What Celebrity Jeopardy's Ken Jennings Told Us About Trying To Keep A Straight Face As Host, And Playing The 'Mean Substitute Teacher'

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Hard to keep from laughing in the face of so many celebs.

Even though Jeopardy! may arguably be the most serious and studious game show out there, audiences know by now to expect things to get a little more rowdy and unpredictable when familiar faces come together for Celebrity Jeopardy! And it takes more than clever editing for the now-solo host Ken Jennings to keep the show going at its steady pace, especially episodes stretched out to an hour. So it’s understandably a bit of a struggle to both keep a straight face and be authoritative. 

With Celebrity Jeopardy! returning from its winter hiatus for the back half of Season 2 — past episodes are available to stream with a Hulu subscription — Ken Jennings talked to CinemaBlend about bringing the trivia to primetime, and I had to ask whether or not he ever started cracking up in the middle of hosting. And understandably, he addressed the mack daddy of all game show hosts, Alex Trebek, with his answer, saying:

Yeah, I try not to because, you know, there's kind of this thing where, when Alex would host Celebrity Jeopardy, even though he was a legitimate star - he was one of the most famous people in America and Canada - on Celebrity Jeopardy, he wouldn't be one of the gang. It wouldn't be like, 'Hey, I'm Alan Thicke and you're hanging out of my house.' It would really be like, 'I'm the Sphinx-like face of Jeopardy. I'm the house. I'm the casino. I'm gonna keep this in line.' And I kind of feel like me as a non-celebrity, that's the way for me to host that show. So I work very hard at being an agreeable host, but I don't have to be part of the hijinks and, when possible, I should not let them crack me up. But it's hard. They're funny.

As a viewer, I admittedly already have a bit of trouble not laughing when contestants make truly ridiculous guesses, or hearing someone’s involuntary grunt at a particular clue or category. So I would probably be a terrible option as far as keeping things serious when actual comedians are behind the contestant podiums. 

The lineup of celebrities competing in Season 2 is filled with entertainers known for getting audiences to smile and laugh, from Cedric the Entertainer to Melissa Rumero to Timothy Simons to Mo Rocca and many more. (Rachel Dratch, Macaulay Culkin and Sherri Shepherd, oh my!) I mean, how is anyone supposed to hold it together when Dulé Hill starts dancing?

Ken Jennings On The Necessity Of Getting Into 'Mean Substitute Teacher' Mode

Speaking of, few contestants on either Celebrity Jeopardy! or the flagship show are given the time to show off any skills away from their game buzzers, but is anyone really capable of denying Dulé Hill's fancy footwork? The answer is no, but Ken Jennings knows that his role as show captain is an important one, even if the spinoff's expanded runtime allows for more unhinged moments. As he put it:

I think my opinion is that Jeopardy should never be about the host being funny. I like it when the interviews are a little more conversational, and there's a little more give and take to those. But the great thing about Celebrity is we have a little more time, you know? We've doubled the time of the show, but we've only added one round. And we do that knowing that it's going to be a little looser and unpredictable, that the celebrities are going to talk amongst themselves, that sometimes they're going to riff, that they're going to be surprised and emotional, that they may not know all the rules and conventions of the game.

Just because someone might be as famous as the day is long doesn't mean they can necessarily stop themselves from cutting up like a class clown, especially with the unique sense of stress that Jeopardy! can provoke. And so at times, Jennings has to trade his hosting jacket for a metaphorical teacher's cardigan in order to tamp down the mayhem.

It really is kind of an 'anything can happen' circus out there, and I really enjoy that. Like, you have to be ready for anything, and occasionally I find I do have to be the mean substitute teacher who's like, 'All right, you three in the back. You need to quiet down. Somebody's got to pick a category.' Because I know that there are people at home enjoying the jokes, and there are some people at home who were like, 'Come on, Ken. We gotta play Jeopardy. Get these people in line.'

Indeed. While it doesn't seem like Jeopardy! chicanery would cause any truly foul feelings amongst fans, some viewers really don't like mirthy meet-and-greet convos with contestants, or when hosts make off-the-cuff comments about players' guesses, whether correct or incorrect. Personally, I'll allow anything that makes me laugh, whether it's Jennings making Dad-joke puns or Alex Trebek's often anti-comedically dry responses. Anything and everything Jeopardy! is welcome in my house. 

Celebrity Jeopardy!’s semifinal rounds air Tuesday nights on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET, with the Season 2 finale set to air on January 23. Who will join Season 1 winner Ike Barinholtz at the top of the $100,000 pyramid? Wait, no, that’s a different show…

Nick Venable
Nick Venable
Assistant Managing Editor

Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper.  Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.