Mayim Bialik leaving Jeopardy! early due to writers’ strike
According to a report from Deadline, Mayim Bialik will be leaving the show early in solidarity with writers during the WGA strike. As a result of this, Ken Jennings will step in and host the remainder of the season. The majority of the season has already been filmed, so this will most likely not change anything dramatically as the show moves forward.
We tend to think that we will also continue to see the two-host format remain moving forward, provided that the strike does get resolved over the course of the next several weeks. There is no clear timetable as to how long things are going to last here behind the scenes.
Over the past couple of years the game show has played around a lot with this two-host format, and as with all things, there are mixed reactions to it all over the internet. Jennings and Bialik also continue to split duties on some of the primetime entities. For example, you have Jennings hosting the Jeopardy! Masters program that has been on the air over the past several days. (By the way, we highly recommend watching it — there’s a lot of great banter and competition there.) Meanwhile, Bialik took on the celebrity version of the show.
Scheduling could be a little bit easier for Mayim moving forward, as her sitcom Call Me Kat was canceled at Fox earlier this season. (Jennings, ironically, previously guest-starred on the show, and that is one of the few times that the two actually shared the screen together. They are faces of Jeopardy!, but they alternate duties and with that, are rarely ever seen at once.)
What do you think about Jeopardy! continuing to stick with the two-host format, and about Bialik leaving her post a little bit early?
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(Photo: CBS Media Ventures.)