Mayim Bialik has stepped down from hosting the new season of Celebrity Jeopardy! amid the ongoing WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, Variety reports.
Yesterday (August 21), ABC issued a press release regarding changes to their fall programming line up, noting that Ken Jennings would once again be subbing in for Bialik — as was the proceedings when she initially stopping hosting Jeopardy! proper during the final week of its 39th season in solidarity with the writers' strike back in May.
Premiering on September 27, the second season of the game show's star-studded spinoff was written prior to the strike. Last season saw appearances from the likes of Michael Cera and Simu Liu.
While Bialik and Jennings share hosting duties on the original Jeopardy!, the former was previously the sole host for Celebrity Jeopardy! She initially was named a permanent host of the main show alongside executive producer Mike Richards in 2021 after the tragic loss of Alex Trebek.
Some decades-old lawsuits and a podcast appearance wherein Richards made disparaging comments about all kinds of marginalized groups were swiftly unearthed, and he was promptly ousted as a host before exiting his production role on both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
Former Jeopardy! champion Jennings was named Bialik's alternating host last July. In 2004, the once-contestant had an unprecedented 74-game winning streak on the game show. Both he and showrunner Michael Davies have assured that the franchise would never "air game material not created by WGA writers," who write the trivia questions.
"We're going to open the season with a second chance tournament for players from Season 37 who lost their initial game," Davies explained on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast. "Winners from that will advance to a Season 37 and Season 38 Champions Wildcard," he said, adding that questions for these contestants who had previously lost their first games would be "a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database, and material that has been re-deployed from multiple seasons of the show."
Several former Jeopardy! winners have expressed their intention to boycott the annual Tournament of Champions in solidarity with the writers' strike.
Yesterday (August 21), ABC issued a press release regarding changes to their fall programming line up, noting that Ken Jennings would once again be subbing in for Bialik — as was the proceedings when she initially stopping hosting Jeopardy! proper during the final week of its 39th season in solidarity with the writers' strike back in May.
Premiering on September 27, the second season of the game show's star-studded spinoff was written prior to the strike. Last season saw appearances from the likes of Michael Cera and Simu Liu.
While Bialik and Jennings share hosting duties on the original Jeopardy!, the former was previously the sole host for Celebrity Jeopardy! She initially was named a permanent host of the main show alongside executive producer Mike Richards in 2021 after the tragic loss of Alex Trebek.
Some decades-old lawsuits and a podcast appearance wherein Richards made disparaging comments about all kinds of marginalized groups were swiftly unearthed, and he was promptly ousted as a host before exiting his production role on both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
Former Jeopardy! champion Jennings was named Bialik's alternating host last July. In 2004, the once-contestant had an unprecedented 74-game winning streak on the game show. Both he and showrunner Michael Davies have assured that the franchise would never "air game material not created by WGA writers," who write the trivia questions.
"We're going to open the season with a second chance tournament for players from Season 37 who lost their initial game," Davies explained on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast. "Winners from that will advance to a Season 37 and Season 38 Champions Wildcard," he said, adding that questions for these contestants who had previously lost their first games would be "a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database, and material that has been re-deployed from multiple seasons of the show."
Several former Jeopardy! winners have expressed their intention to boycott the annual Tournament of Champions in solidarity with the writers' strike.
