Former Blossom and Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik has made it clear that she’s gunning for the Jeopardy! hosting gig, permanently, while she shares hosting duties with Ken Jennings following Mike Richards’ short-lived hosting debacle. She even recently told Glamour, “There’s no other job I would rather have… I absolutely have never had a better job.” So, she’s definitely all-up in this Jeopardy! business after initially accepting an offer to host primetime events for the franchise.
When Mayim appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden, the host congratulated her on the new job around the 6:00 minute mark above. And when Corden broached the subject of how much attention the ongoing hosting ordeal has received, Mayim seemed surprised. “I was the headline on CNN three days in a row. Who knew people were so passionate about who hosts Jeopardy?” Well, every Alex Trebek fan could have seen the level of interest coming, but as far as Mayim feels about the hosting controversy, she feels like the host shouldn’t attract too much attention to themselves. Here’s what she offered:
“I mean, I’m just trying to read the clues. You know, just let me read the clues. The thing about Jeopardy!… we spend our whole lives wanting to be seen, you know, and this job is like, people should think the least about me as possible. Meaning, it’s my job to be the host, just like read the clues.”
That could be read as very subtle commentary (and I’m totally reading into this) as hoping that the show will soon no longer be overshadowed by the Richards fallout. Whatever the case, Mayim handled the subject diplomatically, unlike how she (earlier in the segment) discussed how she upset Neil Patrick Harris as a teenager, which led to them not speaking for a number of years.
The former friends (which have since made up) had a falling out when Bialik attended Rent and declined to participate in the standing ovation. She told her boyfriend, “I don’t want to stand for this,” and when she looked up, Neil was staring at her. Backstage, he confronted her after reading her lips: “Why did you say you weren’t going to stand up?” That’s awkward, but not nearly as awkward as the Mike Richards hosting debacle.