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John Oliver Won’t Rest Until Jeopardy! Gets Its Shit Together

Photo: Jeopardy Productions; HBO

Remember that time John Oliver showed up on Community for a few episodes and might have been the Ass-Crack Bandit all along? Well, maybe he should bring that energy to a Jeopardy! guest-hosting stint at this point, minus the quarters-in-cracks stuff. On Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver, a fresh Emmy winner, reiterated what he’s been preaching on his show for weeks now: Jeopardy! somehow managed to screw up what should’ve been a preordained host-successor plan for Alex Trebek, now with temporary host Mayim Bialik. “It’s not great when our process for deciding who gets released and who gets expelled is as haphazard for finding a new host for Jeopardy! And by the way, great job so far, guys,†Oliver explained, weaving together the game show and Del Rio immigration scandals. “You dodged giving that guy the job permanently, and right now we’ve got somebody absolutely free of controversy, Mayim Bialik, a person I think is great because I don’t have Google.â€

Bialik, who is hosting Jeopardy! for the rest of the year with Ken Jennings and previously served as a guest host, has received a significant amount of criticism from the show’s fans over her credibility due to her history of anti-vaxxing beliefs and shaming of Harvey Weinstein’s victims. Bialik, who holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience, addressed criticism for the first time last week with the Associated Press by confirming that she’s vaccinated against COVID-19. “I don’t regret that at the time I wrote a book about parenting, my kids were young, they hadn’t received all their vaccines,†she said. Jennings has also been embroiled in controversy of his own: His dumb old tweets, which he has apologized for, reportedly cost him the Jeopardy! hosting job prior to Mike Richards swooping in and beginning his very short reign of terror.

John Oliver Won’t Rest Until Jeopardy Gets Its Shit Together