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Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings will be wrapping up his stint fronting the show this week, before hosting the Jeopardy! Masters series in May.
Jennings, 48, will appear on the syndicated show this week and then host the Masters competition on ABC primetime starting May 8.
The quiz master shares hosting duties with Mayim Bialik, and the pair were named permanent co-hosts in 2022.
Jennings and Bialik replaced beloved host Alex Trebek, who died in November 2020 from pancreatic cancer and had hosted the show since the 1980s.
The Masters series will feature Jeopardy! mega champions, Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach, Andrew He, Sam Buttrey and James Holzhauer, and will run for 10 hour long episodes.
A Twitter account called "Is Ken Jennings Hosting Jeopardy! This Week," which appears to track when Jennings hosts the popular game show, announced the quiz master's current stint of hosting will end on April 28 and fans replied with dismay.
"They've got to figure out the hosting thing," wrote one person.
Another added: "I'll miss Ken and Jeopardy until he returns."
And a third wrote: "Please keep Ken full time ... please please."
Jennings and Bialik previously opened up on the backlash they receive from ardent Jeopardy! fans.
"We're still people, so I can't say that when you hear things that are constructive criticism that you don't start thinking a little bit too much about it," Bialik said during their appearance on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast in August 2022. "But, I don't know, I kind of take everybody's opinion both with a grain of salt and also believe everybody has a right to their opinion."
Jennings spoke about receiving backlash when he first appeared on the show in 2004 and then went on to hold its longest winning streak at 74.
"Even as a contestant, I remember being shocked at how free—it was the early days of the internet, but people were still very much like, 'Oh, I'm sick of this guy already.' And I'm like, 'Oh, there's like three more months [of me]... This guy's gonna have a bad summer!' I just kind of had to dissociate," he said on the podcast.
"You know what, Jeopardy! has got such a big, diverse audience. You're not going to be able to please everybody every night. But I think that's the virtue of having a couple hosts. You know, it's a big, diverse audience and maybe that helps broaden the tent. It's a matter of taste hosting style."
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more