Weekend Post

So the Mike Richards era of hosting JEOPARDY is over.  That lasted… one day of taping.  My question is who vets these guys?  If websites are able to turn up this info, why can’t Sony put a few drones on the case to check out someone’s background before you give him the keys to your Rolls Royce and say, “Sure, go off-roading”?    It’s just nuts.

So the show goes a whole year with guest hosts, some painful like Dr. Oz, getting the audience all stirred up.  And it ends like this. 

All along it was a Faustian contract because all the attention you get from the on-air audition process comes back to bite you when you ultimately make a decision and 50% or 70% of your fans are pissed because they wanted someone else.   Like I said last week, had they just installed a new host after Alex died there would have been an adjustment period and eventually the new guy would just be “the guy.”  

TV networks used to air all their failed pilots in the summer.  They had paid for them and this allowed them to recoup something while filling summer space.   We in the industry used to call it “Failure Theatre.”  One of the reasons networks discontinued the practice was people were complaining that the failed pilots were better than the shows they picked up.  Networks learned not to air their dirty laundry.

So now we get more guest hosts.  Here are my suggestions, Sony:  OJ Simpson, Bill Cosby, Andrew Cuomo, and R Kelly. 

Good luck Sony, when Pat Sajak leaves WHEEL OF FORTUNE.  Maybe Harvey Weinstein could be let out for a work program? 

from By Ken Levine