While it was unclear just how things would go whenever Jeopardy! GOAT Ken Jennings stepped up to the host's podium to take over as guest judge, the game show champ definitely held his own as a temporary guest host. Clearly, the only truly worth successor to Alex Trebek would be a clone or android version of Trebek, but Jennings won over a lot of viewers during his six-week stint as Jeopardy!'s frontman. As Jennings noted on social media, however, that time has come to an end, and he'll now be followed by a line of future guest hosts on the way that includes NFL great Aaron Rodgers, news vet Katie Couric (against some viewers' wishes), and more.
Similar to the way he handled things when he first hit the Jeopardy! stage as a guest host, Ken Jennings gave a humble thanks to the fanbase for giving him a fair shot at holding down the fort following Alex Trebek's death in November 2020, during both normal rounds and extremely rare moments. Here's how Jennings bid fans farewell (at least for now) on Twitter:
For as snarky as some viewers can be, it's likely that few people have judged Jennings' hosting talents more than the man himself. He's fully aware of how challenging it can be to follow in the footsteps of a master, an icon, and someone who served as a hero of sorts. That's obviously a big part of why he continually gave respect to Alex Trebek on an episodic basis. And social media has been full of Jeopardy! fans who would be perfectly happy if the producers decided to forego all the upcoming guest hosts in order to give Jennings the full-time gig.
For instance, former Better Call Saul star and all-around amazing dude Michael McKean made it clear on Twitter that he wants Ken Jennings to stick around for the long haul, so who are we to deny the almighty David St. Hubbins? In his words:
You nailed it, Ken. Come back!
Alas, Jeopardy! does definitely have a full line of follow-up guest judges set in stone for the coming months. The first person taking over after Jennings is Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune producer Mike Richards, who will be followed by Katie Couric, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Aaron Rodgers, Savannah Guthrie, Anderson Cooper, Mayim Bialik, Bill Whitaker, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Those dates likely would go into at least May, but everything is "To Be Announced" at the moment.
Ken Jennings posted a follow-up tweet making a Pokémon reference to the other hosts, but with the presumption that he wasn't calling everyone else a monster.
Stay tuned for a carousel of surprise guest hosts, each more surprising than the last! Collect ‘em all!
For those who want to learn a little bit more about Mike Richards, you can check out the video below.
By all means, Ken Jennings does still have a shot at becoming Jeopardy!'s permanent replacement host after these rounds of guest celebs are complete. We'll just have to wait and see what happens next, unless the Clue Crew can offer some guidance.
