Ken Jennings on Mayim Bialik’s Exit and His Own ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!’ Host Approach

After Alex Trebek’s death in 2020, the first person to step behind the Jeopardy! lectern was Ken Jennings.

The winningest contestant in Jeopardy! history, Jennings was named the syndicated program’s permanent co-host last year alongside Mayim Bialik, with the two of them splitting hosting duties on the daily syndicated show and on its primetime specials.

On Dec. 15 Bialik revealed that she would no longer be hosting the syndicated edition of the program, with Jennings set to take over that program on a full-time basis.

Celebrity Jeopardy! will return to ABC on Tuesday, Jan. 2, at 8 p.m. for its semifinals and finals, and Jennings will be the master of ceremonies. Utkarsh Ambudkar (Ghosts), Mira Sorvino (Shining Veil) and Lisa Ann Walter (Abbott Elementary) will be the contestants for the first semifinal, looking to earn money for the charities of their choosing.

The Hollywood Reporter recently caught up with Jennings to talk about Bialik’s exit, his role as the new full-time host of the syndicated show, and what makes Celebrity Jeopardy! such a unique version of the long-running quiz show.

It recently was revealed that Mayim is not going to be hosting the syndicated version of Jeopardy! moving forward. I wanted to see if you had any reaction to that decision, any thoughts on how it affects the show, and what it means to you as the now solo host of the program.

It took me off guard, because I loved working with my Mayim and I’m gonna miss her. I can’t speak to her decision-making process or her opinions about it.

But on my end, I’m just a fan of Jeopardy! and I’m always delighted to host when they call upon me. I just feel extremely lucky to have even been considered for this job as a non-broadcaster.

It’s kind of a weird thing to try to bring back an ex-contestant to host, and I’ve obviously been learning as I go. But I loved growing up with Jeopardy! where Alex was the host of that show for almost 38 years, and people just kind of felt like he was part of their family, and it’s impossible to fill those shoes. But it’s such an honor and and hopefully I look forward to 37 more years of doing it, when I’ll be a very, very old man.

With regard to this season of Celebrity Jeopardy!, were there any moments from the preliminary games that surprised you?

I mean, we had a tie game with a tiebreaker. We had tap dancing at one point, that rarely happens at the syndicated show, but Dulé Hill showed off a little soft shoe, which was amazing.

It’s really what I love about Celebrity Jeopardy!, which is that even if people love regular Jeopardy! for its reliability, and its stability, this is a version of Jeopardy! where anything can happen, and that’s kind of fun to take this format that you’ve seen every night for 40 years and kind of tweak it, and the contestants are looser, they’re having a little more fun.

The difference of course, is that they’re very comfortable on camera. Some of them too comfortable, sometimes I have to be the mean substitute teacher who’s like, “hey, like, stop talking over there, we need to play Jeopardy!.“

I wanted to dig into that a little bit, because this is one of the big differences between the syndicated version of Jeopardy! and Celebrity Jeopardy! These are famous people. They’re very comfortable on camera. And I think they’re more than willing to kind of really express their personalities via tap dancing, or whatever it might be. As the host, do you prepare differently at all than you would for the standard syndicated show where it’s the people who are really in it for the game, as opposed tothese celebrities who are raising money for charity?

I don’t think the home viewer really understands how terrified the contestants sometimes are on that show. I mean, I’ve realized that a big part of my job as host is to try to be the contestant whisperer and just tell them “you know what, I know you’re stressed; I know this is weird to be on TV for the first time doing this intense thing; I know it’s your favorite show and the stakes are high; I remember all these feelings, but you know, just try to let go of that and try to enjoy every moment of this and you’re gonna play better.”

That’s a big part of Jeopardy! as you’re watching. You’re watching three laypeople, three non-performers perform. And with celebrity you really do kind of have the joy of, what if somebody can play the game and tell jokes or have fun at the same time.

I find that as a host, it’s a little more like being a war correspondent where you really have to be prepared for anything to happen. You can’t have a game plan because if somebody’s riffing or somebody doesn’t understand the rules, you’re just gonna have to roll with it and try to keep the game moving. And luckily, the game kind of does push itself forward and the celebrities catch the vibe of that, but it makes it very fun and unpredictable for me as well.

I mean, certainly the game has momentum to it, but as you said, you never know what’s gonna happen in these situations. Related to that, I’ve listened to some of your interviews in the past where you would note that — for the people in the daily syndicated show — there was so much preparation that they will do to kind of get themselves ready to go on Jeopardy! The research, they’ll practice at home. The celebrity version seems a little different, I’m sure some of them do take it very seriously, but it’s perhaps a little looser. Do you have the sense that it’s kind of a different vibe for the contestants as well?

Yeah, I mean, certainly, they’re just good sports for showing up. You know, we’ve asked them to play a very real, difficult game show. This is not SNL celebrity Jeopardy!, these are real questions and answers and some of them are tough and often what impresses me is just how well they perform.

They’re not just good sports, winning a nice check for charity. You’re genuinely surprised by how good they are at the game, the kinds of things they know. Often before every game, I would be looking at the board with the writers and I would think, “you know, these categories would play on regular Jeopardy! and we’re gonna throw them in front of these poor stars?” And they do very well because a lot of them grew up with the show, they’re all very bright, I think they really equipped themselves well.

There have been so many contestants on Celebrity Jeopardy! where I’ve like seen them say “oh, I’ve wanted to go on Jeopardy! for so long.” That’s not something you can necessarily say about a lot of other TV shows.

A lot of them will go on late night TV and some of them might have been excited to do it, but Jeopardy! is a show that I think really holds a special place in a lot of people’s hearts, and for a lot of these people maybe they wouldn’t think they’d be able to go on as a regular contestant, but they can go on Celebrity Jeopardy! I think it means a lot to them.

As we get into the semis, you’re seeing the ones who could play for-real Jeopardy! though of course, they’d have to wear a disguise to do so.

This is a service we provide. We give them Celebrity Jeopardy! so they can they can play even though they have the terrible cross to bear of being extremely rich and famous.

As someone who has not only hosted Jeopardy!, but also played in pretty much every iteration that has existed: Is there anything that that you tell the celebrity contestants given that, again, they might not be doing the same prep work. when you’ve you know, played every different type of Jeopardy! there’s been that you tell them to kind of get them ready or amped up for the game?

No, it’s funny because my normal spiel is like, “hey, just take a deep breath, you’ll be fine out here.”

Whereas with celebrities, these three players never had any problems being on camera. I just tell them what an honor it is to be there because I genuinely feel gratitude that they would take what is kind of a risk of going on a tough quiz show without knowing what the outcome is going to be, they’re being good sports and playing for charity even though they might look bright or not on any given clue and and we love them for that.

Given that some of the celebrity contestants are willing to engage a little bit beyond the 20 or 30 seconds you’d normally have to talk to a contestant, how do you balance keeping the game’s momentum going versus letting the contestants — many of whom the viewers want to see and learn more about — express themselves?

I mean, that is a tension because we know that the die-hard nightly Jeopardy! audience doesn’t like it when the format ever changes. They don’t like it when the players are too chatty. They’re like, “this is not the strict Jeopardy! vibe.”

But we know this show has a newer, more casual audience and we think that’s great. I think it really helps build the awareness that Jeopardy! is still around and doing great shows well over 200 times a year. We know it’s two audiences watching and I let the players take the lead. We want them to have as much fun as they can humanly have in that stressful situation.

And then I’m willing to be the bad guy who plays cop at some point and says, “all right, knock it off you two, let’s let’s get back to the board.”