Jeopardy! Host Thoughts

I don't love the decision they went with. Not because I have anything in particular against Mike Richards. I didn't watch the series due to a lack of paid television services and I hear he did an excellent job.

Rather, what I have issue with, among other things, is that he wasn't a candidate in the first place and his prior involvement with the show constitutes a conflict of interest. Not any serious one of a legally binding nature to my knowledge. But, a real enough one that it is generally bothering a lot of people who watched and were hoping for another outcome.

If there were no viable candidates, that would be another story. However, not only were there other viable candidates, but among the highest ranked ones Richards would also have to be the most controversial simply due to his past. 

So a lack of viable candidates certainly wasn't the issue. From what I read Ken Jennings beat Richards on ratings, and many people also loved Levar Burton and Aaron Rodgers. And certainly others had decent ratings as well, along with Mayim Bialik who takes hosting duties for spin-offs. Frankly, that seems like a consolation prize to try and detract from the farce which the whole process degraded into.

I mean, there is a lot to digest here. But, the key arguments I can make are these:

• Richards has a conflict of interest
• Richards has image issues which may affect the show
• Richards was not the highest rated host
• Richards was not officially in the running
• Richards had an unfair advantage given the time allotted to the other hosts

I've already talked about the first three. But, I'll quickly spend some time on the last two.

As stated above, Richards was never technically in the running until the point when rumours started swirling that he had cinched the position. As a part of the crew, he was simply filling in to address a vacancy caused by scheduling issues with another guest host. 

This alone should really go to highlight that it was perceived from the beginning that it would have been unfair for him to take part. If it was not perceived as such, there would have been no reason to not have him as an official part of the schedule in the first place. He clearly has the experience. Also, at no point during the run of guest hosts was it ever mentioned that he had suddenly become a legitimate contender. 

And his experience is yet another problem in my opinion. He has the most hosting experience and the most experience with Jeopardy! itself. Given the short time frame other hosts had to adapt to the role, this gave him a more than unfair advantage.

That might not sound like much of an argument; I mean it was sort of an audition of sorts. Right? But the point is this; other hosts, especially those less experienced in hosting a game show or less experience with the intricacies of hosting this particular show are likely to grow by leaps and bounds with more experience. Richards, on the other hand, is less likely to improve much on his guest hosting performance. He was already leaning on an extensive history with hosting and with being involved with Jeopardy! after all.

And lastly, I want to talk about Mayim Bialik being chosen to host spin-offs. To me this kind of insulting and weird. It really just feels like a Hail Mary toss to divert the anger over Richards' selection. And here is why.

The spin-offs were always, historically handled by Trebek, the host of Jeopardy! Bialik is not the host of Jeopardy! and aside from her guest hosting stint has no official affiliation with the show. I could maybe see Ken Jennings in the role. People taking part in those competitions could make sense of him being the host for a spin-off despite not being the regular host.

Or, crazy thought? Richards could host those spin offs. He clearly has the skills, and is affiliated with the show. He would be less awkward as the choice for the spin-offs.

The only reason I can see to choose Bialik for the spin-offs is that they were feeling the heat, or anticipated the heat over choosing Richards and wanted to deflect a bit of that by choosing a popular, more diverse candidate for what seems like a consolation prize. 

My honest opinion is that best choice depends on criteria. If you wanted a good host based on ratings Ken Jennings was probably the front-runner with Aaron Rodgers as a fallback if the studio didn't want Jennings for some reason. But, ultimately, I think the best pick would have been one of Levar Burton or Mayim Bialik. Both were popular guest hosts, both bring a freshness and diversity to the show and both have pasts which lean strongly into learning and education.

Any one of those 4 would have been an excellent candidate. And it is just really hard to fathom how Richards was seen as the better option, even if you don't factor in the baggage and conflict of interest that comes along with him.