‘Jeopardy!’ Host Ken Jennings Addresses Leaving Show & Big Change He’d Like To Make

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As another season of Jeopardy! comes to an end, host Ken Jennings has opened up about whether he can see himself staying on the show forever or if he might be tempted to step away after a few years at the helm.

Jennings, 51, has firmly cemented himself as host of the long-running show, following Alex Trebek‘s death from pancreatic cancer at the age of 80 in 2020.

The game show began with Art Fleming, who hosted from its inception in 1964 to 1979. When Jeopardy! became a syndicated show in 1984, Trebek took over the reins.

After Trebek’s death, there were temporary hosts until a permanent one could be named. Former producer Mike Richards served as the host for one week in 2021. Then, Mayim Bialik and Jennings were named cohosts from 2021 until 2023.

Bialik was then fired at the end of 2023, and Ken Jennings has been the sole host ever since. While promoting his appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Jennings took time out to chat with TV Insider about how long he thinks he will be the host of Jeopardy!, what he would change if anything, and his upcoming book release.

Do you think that you will host Jeopardy! for the rest of your life? Or do you have an endgame in mind?

The last host worked into his 80s. Traditionally, it’s not a job you retire from. I didn’t know at the time, but now that I have a few years under my belt, I think I understand why Alex wanted to do it. It’s just such an incredibly fun job. You’re playing along with the smartest folks and getting to see them do their thing up close. I really feel very lucky that I’m still part of the Jeopardy! family after all these years. And I have, I have no plans to hang it up.

If you were a showrunner or the boss of Jeopardy! Is there anything that you would change?
*chuckles* I do miss, and I don’t know how many decades it’s been, but there used to be a thing where the dollar amounts would appear on the board and the sound effect would be like ‘beep boop boop beep boop boop’ and we don’t have time for that sound effect anymore, apparently, but I miss it. I’m very nostalgic for that sound effect. I feel like our ratings would probably double just from that. I’m not an expert, but I’m just spitballing. I think we would double our ratings if we had the dollar amount sound effect back.

You also have a book coming out and a book tour coming up. What can fans expect from both book and the tour?
Oh yeah, I’ve been writing a trivia quiz called [The Complete] Kennections for well over a decade, first for Parade Magazine, that’s how long ago it was, and then for Mental Floss, and most of them are lost in the bowels of the internet or of newsprint now, so we’re doing a complete connections, 5000 trivia questions. I think they’re really fun to play along with. The book has a clever gimmick where you can make the quizzes easier or harder by using one of the cover flaps to hide part of the page. So that’s a fun angle. We’re just going to do, I think, the book signings are all going to be little mini Kennection game shows. We’ll get people to play along, and we don’t have Jeopardy!-sized prizes, much less Who Wants to be a Millionaire’s prize budget. Sorry. So no, no confetti will be falling from the ceiling at your local independent bookstore.

Jennings appeared on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? on Wednesday, July 23, with Matt Damon. The pair will finish their game, which ended at the $250,000 question, on July 30. Tune in at 8/7c on ABC to see if he goes all the way.

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