Mayim Bialik Will Host ‘Jeopardy!’ Temporarily Amid Mike Richards Exit
Mayim Bialik, who is already slated to host Jeopardy!‘s primetime specials and spin-offs, will serve as the guest host of the nightly show while the show searches for a new host.
Following executive producer Mike Richards stepping down as the permanent replacement for the late Alex Trebek, Bialik host the next 15 episodes of the daily syndicated show, Sony Pictures Television confirmed to CBS News yesterday (August 23).
Bialik, who is most commonly known for her role as Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, will tape three weeks worth of episodes when production resumes this week, Sony said. More guest hosts will be announced as the season continues.
Richards, 46, stepped down last week due to outrage over his past inappropriate comments made on The Randumb Show podcast he hosted in 2013 and 2014. The comments in question found that Richards “repeatedly used offensive language and disparaged women’s bodies.”
Bialik, 45, was also criticized recently for her vaccine hesitancy in her 2012 book, Beyond the Sling.
“We made an informed decision not to vaccinate our children,” Bialik wrote in her parenting guidebook, “but this is a very personal decision that should be made only after sufficient research, which today is within reach of every parent who seeks to learn about their child’s health regardless of their medical knowledge or educational status.”
A representative for Bialik has since clarified her vaccine stance stating, “She has been fully vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus and is not at all an anti-vaxxer.”
The neuroscientist tweeted in 2015, “dispelling rumors abt my stance on vaccines. i’m not anti. my kids are vaccinated. so much anger and hysteria. i hope this clears things up.”
dispelling rumors abt my stance on vaccines. i'm not anti. my kids are vaccinated. so much anger and hysteria. i hope this clears things up.
— Mayim Bialik (@missmayim) February 11, 2015
When she was chosen to host the prime-time specials and spin-offs, Sony chairman Ravi Ahuja said Bialik “has a wonderful energy, an innate sense of the game, and an authentic curiosity that naturally represents the Jeopardy! brand.”
