KEN Jennings has admitted that hosting Jeopardy! is very hard in the wake of his legendary predecessor Alex Trebek.
The 49-year-old has been sharing hosting duties of the game show with Mayim Bialik, 47, since Alex’s death in 2020.
NBCKen Jennings has admitted that hosting Jeopardy! is very hard in the wake of his legendary predecessor Alex Trebek[/caption]
GettyHe has taken over hosting duties from Alex, who died in 2020[/caption]
Ken opened up on taking the helm at Jeopardy! on Thursday, admitting that it was a “no-win” situation for him,
He told The New Yorker: “It’s a very hard job, and Alex made it look easy.
“So it’s kind of a no-win thing – the only other person we’ve seen do it looked incredibly confident and graceful for thirty-seven years, and we all loved him.”
He said he struggled with the “speed” of the show, reading the clue, calling on the contestant, and adjudicating their response.
Ken said: “And you’re also in a tough position. You’re the referee of the game, kind of managing the players, but you’re also managing the studio audience and the home audience.
“You’re the stadium announcer, and you’re the play-by-play guy in the booth.”
He revealed his hosting strategy is to present the game as if he were playing it as a contestant.
“I’m kind of playing along in my head, like, ‘Oh, I know this one! Let’s see if they know it. Hey, they do, great! We did it! We get to go again!’” Ken explained.
“And I don’t know if that’s the right – it’s definitely not Alex’s energy, but nobody can do what he did.”
Last month, Ken shared his feelings on sharing hosting duties with Mayim.
He joined Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos on Live with Kelly and Mark to talk about the long-running game show.
KEN SPEAKS OUT
“The secret of Jeopardy! is that we do like five in a day,” Ken said.
“Now that’s a schedule!” Kelly exclaimed.
“It is pretty cushy,” Ken agreed.
Kelly asked Ken how the hosting split with Mayim actually works.
“It’s really a 50/50 split, mostly reliant on her sitcom schedule. When she was doing Call Me Kat, her time was very limited, so when she was on her sitcom, I was hosting Jeopardy!, and then she would trade in.”
Kelly replied: “It’s a nice tradeoff.”
“It’s a good variety, I think, for the viewers,” Ken agreed.
A week later, Jeopardy!’s executive producer, Michael Davies, talked about the online division over who is the better host – Ken or Mayim.
Michael revealed he’d seen a fairly even response in viewership, despite some harsh criticism the hosts have received online.
“When Ken is hosting and Mayim is hosting, there’s zero difference,” he told The Vulture.
“It’s exactly the same [viewership] and that’s the broadest part of the audience.”
Michael also explained that there isn’t any absolute data that shows one host’s popularity over another, regardless of what Internet trolls have to say.
“In terms of the tiny percentage of our audience that do go on Reddit or Twitter, there are Ken fans and there are Mayim fans.
“There are some people who love Jeopardy! and will watch both. We also have various fans who post that they don’t like either of them. That’s just part of the data we look at,” he noted.
ABCKen is a co-host alongside Mayim Bialik[/caption]
