Friday, March 15, 2013

I'LL TAKE "TERRIBLE IDEAS" FOR $10 MILLION: It's no real surprise that Alex Trebek wants to hang it up when his current Jeopardy! contract ends in 2016, but the idea of replacing him with Matt Lauer?  Nope.  The alleged other frontrunner, Anderson Cooper, seems like a much better idea.

ETA:  Deadline indicates that Brian Williams and Dan Patrick have also been talked to.  More interestingly, they say that Jeopardy! was the number one program on all of television in NYC last night, outrating even reliable blockbuster Big Bang Theory.

20 comments:

  1. Thank god it's only the Post reporting it. Right? Please? Because the thought of Mat Lauer doing the interview portion makes me shudder just a little bit.

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  2. What ever happened to all the talk of Ken Jennings doing it? He's certainly proven in his time since Jeopardy! that he has the personality.

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  3. Adam B.8:44 AM

    Ken Jennings is the Charlie Bucket to Trebek's Wonka. Give him the factory.

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  4. andrewraff11:47 AM

    If not Ken Jennings (who would be an excellent choice), I could get behind John Hodgman. Cooper might be not terrible. Or to go to another Canadian, Pat Kiernan. Just not Lauer, nor Probst.

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  5. Kiernan would be great, and given the substantial changes that are afoot at NY1, I'd love to see him find something else. (Live! With Pat Kiernan and Jamie Shupak would be near the top of my list, but that seems unlikely.)

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  6. Adam B.12:28 PM

    No Probst. "Angela! You're killing me! Put in some EFFORT!"

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  7. Fred App12:48 PM

    How about going for some diversity and choosing Steve Harvey? I'm sure he'll be tired of "Family Feud" by 2016.

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  8. The Pathetic Earthling2:01 PM

    Anderson Cooper would be alright, but if I can dream: Canadian astronaut and current space station commander Chris Hadfield -- he's smart, charming, pop culture aware (he recently did a duo with the Barenaked Ladies from the space station), pretty much looks and sounds like Trebek - and, hey, astronaut.

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  9. The Pathetic Earthling2:02 PM

    More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hadfield

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  10. It should be Ken Jennings!

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  11. isaac_spaceman2:52 PM

    It feels like it's important that the person who hosts Jeopardy be Jeopardy-famous only. Not somebody doing a side job, like AC360 or Lauer or Hodgman; not somebody retiring from more ambitious bids at stardom (e.g. Drew Carey on TPIR). Before Trebek, Jeopardy was just a second-tier piece of cancelled game-show history with a hokey, arbitrary theme. Before Jeopardy, Trebek was, I'm guessing, a clerk at a second-hand bookstore in Kitchener or maybe President of the Toastmasters chapter that met at DeGrassi Community High School. The two of them together have made it a show whose game-show prestige far outpaces its prize money (on average, winners on Wheel of Fortune, a sparkly version of a game created to occupy nine-year-olds on long car trips, win three times as much as the daily take for a Jeopardy winner). It would sully that prestige, and dilute the brand, to let the host position be a side project, a consolation prize, or -- worst yet -- a revolving door. Ken Jennings seems like the most obvious choice possible: the only person other than Trebek who is Jeopardy-famous already; someone who is personable, nimble, and comfortable with the Jeopardy-sized spotlight; someone who famously has worked hard to maintain a career as "the guy from Jeopardy" even without having any continuing relationship to the show. It's almost inconceivable to me that they would go with anybody else.

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  12. isaac_spaceman2:53 PM

    If we're just throwing out game show host names, how about TJ Lavin?

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  13. Trebek had hosted a couple of game shows before Jeopardy--a Hollywood Squares knockoff called Battlestars and High Rollers--and hosted Classic Concentration for a few years.



    I do agree that Jennings is an almost ideal choice.

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  14. Randy3:33 PM

    ... Isn't Jennings a bit of an ass? Or does he just play one on twitter?

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  15. *Everybody* is a bit of an ass on Twitter. 'Tis the nature of the thing.

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  16. bill.5:24 PM

    In Jennings favor, Trebek is often a full-blown ass on Jeopardy.

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  17. bill.5:24 PM

    Charles Barkley

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  18. "substantial changes afoot at NY1"? Do tell! I can't live without my Pat Kiernan-Jamie Shupak banter in the mornings.

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  19. Nothing substantive yet, but Time Warner wants to rebrand the network to "TWC News" to "make clearer" that NY1 is Time Warner-only (not FIOS/DirecTV).

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