Levar Burton to be the next host of Jeopardy?

Absolutely. I love how diplomatic he was about it and didn't try to throw any shade on the producers or the process. Kudos to Trevor for not going in that direction (not that I would expect him to do that).

I love the idea of a game show focused on reading, not unlike Jeopardy! for trivia or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? for geography. If it is indeed the collaboration suggested by Ava DuVernay, then he's in good hands. I really hope it bears fruit.

 

I think he realized exactly what I'd said about his week of guest hosting: (1) that he was too easily distracted, and (2) his reactions frequently became too over-the-top, making him look like a bad caricature of himself.

I admire his willingness to explore the realm of multi-camera mostly-live-to-media production, but Jeopardy was simply too demanding, and too far outside his experience. It's like picking up a violin for the first time, and expecting to be able to play, say, the Bazzini "Round Dance of the Goblins" at concert tempo.

 

Interesting. I heard no such thing in his interview. Are we projecting a little here?

 

Yeah, good on Levar. Probably for the best, and it could be the start of something interesting. I don't blame him one bit for wanting to distance himself from the controversy. It would also allow him more practice with a similar format. It sounds like he really wanted something of that nature in his life.

As opposed to who, though? I'm under the understanding that none of them had any previous experience in this kind of thing, well aside from Ken Jennings. I think it's quite unfair to single him out when he's far from the only one in that group that hasn't had live-to-tape experience. For many, they would have had a chance to grow into it. Trebek had so many decades to perfect his craft.

 

I based my conjecture about Burton realizing that hosting Jeopardy was not something he was good at entirely on this:

and on my own observations about his week of guest-hosting.

Must I reiterate every single point I've made?

Dr. Bialik's primary acting experience has been in multi-camera live-audience sitcoms, which are about as close as scripted dramatic TV gets to a game show.

Most of the others who did well were experienced newscasters, sportscasters, talk show hosts/regulars, or (in the case of Ken and Buzzy) seasoned Jeopardy champions (and I shouldn't need to remind you that there's a long history of newscasters as game show hosts: consider the Hugh Downs iteration of Concentration, [which was the original lead-in to the Art Fleming Jeopardy] and the present Pat Sajak iteration of Wheel of Fortune [before that, he did weather for KNBC]).

Mr. Burton's primary experience has been in single-camera scripted drama, with multiple takes assembled in post. While I've literally never seen Reading Rainbow, I would be a bit surprised if I were to learn that it wasn't mostly or entirely single-camera as well.

 

So in other words you didn't watch the interview.

...and opinion ignored (also because of the obvious projecting).

 

And exactly how would you interpret "no longer interested in hosting"? Are you accusing Mr. Burton of sour grapes? Or are you saying that the dirty laundry that has come up over the course of what was, despite its flaws, clearly intended to be an open selection process has made Jeopardy such an unattractive gig that you'd rather it simply went off the air?

 

Here's an idea: Watch the interview.

I'll make it even easier since the YouTube video is finally out:

 

I'm pretty sure that saying I'm no longer interested in the hosting job is not quite analogous with saying I thought I sucked at it. The take I got from the interview was that he had other irons in the fire and would rather pursue those.

 

But still quite a leap from a sitcom to a gameshow format. One is scripted, the other is not. Given the chance, I'm sure LeVar would have done fine on a live-audience sitcom given his acting experience, but the same wouldn't be true exactly of a game show, so I'm not sure exactly how much of an edge that would have given Bialik in hosting a gameshow. One requires split-second decision making vs remembering lines. Yeah, some of the others have had newscasting experience, and that definitely gives them an advantage. They would be the most similar to Trebek's experience in his early years. But again, they've had years of experience in their jobs. The point I'm trying to make is that given time, he'd grow into the job just like these others. Everyone has to start somewhere. I doubt Drew Carey had much experience before taking over from Bob Barker for instance.

Yep, that's my take as well. Kind of like turning lemons into lemonade. Which is great, as it turns a negative into a positive, and into a win-win as a result.

 

Drew Carey did stand-up and improv before he ever did anything scripted. And The Price is Right is a collection of pricing games, some of them very straightforward (e.g., Contestants' Row, the Showcase), some of them quite clever (Plinko, the Grocery Game, Cliffhanger, the "shell game," the "golf game"), but none of them requiring the host to have sub-second reaction times.

I am, in this thread, actively seeking to avoid casting undeserved shame on anybody. There is no shame in being unsuited for a particular job, and there's no shame in admitting that fact. On the other hand, "sour grapes" would cast shame on Mr. Burton, while "nest of vipers" would cast shame not only on Mike Richards, who deserves it, but on everybody else connected with the selection process, most of whom, I'm sure, acted in good faith.

And even "a little bit of 'Yeah, I guess I wasn't right for this job' " still constitutes admitting he wasn't cut out for it. And if it leads to a gig -- game show or otherwise -- that suits him better (maybe even one designed specifically for him), then it will be worth it.

Remember, Family Feud was very specifically designed around Richard Dawson's personality (and of his successors, only Steve Harvey seems to have lasted). Just as You Bet Your Life was designed around Groucho's personality (hint: the game was as simple and low-stakes as possible, little more than an excuse for Groucho to engage in humorous banter with the contestants).

 

BTW: Did anybody notice that this year's open includes a 2-second black-and-white clip from the Art Fleming era?

 

If they had just picked someone without making it into a big thing, it wouldn't be such a cluster**** fight now.

It's just hard for me to have respect for a person who invokes real medical credentials to sell fake medicine to old people.

 

Actually she just says she's a real neuroscientist - not a medical professional. Most celebrities will endorse products for additional income. Levar advertises gin; John Hamm is the voice of Mercedes; Ving Rhames is the Arbys man . . . etc. Nothing underhanded or nefarious in product endorsement by celebrities.

 

Yup. Its tainted the show and anyone they pick at this point. Just should have went with an established gameshow host...Alex had done shows before Jeopardy. There must be someone out there that has been cutting their teeth on other gameshows...

 

That'd be ideal. I think part of the issue is that when Trebek started, there were a lot more gameshows being created, and there are a lot fewer of them now, and most of the ones we see these days have either lasted for a very long time, or they're revivals of an old show. The result is that you have far fewer veteran hosts. I think maybe the best bet is to go with a standup comedian, who'd be used to live settings and ad-libbing. Kind of feel like maybe Seinfeld would be able to pull it off.

 

Great: the one current game show that's about something, and you'd put it in the hands of somebody famous for a self-described "show about nothing." Forgive me if I have no enthusiasm to curb.