Ever since Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik started sharing co-hosting duties on Jeopardy!, fans have been vocal about who they prefer, with many people arguing that the former champion was the clear choice to succeed the late, great Alex Trebek because of his success as a contestant. It turns out, though, that the actress also had a connection to Jeopardy!, and while it might not be as immediately obvious — and she admits to not being a loyal viewer growing up — her history with Trebek actually goes back even further than Jennings’.
At tapings of Jeopardy!, the audience is given the opportunity to participate in a Q&A with the host, and during one of those sessions — which aired on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast — Mayim Bialik revealed her unique childhood connection to Alex Trebek after being asked if she’d watched the quiz show growing up. In Bialik’s words:
I had watched Jeopardy! as a kid. I wasn’t like an every night, everybody sit around and watch Jeopardy! family. But when I was 14 years old I was on a TV show, where Alex Trebek guest-starred as himself, so I have a couple Jeopardy! connections from my youth-ish. We were a Trivial Pursuit family.
The actress/neuroscientist may have only been a casual viewer of Jeopardy! as a child, but she definitely has bragging rights that most youngsters don’t when it comes to the quiz show! The series she is likely referring to is, of course, Blossom, on which Mayim Bialik landed the title role at age 14, and the episode that featured Alex Trebek — “Who’s Not on First” — came in the show’s final season five years later.
In the Season 5 episode, Joey (Joey Lawrence) fantasized that he was competing on Jeopardy! against his sister Blossom (Mayim Bialik) and Albert Einstein. Even though this was apparently all happening in Joey’s subconscious, it still meant that Bialik got to stand on a Jeopardy!-esque stage and have her character introduced by the iconic game show host. The actress paid homage to the full-circle moment when she first guest-hosted in Season 37:
From being a contestant on @Jeopardy (well kinda..) to guest hosting @Jeopardy, this has truly been a dream come true. I hope I made Alex Trebek proud. My last episode airs tonight! Tune in 💙 #FBF #Blossom #MayimOnJeopardy pic.twitter.com/ZHEMhw0I13June 11, 2021
Mayim Bialik may not have shared the stage with Alex Trebek nearly as many times as Ken Jennings, who compiled 74-straight wins on top of several tournaments to follow, but her 1995 encounter beat the longtime host’s first meeting with Jennings by a decade.
Regardless of your preference in Jeopardy! host, it looks like the Call Me Kat actress won’t be back behind the lectern for even longer than we expected. Mayim Bialik chose to stand in solidarity with the quiz show’s writers amidst the WGA strike by not recording last season’s final episodes — despite all of the clues being finalized before the strike started. It’s likely that once that and the SAG-AFTRA strikes end, Bialik will have to juggle her acting commitments with Jeopardy! hosting, and who knows how complicated that will be?
For now, Ken Jennings continues to hold down the fort, with the show kicking off Season 40 with its Second Chance Tournament. Check your local listings to see when to catch those episodes. Meanwhile, Celebrity Jeopardy! is also set to kick off its second season — this one led by Jennings as well — with famous faces including Christopher Meloni, Dulé Hill, Mark Duplass and many more, starting at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, September 27.
