Ken Jennings has been named the official host of Jeopardy! nearly two years after the death of Alex Trebek and a replacement search that almost tarnished the show’s legacy. Jennings is the best contestant in Jeopardy! history with 74 consecutive wins and a GOAT trophy, so many fans predicted this takeover. But there’s a catch. Mayim Bialik has also been named the official host of Jeopardy! The two have been splitting hosting duties all season, and now they will continue to do so in perpetuity. Jeopardy! executive producer Michael Davies shared the news in a statement on July 27, writing, “The fact is, we have so much Jeopardy! to make, and so many plans for the future, that we always knew we would need multiple hosts for the franchise and we are just so grateful that Mayim and Ken stepped in and stepped up to put the show in a position to succeed.â€
Davies goes on to say how successful the show has been under Jennings and Bialik, claiming that Jeopardy! is “the most-watched entertainment show on all of television. Yes, all of television.†He also explains how hosting duties will be divided: Jennings will host from September to December, including the Tournament of Champions and the inaugural Second Chance competition. Bialik will host Celebrity Jeopardy! on ABC in prime time and take over on regular Jep! in January. “We know you value your consistency,†writes Davies, “so we will not flip flop the hosts constantly and will keep you informed about the hosting schedule.â€
Following Trebek’s tragic passing in November 2020, Jeopardy! employed a carousel of guest hosts in the spring and summer of 2021 that doubled as an audition process for a permanent replacement. Mike Richards, the show’s executive producer, took a page from the Dick Cheney handbook and crowned himself the new host in August, which set off a chain of spectacular backlash that dominated the news cycle for quite some time: It was unearthed that Richards had a history of making sexist and racist remarks as a podcaster and faced two sexual-harassment and pregnancy-discrimination lawsuits while working as a producer for The Price Is Right. (It was also reported that he sabotaged Jennings’s inaugural guest-host stint. What a schmuck.) Richards stepped down just two weeks into the job, which is when Jennings and Bialik began splitting the host role. Jennings, who had been serving as a Jeopardy! consulting producer prior to Trebek’s death, garnered the lion’s share of support from contestants — and, let’s be real, fans — which included recent super-champs such as Mattea Roach and Matt Amodio. But Davies calls the two of them “extraordinarily talented and simply lovely humans.†Welcome to the official era of double Jeopardy!