“Jeopardy!” won’t be going back to its revolving door of guest hosts after the quick exit of Mike Richards — TMZ’s learned it’ll be Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings for the rest of this season.
Sony production sources tell us the quiz show is going to keep it semi-consistent from here on out — at least for this season — with Mayim on hosting duty for more than half of the episodes, and Jennings shooting a few weeks worth of episodes.
We’re told execs have not decided about next season yet, but are still searching for a full-time, permanent replacement for Alex Trebek, and as we’ve told you … Mayim still seems to be the frontrunner.
When Richards stepped down as host, he suggested — in an internal memo to staffers — “Jeopardy!” would return to a series of guest hosts. However, he was also ousted as Executive Producer less than 2 weeks later … so it’s clear his plan no longer carried weight.
As you know … Richards was tapped to replace Trebek on the syndicated daily version of the game show, but controversial comments he made years ago on his podcast resurfaced shortly afterward, and he quit after shooting just 5 episodes.
Similarly, while former champ Jennings is still guest hosting, we’re told he’s not seen as a real contender for the permanent gig … due to past controversial tweets.
Meanwhile, LeVar Burton’s still out there … but Sony honchos already decided he’s not their guy.
We’ve reached out to Sony, so far, no word back.
