When Jeopardy! resumes production next Monday, former contestant Ken Jennings will be behind the podium guiding contestants through the board following the death of longtime host Alex Trebek earlier this month.
The show has not settled on a permanent replacement for Trebek and Jennings will simply be the first in a series of short-term hosts of the program, according to a tweet from the show.
“There will only ever be one Alex Trebek, but I’m honored to be helping Jeopardy! out with this in January,” Jennings wrote on Twitter.
Still the favorite to eventually be named Trebek’s permanent replacement according to oddsmakers, Jennings won 74 games in a row and claimed the show’s “Greatest of All Time” title in a competition last year.
Interestingly, a recent Morning Consult survey found that 69 percent of U.S. adults who watch Jeopardy! at least once a week said they would be likely to watch the show if Betty White was named as the host. Jennings was next with 62 percent and CNN’s Anderson Cooper came in third with 61 percent.
A 2019 Morning Consult poll found that half of adult respondents said they couldn’t imagine watching Jeopardy! without Trebek, who presided over more than 8,200 episodes of the show, as host.
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