The Unfortunate Popping of the Jeopardy! Bubble

Sony Pictures

For a show centered around trivial facts, two things have always been undeniably true about Jeopardy! during Alex Trebek’s 37-year run behind the podium:

(1) Trebek possessed a unique set of traits that made him the perfect host for the show, and an impossibly tough act to follow.

(2) Jeopardy! as a cultural institution was an impenetrable bubble isolated from the craziness of every day life.

And now, with the passing and subsequent search for the replacement of the former, it’s poked a significant hole in the latter, creating a cultural vacuum of drama so powerful, the entire saga itself is worthy of its own Jeopardy! category.

Where such drama was previously relegated to a gutsy Daily Double wager, or a dead-heat heading into Final Jeopardy, the show now finds itself dealing with another kind of suspense.

The show’s bubble - which fell well outside the blast radius of reality’s darker moments, like terrorism and war, genocide and political upheaval, and most recently, a once in a century pandemic - has been made vulnerable due to the controversy surrounding the search for Trebek’s replacement.

Replacing Trivia Daddy was always going to be newsworthy, and would almost certainly promise disappointment within a significant chunk of viewers, regardless of who was selected, but the entire process has put Jeopardy! in the center of a social reckoning it previously only had to address from the comfort of its trivia clues.

No matter what was going on in the world at the time - Jeopardy! was a constant, calming force. It was old reliable. It shielded you from current events for 30 minutes, and took you to a world where nothing else mattered but trivia clues.

Even when unsavory people or events became J! clues - the responses were always the same. A slight head-shake or a scoff, before ultimately answering said clue, and moving on. And not just for the viewers at home, either, as recent contestant Mackenzie Jones spoke for all of us when a Chris Brown song became the answer to one of the clues.

It was a quiet acknowledgment that “Yes, these people really exist, and these things really happened, and that sucks - but they’re also historical, cultural, and political facts, and so, they, too, belong here.”

They never took away from the game itself, as 30 minutes every weekday, viewers would put their tribal spears down, and watch a well-oiled, apolitical trivia show do its thing. Then, once the show ended, it was back to the real world to grapple with human rights, sexism, racism, capitalism, climate change, and all the other ills that plague society.

But with the questionable, potentially weaselly rise and dramatic, scathing, subsequent fall of executive-producer-turned-Jeopardy!-host-turned-cultural-pariah Mike Richards, Jeopardy! can no longer address cultural issues from a neutral, emotionless, coldly factual standpoint. 

That Richards was chosen despite the optics (how can an executive producer for the show tasked with finding a new host put himself in the running for the host?), already showed cracks in the institution’s bubble. 

If Jeopardy! is anything, it’s one of few pure, cultural landmarks left on American television, up there with Sesame Street and 60 Minutes. A safe haven for, and bastion of, knowledge, objective truth, and integrity.

How then, could the suits at Sony Pictures Television hand Richards the job in good faith? They had to have known what it would look like to outsiders; and what it looked like to outsiders was that the fix was in. That the exhaustive search for a host was a performative one, and it was Richards’ job from the beginning, because he had the internal power and connections to bully his way into the job.

It was something most working Americans could identify with - an unqualified, undeserving ass-kisser getting a promotion that should’ve gone to someone else.

Of course, Richards tried to address those concerns by releasing a statement assuring both Jeopardy! employees and fans alike that he stepped aside from the selection process once his name was thrown into consideration, but the damage had been done. Not to mention, a scathing New York Times article paints a different picture, wherein it’s revealed that among other things, Richards was in charge of selecting clips of other hosts to send to focus groups. It’s not hard to imagine a scenario in which Richards sends clips of his best work during his slate of episodes, while sending mediocre clips of other hosts, in order to gain an advantage over them. You can’t say with certainty that’s what happened, but the fact that it’s a possibility that even exists at all is a black eye for the show’s reputation.

Oh yeah, and during this time, it was also revealed that Richards faced allegations of discrimination and harassment at his previous job - The Price Is Right.

But that wasn’t enough for Sony to get rid of their boy. Even in this climate we find ourselves in, Sony was all set to crown him the new host, ignoring the groans of disappointed fans and legitimate concerns about Richards’ character flaws alike, banking on the belief that the outrage mob would eventually move onto someone or something else, and fans would continue watching the show because the show itself is the draw, not any one host.

And then came that Ringer article. An article that unearthed past comments Richards had made about women and minorities, as well as an uncomfortably detailed look at his behavior behind the scenes.

It wasn’t just a look into the character of the man. It was a peak into his psyche.

His take on Jeff Probst and Ryan Seacrest alone give you more than enough insight into his thought process:

“Jeff Probst had a daytime talk show, which I was cheering for because I like, you know, the average white-guy host. I cheer for him to succeed because I feel like through his success I could have some success hosting.”

“I think he’s [Ryan Seacrest]actually made the world a safer place for what I like to call the ‘skinny white host,’ like George [Gray] and I. Which is, you’ll take a chance on someone that you don’t know.”

It’s clear what Richards believed. That he was an unremarkable white guy, thrust into a position he wasn’t qualified for, and because of that privilege, he was gonna take things as far as he could professionally.

His comments, the news of his previous allegations, and the dark cloud of the shady selection process coupled together, were finally enough to take the job away from Richards. A job that never should’ve been given to him to begin with.

But all of this is just one half of an ongoing saga.

Where does this leave Jeopardy? Who will ultimately be the new host? Will it be someone we’ve seen already? Or will a new challenger emerge?

What are the statute of limitations regarding previously offensive comments?

Golden boy, and previously assumed heir to the throne Ken Jennings went on his own apology tour for comments he made in previous tweets and podcasts that were dug up once he began his hosting stint.

He’s still a fan favorite amongst the diehards, and it would make the most sense for him to host, given what we know about his relationship both to the show and with Alex Trebek personally, but replacing an unqualified white man with a history of offensive comments with a qualified white man with a history of slightly less offensive comments doesn’t seem like something the studio execs would have an appetite for. It almost feels like Richards’ fallout will have consequences that reach further than just his career personally, or what’s left of it. His actions may have handicapped Jennings and others like him going forward.

That being said, Mayim Bialik, who’s been tasked with the side gig of hosting Jeopardy’s tournaments and primetime spin-offs, has a history of controversial comments as well, that have led to her being categorized as a victim-blamer, and someone who, at best, can be described as a vaccine skeptic.

Certainly there’s someone out there who’s got a clean record, that’s fit to host the show - right?

LeVar Burton? Buzzy Cohen? David Faber?

There’s a slew of qualified candidates, but they all come with a different set of concerns.

In LeVar’s case, his hosting stint was peppered with technical mistakes, which were a result of obvious nerves. He also had the lowest ratings of any guest host - though you could argue that was due to several factors, including hosting fatigue on behalf of the viewers, summer vacation, and competing with the Olympics. His five episodes were also filmed in one day - hardly enough time for anyone to get comfortable in the job. Though, as he himself has stated - who would be a better fit for the job, given his credentials? His entire career is a commentary not just on education and knowledge, but on racial progress. Who better to take the reigns of one of America’s last beacons of truth, than a man who’s made a career of delivering uncomfortable truths to white America, as both an actor on Roots, and as a Black man living in America.

Again though - given Sony’s actions throughout this process - it’s not immediately clear that they view Jeopardy! through the same cultural lens its viewers do. Their goals, their focus, differs from ours. To them, it’s just another game show on TV. So they’re not looking to make a cultural statement with their pick, and are just trying to find someone relatively personable, with the skills to run a clean game. They’re not trying to link their host to a larger cultural narrative.

But if that’s the case - if they’re trying to put the bubble back together and ironically promote culture and knowledge and facts while their head is firmly in the sand - it might take away from the show’s legacy and legitimacy.

The bubble’s been popped. Jeopardy!, like the rest of us, finds itself in the middle of a cultural revolution. Where women and minorities have a louder voice. Where white male mediocrity in the form of generic hosts like Mike Richards just won’t do.

The question is “How will Jeopardy! handle this moment?”

The country is waiting for them to buzz in with their answer.