Jeopardy! fans vow to BOYCOTT show & already demand unbearable Mayim Bialik be FIRED & beg Ken Jennings be fulltime host
JEOPARDY! fans have vowed to boycott the show after the co-hosts were announced for the upcoming season.
News broke earlier this week that Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings would co-host the show together after much debate.
Jeopardy! fans were shocked to hear that Mayim and Ken would remain as co-hosts of the show.
The long-running game show has been struggling to find a replacement host since Alek Trebek's death in 2020.
However, now that they are both the permanent co-hosts for season 39, they will not be switching off every other week.
Ken will host the show, which starts taping next week, from September to January.
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Mayim will take over in January and host until the end of the season.
She will balance hosting duties while filming her show, Call Me Kat.
The actress will also be the host of Celebrity Jeopardy! and special tournaments while Ken will host the Second Chance Tournament and the Tournament of Champions.
Since the show announced who the permanent hosts will be, they have been met with backlash.
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Fans called Mayim "unbearable" and want to boycott the show until Jeopardy! names Ken as the only host.
WHO IS THE HOST?
On July 25, broke the news that the temporary co-hosts would become permanent co-hosts.
Sony Pictures Entertainment is eager to boost more versions of the game show and therefore, more than one host is needed.
“With all of our plans for Jeopardy!— which is more Jeopardy!, not less, more versions — we’re going to need multiple hosts to represent the entire audience, to represent the entire country, in order to take this franchise forward,” executive producer Michael Davies told the publication in June.
Then, the official Jeopardy! Twitter page announced that Mayim and Ken would be returning and that is where the backlash began.
"Please join us in welcoming the official co-hosts of Jeopardy!, @kenjennings and @missmayim. We couldn't be more thrilled," the show's page tweeted.
They linked out to another article on the hosts and new initiatives for the show while posting a picture of them hosting side by side.
BACKLASH
After that announcement was made, fans of the game show ran to the comments to express their opinions.
"You blew it. I won’t be watching when Mayim is on. You are killing Jeopardy. I have a lot of company," tweeted one fan.
"So disappointed you kept Mayim Bialik. I love the show, but find her episodes unbearable to watch. I'll now be a permanent part-time watcher," said one Twitter user.
A third said: "Ugh. I cannot stand Mayim Bialik. Ken should be the host 100 percent of the time."
"Just give it to Ken for Christ's sake," said another.
One angry fan replied: "I prefer the host carousel to this. Do not enjoy Mayim as a host at all. Guess I’ll be watching ~half of each season from now on."
Another fan wrote: "Not thrilled with this news. For me the difference is simple: Ken IS a game show host. Mayim is an actress PLAYING a game show host and not very well at that."
Other fans said that Mayim has "gotten worse over time" and that the "ratings drop" when she hosts.
IT'S OFFICIAL!
After the official Jeopardy! page made the announcement, Ken posted about how excited he is to host.
“It’s official! There is white smoke over Culver City. @missmayim and I are your Jeopardy! hosts next season," he tweeted.
"Jeopardy! has been a big part of my life since I was a kid, and I take the show and its legacy very seriously. It’s been a singular honor to be associated with the talented staff and crew there for the past 18 (!) years."
Ken won 74 games in a row in 2004, which is still the longest winning streak in the history of the show.
Recently, he faced off against former champions in the Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time Tournament, proving that he really is the Jeopardy! G.O.A.T.
Mayim did not make a personal statement but did retweet the page's announcement.
REPLACING ALEX
Ken and Mayim began filling in for the legendary Alex Trebek after his tragic 2020 passing and a fleet of Season 37 celebrity guest hosts, including now-disgraced Mike Richards.
The show's ratings nearly doubled to 9.7 million viewers when Ken made his first appearance.
When Mayim took over her hosting duties the headcount dropped to 5.9 million viewers during a college championship and sadly, she hadn't bested Ken's ratings since.
From those telltale ratings to "cryptic hints," fans collected clues that the former champion would be chosen over the actress.
For one, he sent his fans into meltdown when he bowed out of the new season of The Chase.
Another was that Ken accepted a 2022 Daytime Emmy award in June alone without Mayim, who also wasn't in its montage - and she has had her Fox sitcom renewed rendering her busier than him.
MAYIM'S MISTAKES
Fans have not been pleased with Mayim's stage presence, slamming her for errors and mishaps quite regularly during her past eight weeks.
They have nit-picked her “slow” reaction time to players' responses, frequent judge interventions for re-scores, and stiff interactions with players during the Q&A storytelling portions.
Mayim then faced fan fury when a player's signature was ruled too sloppy in FJ though she had seemingly written "Harriet Tubman."
And last month - though not Mayim's fault - there was ironically a typo in Final Jeopardy just days after the spelling snub which couldn't have come at a worse time.
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Before Mayim and Ken, the show saw a slew of guest hosts including Levar Burton, Katie Couric, and the former executive producer Mike Richards.
He stepped down after two weeks due to controversial remarks he made in the past.
