Alex Trebek/Jeopardy Tribute Thread

He recorded those podcasts when he was 38, 39 years old. I’m sure they were just youthful indiscretions.

 

He’s not running for Pope.

 

This lengthy review of all the guest hosts floats what I think is an interesting hypothesis: Richards installed himself as the host as a holdover until such time as Aaron Rodgers retires and can take the job full-time. I'm biased as a Packers bobo, but the guy prepped his ass off and seemed genuinely interested in the machinations of the gameplay and some of the social niceties part. I thought he was a little to 'chill' in demeanor, but I really think the guy could pull it off.

 

If you are an organization making such a high-profile hiring decision, you need to delegate someone to pretend they hate your finalist with an unholy fury and dig up every spec of available dirt.

 

Mike Richards seems like a complete asshole and I thought he was one of the weakest guest hosts they had. This whole thing is going to continue to be a mess unless Sony backs down.

But having said that, two things:

A) I don't recall Sony ever claiming this was an audition competition. I figured all along it was mostly a way to put distance between Trebek and the eventual replacement.

2) Can everyone just shut the fuck up about LeVar Burton? I get it, a lot of people grew up watching Reading Rainbow. He was terrible filling in on "Jeopardy!" Nothing tells me you don't watch "Jeopardy!" quite like complaining that LeVar Burton should have been the new host. (It actually reminds me of the old Conan vs. Jay battle with people swearing that they loved Conan and were 'Team Coco' all the way. Sorry, I get the overnight ratings every morning, and people don't give a damn about Conan. NOBODY watched when he hosted.)

 

Lol

 

/also team coco

 

LeVar Burton was a horrible fit.

 

Who wouldn't want to see her jumping rope on a razor blade?

 

Richards did seem like an ass. I think your first assertion is spot on. And I freaking love LeVar, but he was bad in so many ways it was emotionally disturbing to me.

 

I'll disagree about the Jay vs. Conan thing, but only because you're using ratings here. I think that was always a fight about good comedy vs. hacky shit aimed at the lowest common denominator audience, and network executives being shitty in completely predictable ways. (i.e. They should have just paid off Conan or let him go to FOX, if they weren't going to give him a clear shot at the job.)

I do agree with you about Burton, though. Even in days four and five, he was still struggling with a lot of the timing, and they were probably "lucky" in that they had a dominant competitor on at the time, so the timing didn't matter.

re: Richards - There's no fucking way the guy would have gotten the job, except that he was one of the executives in charge of picking the next host. Like, his resume and celebrity pales in comparison to most of the people they brought in. And if you're going the "newcomer" or non-established celebrity route, well, you should probably let more than one (Richards himself) audition. Heck, people liked Buzzy Cohen more than Richards - give him the job.

 

I want to see Chris Rock host for a week or longer.