Ken Jennings to step in as interim Jeopardy! host, with production starting next week

We still don’t know who will replace Alex Trebek as the new permanent Jeopardy! host—as if anyone could ever replace him—but we do at least now know who will be temporarily filling in for him: Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy! GOAT who happens to be the favorite for oddsmakers as the next full-time host. Today, the Jeopardy! producers announced that the show will be going back into production November 30 with a rotating series of interim guest hosts. Jennings, who (in cause you need a refresher) won 74 games and earned more than $2.5 million in his legendary Jeopardy! run, will be the first. His episodes will start airing the week of January 11, 2021, with future hosts to be announced “in the weeks ahead” according to a press release.

Meanwhile, Jeopardy! will also be honoring Trebek with a special two-week airing of his 10 “best episodes” during the weeks of December 21 and December 28, with the aforementioned press release noting that this is partially being done to account for Holiday-related “preemptions” that could otherwise bump Trebek’s final episodes. Now, instead of airing around Christmas as originally planned, his final episodes will air the week of January 4, 2021 “in order to give his millions of fans a chance to see his final appearances.”