Yes, it’s Jeopardy! official! LeVar Burton will be among the final slate of guest hosts. He will be joined by Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, David Faber and Joe Buck, who will join previously announced guest hosts Ken Jennings, Katie Couric, Aaron Rodgers, Bill Whitaker, Mayim Bialik, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Savannah Guthrie and Dr. Sanjay Gupta enjoying their moment behind the lectern on Jeopardy! As a part of each guest host’s appearance, a donation will be made to a charity of their choice. The amount donated will equal the cumulative winnings of the contestants that compete during the weeks they serve as guest host. “We look forward to each guest host bringing their unique abilities to the show and to our contestants winning a lot of money that we can match for charity,” said Jeopardy! Executive Producer Mike Richards. The show’s earlier announcement that Couric and Bialik would be hosting set the bar high as it will be the first time that the iconic game show has been hosted by women. https://parade.com/1173072/jerylbrunner/mike-richards-jeopardy-host-producer/ “Alex was a legend, revered by all of us,” Richards said in a previous release. Trebek hosted the show for 37 seasons until he passed away in November. “I want to thank our guest hosts, who will not only help all of us celebrate his great legacy, but also bring their own touch to the show.” In addition to hosting, each guest will receive a donation to their charity of his or her choice from the cumulative winnings of the contestants during the week they host. Richards, a three-time Daytime Emmy Award winner and 17-time nominee and executive producer of both Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, will also host for two weeks after Jennings concludes his run of episodes. That will allow additional guest hosts to get ready for their appearances. In response to the official announcement of the new hosts Jennings tweeted “OK, this is going to be fun.”
Who are the new Jeopardy! guest hosts?
Ken Jennings
Hosting Jan. 11-Feb. 19
Mike Richards
Hosting Feb. 22-March 5 Jeopardy! Executive Producer These eight are all great guest hosts but the permanent slot is Ken Jennings’ to lose. Fans seem to love the Jeopardy! GOAT’s first episodes filmed after Trebek’s death.
Katie Couric
Hosting March 8-March 19 Katie Couric, a journalist and former Today show host, has had hosting gigs at all of the Big Three television networks (ABC, NBC and CBS). Suffice to say she knows how to handle herself behind the podium. She will become the first woman ever to host the show.
Dr. Mehmet Oz
Hosting March 22-April 2 The Doctor Oz Show Host
Aaron Rodgers
Hosting April 5-April 16 Aaron Rodgers, a two-time MVP and quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, counts himself as one of 24 million fans of Jeopardy!. In fact, in 2015 when he appeared (and won!) on Celebrity Jeopardy, he says the experience of meeting Alex Trebek was one of the high points of his life.
Anderson Cooper
Hosting April 19-April 30 Frequent competitor in Jeopardy!’s Power Players Tournament, Anderson Cooper, is the multi-award-winning anchor of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and host of “Anderson Cooper Full Circle,” a streaming show which airs on CNN’s digital properties.
Bill Whitaker
May 3-May 14 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker is the wild card among the newest guest hosts. He holds a master’s degree in African-American studies and several honorary degrees.
Buzzy Cohen
May 17-28 Former Jeopardy! Champion Buzzy Cohen is returning to guest host the upcoming Tournament of Champions. Cohen, who was given the nickname “Mr. Personality” by Alex Trebek, became a fan favorite in 2016, winning $164,603 over the course of nine games. He returned in 2017 to win the Tournament of Champions and in 2019 as a team captain for the All-Star Games. This year’s appearance will mark Cohen’s retirement as a contestant as he will no longer be eligible to compete after his stint as guest host.
Mayim Bialik
Hosting May 31-June 11 Mayim Bialik is the former star of CBS’s The Big Bang Theory and the current star of Fox’s Call Me Kat. A neuroscientist in real life, she’s a great choice to serve up clues for a brainy quiz show. “This is one of the most iconic things that I can be part of in my life,” Bialik told USA Today. “Of all the things I’ve done, of all the acting I’ve done, of all the advocacy I’ve done, and all my academic things, this is the most globally understood, absolutely incredible thing to be part of. It’s unbelievable.”
Savannah Guthrie
Hosting June 14-June 25 Co-Anchor of NBC TODAY, Savannah Guthrie is also the chief legal correspondent for NBC News. She has served as primary anchor for the network’s major breaking news events and has conducted a wide range of exclusive interviews with newsmakers from presidents to celebrities and other notable figures.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Hosting June 28-July 9 Gupta is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, an associate professor of neurosurgery at Emory University and an associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He has won multiple Emmy-awards covering some of the most important health stories in the United States and around the world.
George Stephanopoulos
Hosting July 12- July 16 George Stephanopoulos serves as ABC News’ chief anchor and co-anchor of “Good Morning America.” He is also the host of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
Robin Roberts
Hosting July 19-July 23 Robin Roberts is the co-anchor of ABC’s Good Morning America. She is the author of From the Heart: 7 Rules to Live By and her memoir, Everybody’s Got Something.
LeVar Burton
Hosting July 26-July 30 Former host and executive producer of PBS’s Reading Rainbow and a lifelong children’s literacy advocate, LeVar Burton also hosts his own podcast, “LeVar Burton Reads,” highlighting the best short fiction.
David Faber
Hosting August 2- August 6 David Faber is an award-winning journalist and former Celebrity Jeopardy! champion who serves as the co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk on the Street.
Joe Buck
Hosting August 9- August 13 Joe Buck is a Emmy-winning sportscaster known for his NFL and MLB coverage on Fox network. He has served as the play-by-play announcer for the World Series for the past twenty years and is only the third announcer in history to lead a single television network’s MLB and NFL coverage in the same year. Trebek always had a healthy outlook on the responsibility of the host. Jennings who was recently on Good Morning America shared that Trebek was adamant that the host was not the star of Jeopardy! “[He] made it about the players and about the competition. It’s just hard to imagine that in the TV landscape today, a star of his size saying, ‘Hey, the game is not about you,’ but that was great advice,” said Jennings. In his book The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life, Trebek wrote about the myriad gifts that Jeopardy! gave him. “Even if you are learning facts that you are not going to be able to use in your daily life, it enriches you,” he wrote. “The fact itself just enriches you as a human being and broadens your outlook on life and makes you a more understanding and better person.” For Trebek, the joy of hosting wasn’t about being in the spotlight. Maybe that same spirit lives within these new guest hosts? Congratulations to the newest guest hosts! Next, Who Will Be the Next Jeopardy! Host? Here Are Our Top Predictions
