Jeopardy! EP Michael Davies is speaking out for the first time about Mayim Bialik’s controversial departure as co-host in December. Speaking to reporters Saturday at the Television Critics As…
Speaking to reporters Saturday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, the game show’s boss — who last May maintained publicly that the actress-turned-emcee had his “full support” — said that while Bialik is “a superb host,” in the end “Ken really won the job.”
“When I took over the show” in the wake of the Mike Richards controversy, “we were forced into that [multi-host] situation, because of everything that had happened before with the guest-hosting period,” Davies explained.
“But over the past 2-1/2 seasons, what we’ve heard a lot from our television stations and other interested parties is they were looking for more consistency, they wanted a single host,” Davies continued.
In the May 2023 Vulture interview, Davies had stated that there was “zero difference” in the ratings for Bialik-hosted episodes vs. Jennings’, adding that there were no “absolute” data that points to one being more popular than the other.
It was back on Dec. 15 that Bialik broke the Internet when she announced on Instagram, “Sony informed me that I will no longer be hosting the syndicated version of Jeopardy!”
For his part, Jennings says he was as surprised as everyone else by Bialik’s ouster, telling The Hollywood Reporter last month, “It took me off guard, because I loved working with my Mayim and I’m gonna miss her.”
The original article contains 502 words, the summary contains 216 words. Saved 57%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Speaking to reporters Saturday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, the game show’s boss — who last May maintained publicly that the actress-turned-emcee had his “full support” — said that while Bialik is “a superb host,” in the end “Ken really won the job.”
“When I took over the show” in the wake of the Mike Richards controversy, “we were forced into that [multi-host] situation, because of everything that had happened before with the guest-hosting period,” Davies explained.
“But over the past 2-1/2 seasons, what we’ve heard a lot from our television stations and other interested parties is they were looking for more consistency, they wanted a single host,” Davies continued.
In the May 2023 Vulture interview, Davies had stated that there was “zero difference” in the ratings for Bialik-hosted episodes vs. Jennings’, adding that there were no “absolute” data that points to one being more popular than the other.
It was back on Dec. 15 that Bialik broke the Internet when she announced on Instagram, “Sony informed me that I will no longer be hosting the syndicated version of Jeopardy!”
For his part, Jennings says he was as surprised as everyone else by Bialik’s ouster, telling The Hollywood Reporter last month, “It took me off guard, because I loved working with my Mayim and I’m gonna miss her.”
The original article contains 502 words, the summary contains 216 words. Saved 57%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Screw, tin man.