! powers to make a good choice. The Archive can get a bunch of title markings for so-and-so's first game hosting.

As of today it's Alex and Pat for hosting J! and plenty of people have met them both in person through game show stages. Adding in Ken and the list shortens.

For starters: Hans and Megan Barnes, have you met Ken?

[Peter the accountant]

Not much continuity with a revolving door

I think the continuity is in terms of new shows being produced and aired. Not necessarily in seeing the same host every week.

I wonder if they can get back to the usual taping schedule of 5 shows a day, 2 days a week. That might be a lot to ask out of a guest host. I'm sure Alex was a critical part of the well-oiled production machine. A string of guest hosts might not be able to keep up that kind of schedule. If they can only tape one week of shows each week, they're running on the ragged edge of getting them done and ready for air in time.

Perhaps that was another reason for bringing out a couple weeks of shows around Christmas - to give them a bit of time to put more shows in the can. I'm also guessing they didn't usually tape shows during those weeks. If they didn't do something to cover for that, they'd be airing shows just two weeks after they are taped. That's quite tight, leaving little room for error.

Writers might also need to prepare more extra questions. I'm sure Alex rarely spoiled a clue, so one extra per category may have been enough. With guest hosts, you can't rule out a couple of spoiled clues during taping. So there may be some extra behind the scenes work in unexpected places.

[MinnesotaMyron]

Writers might also need to prepare more extra questions. I'm sure Alex rarely spoiled a clue, so one extra per category may have been enough. With guest hosts, you can't rule out a couple of spoiled clues during taping. So there may be some extra behind the scenes work in unexpected places.

This is also why starting with Ken, who has both quiz bowl and televised quiz bowl hosting experience, is a good idea.

And why the most likely following guest hosts will be Dan Patrick or Jeff Probst or maybe Pat Sajak, and not someone without quiz show hosting experience. Sorry Anderson Cooper and LeVar Burton.

(I don't think I've publicly come out in support of Brooke Burns, but she's my #1 choice. She has experience hosting various quiz formats, and she'd bring the same kind of class to the game that Alex did.)

[AntmanB]

Im Suprised no one said the Joke Host answer of Jeff Probst.

[talkingaway]

Not much continuity with a revolving door

I wonder if they can get back to the usual taping schedule of 5 shows a day, 2 days a week. That might be a lot to ask out of a guest host. I'm sure Alex was a critical part of the well-oiled production machine. A string of guest hosts might not be able to keep up that kind of schedule. If they can only tape one week of shows each week, they're running on the ragged edge of getting them done and ready for air in time.

They might have to tinker with the taping schedule. I have no idea how flexible the J! crew is, but instead of having either Tuesday/Wednesday OR Wednesday/Thursday tapings, they might have to do Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday tapings. Tuesday morning, the guest host comes in and gets a run through with a practice game, and then gets 2 real games to do Tuesday afternoon. Split the other 8 games with 2 games each on each morning/afternoon session for Wednesday and Thursday. That gets 2 weeks of games in 1 week, which is the normal pace. If a host is going to do 4 weeks of shows, perhaps his/her second week can be at the normal pace of 5 games per day.

I vaguely heard something about Alex going at half-pace during the last few taping sessions - is that accurate? I wouldn't blame him at all. If so, they'd be used to a slower-paced schedule.

One other thought: There's someone out there who knows that he or she was the last contestant Alex crowned as a champion. And they're coming back to a new host in a week or so. Imagine how weird that must feel.

[Bamaman]

I think Alex did his last week over two days.

It will be odd for the players to go to taping, especially for those who tape before Ken games air or those who tape with a host they aren’t familiar with.

[jeffwolfe]

One other thought: There's someone out there who knows that he or she was the last contestant Alex crowned as a champion. And they're coming back to a new host in a week or so. Imagine how weird that must feel.

I'm wondering how weird it must be for Zach Newkirk, the last champion before everything was shut down for the pandemic.

[triviawayne]

Im Suprised no one said the Joke Host answer of Jeff Probst.

Not much of a joke considering he hosted R&R J, and did just fine there.

[opusthepenguin]

Not much continuity with a revolving door

I think the continuity is in terms of new shows being produced and aired. Not necessarily in seeing the same host every week.

Agreed. And secondarily there's some continuity if the host is already a familiar face on the Jeopardy! set. That's why Ken Jennings is a good one to kick it off with.

I do want to see Alex's wish fulfilled and have Betty White come in to do at least one game. Maybe she could do Celebrity week?

[alietr]

I do want to see Alex's wish fulfilled and have Betty White come in to do at least one game. Maybe she could do Celebrity week?

I wouldn't call it a wish but rather a means to generate laughter from his audience.

[opusthepenguin]

I do want to see Alex's wish fulfilled and have Betty White come in to do at least one game. Maybe she could do Celebrity week?

I wouldn't call it a wish but rather a means to generate laughter from his audience.

Potato, funny potato.

[Cat Hammarskjold]

I would love to see a week hosted by Bob Harris and/or Kim Worth. They would bring the appropriate amount of levity to the show.

[alietr]

I would love to see a week hosted by Bob Harris and/or Kim Worth. They would bring the appropriate amount of levity to the show.

I don't think Bob can be dragged back from Australia, mate.

[Peter the accountant]

(I don't think I've publicly come out in support of Brooke Burns, but she's my #1 choice. She has experience hosting various quiz formats, and she'd bring the same kind of class to the game that Alex did.)

Is she going to continue to host The Chase, when that gets rebooted with the J! GOAT contestants as chasers? If so, I can see some scheduling difficulties.

I'd love to see her as one of the guest hosts even if she is busy with that other show.

[MinnesotaMyron]

(I don't think I've publicly come out in support of Brooke Burns, but she's my #1 choice. She has experience hosting various quiz formats, and she'd bring the same kind of class to the game that Alex did.)

Is she going to continue to host The Chase, when that gets rebooted with the J! GOAT contestants as chasers? If so, I can see some scheduling difficulties.

I'd love to see her as one of the guest hosts even if she is busy with that other show.

Sara Haines is hosting the new version of The Chase.

[econgator]

(I don't think I've publicly come out in support of Brooke Burns, but she's my #1 choice. She has experience hosting various quiz formats, and she'd bring the same kind of class to the game that Alex did.)

Is she going to continue to host The Chase, when that gets rebooted with the J! GOAT contestants as chasers? If so, I can see some scheduling difficulties.

I'd love to see her as one of the guest hosts even if she is busy with that other show.

Sara Haines is hosting the new version of The Chase.

I just saw a commercial for it. Thursday, Jan 7th, 9pm, ABC.