The producers of Jeopardy! announced a new round of guest hosts last night. The results were…..disappointing.
The most obvious red flag here is the infamous Dr. Oz, who has spent his career promoting some out-there pseudoscience, home remedies and other nonsense. Oz is also a multi-time Pigasus Award winner for “his promotion on his syndicated TV show of such medical nonsense as faith healing, Ayruvedic tongue diagnosing, and so-called energy medicine.”
Sadly, the Jeopardy! guests hosts list trends a little closer to the negative side of the ledger to the positive.
The full list of guest hosts as currently announced are:
“The Doctor Oz Show” Host Dr. Mehmet Oz;
“Anderson Cooper 360°” Anchor Anderson Cooper
NBC News' TODAY Co-Anchor Savannah Guthrie
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Journalist and Author Katie Couric
Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers
“60 Minutes” Correspondent Bill Whitaker
Actress and Neuroscientist Mayim Bialik
Jeopardy! G.O.A.T & Consulting Producer Ken Jennings
Jeopardy! Executive Producer Mike Richards
Jennings has been a fantastic host so far. Sure, he has his issues with Twitter controversies and defending the “Bean Guy.” But he has been a quality host and he brings a certain gravitas to the job having been a 74-time Champion.
Mike Richards has some game show hosting experience. Does he deserve to host Jeopardy!? Who knows, but he’s a producer so of course he’s going to give himself a shot.
Savannah Guthrie, Bill Whitaker and Anderson Cooper are all journalists so I have no problem with them. Cooper has the additional benefit of having been a Celebrity Jeopardy! contestant. At least it won’t end up like New Year’s Eve.
Mayim Bialik has the benefit of being both an actress and a scientist so that checks out.
That leaves four that I would certainly give a thumbs down to. I’m not sure anybody wants to see Katie Couric on television anymore. I don’t understand what Aaron Rodgers is supposed to bring to the table here (does he think he’s Rolf Benirschke?) Oz we mentioned and Sanjay Gupta has his own scientific issues in his background.
But I could handle three of those if we weren’t going to be subjected to Dr. Oz. Selecting him is the most unconscionable choice they could make given his track record and shows that the Jeopardy! guest host selection process has certainly jumped the shark.
Now, give us Lavar Burton.