Jeopardy! Boss Breaks Silence on Mayim Bialik Firing, How Ken Jennings ‘Really Won the Job’
Jeopardy! Boss Breaks Silence on Mayim Bialik Firing, How Ken Jennings ‘Really Won the Job’
Jeopardy! EP Michael Davies is speaking out for the first time about Mayim Bialik’s controversial departure as co-host in December. Speaking to reporters Saturday at the Television Critics As…
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Speaking to reporters Saturday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, the game show’s boss — who last May maintained publicly that the actress-turned-emcee had his “full support” — said that while Bialik is “a superb host,” in the end “Ken really won the job.”
“When I took over the show” in the wake of the Mike Richards controversy, “we were forced into that [multi-host] situation, because of everything that had happened before with the guest-hosting period,” Davies explained.
“But over the past 2-1/2 seasons, what we’ve heard a lot from our television stations and other interested parties is they were looking for more consistency, they wanted a single host,” Davies continued.
In the May 2023 Vulture interview, Davies had stated that there was “zero difference” in the ratings for Bialik-hosted episodes vs. Jennings’, adding that there were no “absolute” data that points to one being more popular than the other.
It was back on Dec. 15 that Bialik broke the Internet when she announced on Instagram, “Sony informed me that I will no longer be hosting the syndicated version of Jeopardy!”
For his part, Jennings says he was as surprised as everyone else by Bialik’s ouster, telling The Hollywood Reporter last month, “It took me off guard, because I loved working with my Mayim and I’m gonna miss her.”
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Screw, tin man.
The ratings might not have been different (Prob because its a habit show for many), but the overwhelming majority agreed Ken is a better host. Glad to see they've settled on him.
I think there's more to it than that because at the same time the pharmaceutical "Neuriva" replaced her as it's spokesman with Alton Brown.
Because he defeated Alex Trebek and as such took his place on the throne, everyone knows this!
The TLDR is she left abruptly in the season to support the writers strike and Ken scabbed in. The strike went on too long and Sony just let Ken have it.
and Ken scabbed in.
Nope. That’s not what happened.
A rep for SAG-AFTRA confirmed to TheWrap on Monday that since the quiz show is a Network Television Code show, it is not part of the TV/Theatrical/Streaming contract and is “not struck.” Source - The Wrap
Lmao read your own clickbait article bro:
Bialik had been MIA from her $4 million-a-year Jeopardy! gig since last May, when she abruptly bowed out of Season 39’s final weeks in a public display of solidarity with the show’s striking writers, leading Jennings to step in and close out the season.
As the Big Bang Theory vet’s absence dragged on through the summer, questions began to swirl around her future with the franchise. The speculation intensified on Aug. 18 when Jeopardy! released via its official social handles a new poster celebrating the syndicated show’s 39th season that featured Jennings but not Bialik. At the time, Sony declined to comment on the decision to exclude Bialik from the now-deleted artwork. Days later, ABC announced Jennings as the new primary host of primetime offshoot Celebrity Jeopardy!, replacing Bialik.