Mayim Bialik steps down from Celebrity Jeopardy! amid strikes
Ken Jennings will once again take Bialik's place as host
We’ve already used up all of our best joke ledes about Jeopardy!. (“Jeopardy! is in jeopardy!”; “This long-running game show has courted controversy for moving forward amid the ongoing WGA strike. What is Jeopardy!?” and so on.) So we’ll just say this: it’s wild that this show has become such a lightning rod for controversy in the first place.
The newest update to the Jeopardy! vs. writers strike saga comes from the spin-off Celebrity Jeopardy!, in which actors, athletes, and other stars compete in a tournament for a charity of their choice. Per Variety, Mayim Bialik—who exclusively hosted season one—will not be returning to the podium for season two in continued solidarity with the writer and actor strikes. Instead, Jeopardy! alum Ken Jennings will once again take over hosting duties in her stead.
This move is sure to ignite the masses, and indeed has already brought out calls of “Ken Scabbings” on X. For context, this is not the first time Mayim Bialik has stepped away from the show, or Jennings has been accused of crossing picket lines. Bialik also stepped down from the final week of filming for OG Jeopardy!’s 39th season back in May in solidarity with the beginning of the WGA strike. She was swiftly replaced by Jennings.
While many expressed their ire over Jennings’ choice, both showrunner Michael Davies and the host himself have asserted that the series—which uses WGA writers to pen its questions—would never “air game material not created by WGA writers.” Instead, the blue board will be populated with “re-deployed” questions (a.k.a., recycled from older seasons) until the strike concludes. But it’s not just that. Those old questions will also be answered by old contestants, as Davies frames the upcoming season as a “second chance tournament” for contestants who lost their first game. This announcement also came on the heels of a number of former Jeopardy! winners announcing their intention to boycott the annual Tournament of Champions in solidarity with the strike.
All of which begs the question: who is actually going to compete on Celebrity Jeopardy!? While season one starred the likes of Simu Liu, Patton Oswalt, and Michael Cera, it doesn’t really seem like this would be a good look for any stars moving forward. Whoever they are, we’ll find out when the season premieres on September 27.