Mayim Bialik will not be hosting Season 2 of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” as she continues to support the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Variety has learned from sources.
On Monday, ABC issued a press release with changes to their fall schedule, noting that Ken Jennings will host the new season of “Celebrity Jeopardy!,” which premieres Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. ET.
ABC did not respond to Variety’s request for comment.
“Jeopardy!” showrunner Michael Davies revealed earlier this month that material for the star-studded spinoff series’ second season was completed before the WGA went on strike, so the upcoming season will feature completely original material. While Bialik and Jennings split hosting duties on “Jeopardy!,” the former was the sole host for Season 1 of “Celebrity Jeopardy!,” featuring such guests as Simu Liu, Andy Richter, Aisha Tyler, Michael Cera and more.
Back in May, Variety spoke to “Jeopardy!” writers Michele Loud, Jim Rhine and Billy Wisse on the picket line during the fourth day of the WGA strike.
“Our words are on the screen every night,” Loud said. “There is no ‘Jeopardy’ without writers. Without us it’s just an empty blue screen.”
Davies explained on the “Jeopardy!” podcast “Inside Jeopardy!” how the trivia series would proceed with its next season amid the WGA strike.
“We’re going to open the season with a second chance tournament for players from Season 37 who lost their initial game. Winners from that will advance to a Season 37 and Season 38 Champions Wildcard,” he said, adding that questions on these second chance episodes would be “a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database, and material that has been re-deployed from multiple multiple seasons of the show.”
He’s not an actor, is he? Hosting jeopardy isn’t an acting gig. So he’s under no obligations to a union and his role isn’t traditionally filled by union employees. This isn’t crossing the picket lines, as near as I can tell.
For 200, What is the reason Mayim Bialik declined hosting?
She is in SAG and they are striking
Oh I’m sorry you must answer in the form of a question
But they were asked a question!
WGA doesn’t represent actors.
SAG-AFTRA does and they are striking
Yes, I know but this is about the WGA.
Says who?
SAG is also on strike.
I know, however I actually read the post before commenting.
It’s actually very close to a writing gig if the host is doing anything like what Alex’s process was. Alex had strong creative input in the rewriting of answers And if he is doing that, and since the normal writers are on the picket line, he is a scab.
Ok. Say he is. Who cares? He’s not the one stonewalling the unions or refusing to make reasonable concessions to keep millions of people employed and fairly treated.
Whenever you feed into this trivial infighting, it only strengthens the studios.
No, shaming lack of solidarity does not strengthen the studios. I mean, I can’t even conceptualize how anyone would reach such a conclusion. That’s a train of thought that has jumped off the tracks and fell into the ocean.
Are Jeopardy writers union? If so the show can’t be filmed without them. And generally if you’re writing staff is on strike and the company hires scabs to fill that position, the rest of the crew (that can afford to) should strike in solidarity.
I thought Ken Jennings was a cool dude. This doesn’t feel like a cool dude move.
Scabbing or not, it’s semantics, but supporting the strike seems right to me. Though like you mentioned there’s the rest of the crew to think about. Maybe they need this check.
We went on strike a bit over a month ago. A lot of white collar workers and managers were 100% on our side and weren’t even mad at being blocked coming in to work. They still came in and did what they had to. No hard feelings at all.