The Jeopardy! hosting situation was bound to be controversial, given the beloved status of the late Alex Trebek. Still, the situation seems pretty messy, given the show’s decision to elevate executive producer, Mike Richards, into full-time host duties (of the syndicated flagship show) with Blossom and Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik picking up the primetime and spinoff variants. Many LeVar Burton fans found themselves crushed, and a few Jeopardy! champs roasted the strategy of having two hosts.
Mayim Bialik is here to weather the fiasco. In an Instagram video, she revealed that she is “super freaked out about it” and “very, very thrilled” about her new gig. She also added, “If you don’t like me as the new host of Jeopardy! I’m sorry. I love LeVar Burton.” Yeah, it can’t be too fun to see pushback like that from the show’s fans, but Mayim handled it with grace (even while casually speaking from bed). “I really have great respect for everybody who guest hosted.” And justifiably, she pointed out that she’s the first woman who will host Jeopardy!
Of course, there was a slight edge to all of this, in that Mayim declared, “This is not a surprise to me today. I have known. Both Mike and I have known, so there was a leak last week. Don’t worry, everything is fine.”
This, of course, presents a bit of an awkward situation because we don’t know how long Mayim and Mike knew that they are the chosen ones. Have other guests hosts been giving it their all in vain? We’ll probably never know the answer to that question. For what it’s worth, Mayim tweeted (on Wednesday) that she’d been “waiting a long time to tell you all” after the news broke. You can watch her Instagram video below.