This is a helpful piece, not so much because of a lot of new reporting, but because it brings together just about everything that has been reported into one place.
I was glad to have confirmed what I thought was true, which is that ratings were not significantly different for the two hosts (syndicated or prime time). I think in the end this hurt Bialik, as the main logic I can see for her hosting is that she would expand the popularity of the show to a new audience, drawn either because of a female host, or familiarity with her sit com work. If that was not happening, then the hosting question becomes more “which is serving the traditional Jeopardy! Audience better? And the answer to that question was always clear. I do wish that McNear had been able to identify the main reason they let her go. Instead she provides three main reasons: 1) She irritated producers with her refusing to work during the strikes; 2) She was not as good at hosting as Ken; 3) She had more hard, polarizing edges than Ken. Of these, I think #2 is the most important, in that if she was widely seen by the core fan base as better at hosting the show than Ken, I think the producers would have had to swallow #1 and #3. Since she wasn’t, one can see why they would not want to put up with #1 and #3. I have done deep dives into her pseudoscience on brain health and vaccines, but was only imagining what she might have been saying about Hamas attacks and Israeli response in Gaza, and how that might have influenced the hosting decision. I will just say that any friend of Israel (among which I have long counted myself) who in October of 2023 thought it would be helpful to make “You might be an Antisemite” jokes online had serious judgement impairment, approaching delusional intensity if they thought Bialik linking that kind of thing with the Jeopardy brand would somehow enhance her chances to keep working for the show. Sent from Gmail Mobile On Thu, 28 Dec 2023 at 7:02 AM Diner <[email protected]> wrote: > And now Claire McNear, whose reporting helped bring down Mike Richards, > tells the story of Mayim's departure: > > https://www.theringer.com/tv/2023/12/27/24015707/mayim-bialik-jeopardy-main-host-history-ken-jennings-writers-strike > > > On Tuesday, December 26, 2023 at 4:43:28 PM UTC-5 Bob Jersey wrote: > >> THR's Alex Weprin discusses things with Ken... the celebrities, he said, >> appear to be far more terrified than a regular-show contestant... >> >> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/jeopardy-host-ken-jennings-mayim-bialik-exit-celebrity-jeopardy-semifinals-1235766161/ >> (link) >> B >> >> Tom Wolper, to M-D November, Dec 20th: >> >> In any internet pile-on most participants are expressing their own >> outrage or pushing their agendas with no regard for the well being of the >> object they’re outraged about. Sony was right to be sensitive about >> choosing their host as they didn’t want to be at the center of an outrage >> storm that could tank ratings. And Ken probably did better than expected in >> settling in as the host. >> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/06a4b011-2659-4b1a-b71a-4a2cb7250f64n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/06a4b011-2659-4b1a-b71a-4a2cb7250f64n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKzrRSQ-t%3DoZ-e7MuwoEZTZthzPfY8VozAgDpG8epiVuQ%40mail.gmail.com.
