It’s official: Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik are the new hosts of Jeopardy!
After months of speculations about who would replace the late Alex Trebek as the permanent host of Jeopardy!, production company Sony Pictures Television announced on Wednesday that Richards will host the long-running daily syndicated program while Bialik will host primetime and spinoff series of the franchise.
Richards, who signed a multi-year deal with Sony in 2019, serves as one of the current executive producers of Jeopardy! A former executive producer of The Price Is Right and Let’s Make a Deal, Richards has hosted several programs including the reality series Beauty and the Geek and the 2012 revival of the game show The Pyramid.
Bialik, meanwhile, is best known for her portrayal of Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. An author and neuroscientist, she’s also the star of the ongoing Fox comedy series Call Me Kat, which she also executive produce.
Bialik will host Jeopardy! National College Championship, an all-new tournament that pits 15 colleges against each other in two weeks of tense head-to-head competition.
“We took this decision incredibly seriously,” said Ravi Ahuja, chairman of global television studios and corporate development for Sony Pictures, of their choice to replace Trebek with Richards and Bialik. “A tremendous amount of work and deliberation has gone into it, perhaps more than has ever gone into the selection of hosts for a show — deservedly so because it’s Jeopardy! and we are following the incomparable Alex Trebek.”
According to Ahuja, a senior group of Sony Picture Television executives consulted multiple panels and focus groups to select Richards and Bialik. “We knew early on that we wanted to divide the hosting responsibilities and it became very clear that Mike and Mayim were the undeniable choices,” he said. “They were both at the top of our research and analysis.”
Since Trebek died last November, Jeopardy! has cycled through a number of guest hosts. The then would-be permanent replacements for Trebek included author and Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings, journalist Katie Couric, professional football star Aaron Rodgers, news anchor Anderson Cooper, CNBC financial journalist David Faber, and Star Trek actor LeVar Burton.