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CBS Media Ventures's Jeopardy! has had a string of guest hosts this year since the death of Alex Trebek in November.

The show’s ratings started out on top at 6.2 when Ken Jennings began his six-week guest hosting stint in the week ended Jan. 17. But since Jennings’ start the long-running game show has had a bumpy ride, bottoming out at a 4.4 with LeVar Burton at the podium in the week ended Aug. 1. Burton's stint, though, was heavily impacted by the Tokyo Olympics, which pounded most syndies in the frame.

Jeopardy! has since rebounded: first with CNBC's David Faber earning a 4.5 in the week ended Aug. 8, and then second with Fox Sports' Joe Buck nabbing a 5.2 in the week ended Aug. 15. Buck's rating marked a 13-week high for the game show and a 16% jump over the previous week.

Before Burton and Faber, the game show's lowest rating came in at a 4.7 with Savannah Guthrie, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Robin Roberts each earning that number during their respective turns at the podium.

Find out how the guest hosts (so far) stack up below. The most recent ratings are for the week ended Aug. 15 and are based on live plus same day national household ratings from Nielsen Media Research. It's also important to note that ratings are affected by more than the guest host. Preemptions, the Tokyo Olympics, and the slow summer season, for example, all have an impact.

Also Read: New 'Jeopardy!' Host Mike Richards Steps Down After Just 9 Days

When iconic Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek died on Nov. 8, 2020, of stage 4 pancreatic cancer, the loss came as a shock to fans around the world even though Trebek had been talking openly about his diagnosis for more than a year.  

What came next had to be handled delicately, but luckily for Jeopardy!, new-ish executive producer Mike Richards had a plan in place. By the time the show ran out of new episodes with Trebek at the podium, Richards had established a lineup of respected guest hosts to take the show into its next era, including Ken Jennings, Katie Couric, Aaron Rodgers, Mayim Bialik, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Mehmet Oz, George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, LeVar Burton and several more.

The transition has been a fair amount of work for Richards and the team of pros at Sony Pictures Television’s long-running game show, but the process has also had its own rewards. Jeopardy! has been syndication’s top-rated game show for almost all of 2021, despite the loss of Trebek. 

Also Read: ‘Who Is the Next Jeopardy! Host?’ The Answer Awaits

In this Q&A with B+C/Multichannel News, Richards talks about why the show went with guest hosts, how he and his team got them up to speed, why he ended up behind the podium himself and what comes next for Jeopardy! as it heads into season 38.

B+C: Did you always know you were going to rely on guest hosts whenever Alex’s run ended? 

Mike Richards: Using guest hosts was always the plan. Going into even an interim host would have been difficult for the fans as well as difficult for us, the show’s production, and everyone who cared about Alex. That process needed time and it needed to have a variety of different people — fans, producers, focus groups — narrow in on all of it. What was it exactly that we wanted out of our next Jeopardy! host? We knew that we wouldn’t be able to find the next Alex Trebek, because that doesn’t exist, so what was it exactly that we were looking for?

B+C: So what were you looking for?

MR: Very early on, we came up with a list of qualities that this person should have. The list wasn’t about what they shouldn’t be, knowing that no one would check every box. We wanted them to be credible, to have a good voice, to feel like they were caring for the contestants and on the contestants’ side, and to present the show in a manner deserving of Jeopardy! It was a number of things like that, plus they needed to have a little bit of a sense of humor. 

Watch: Alex Trebek Hosting 'Jeopardy!' Through the Years

B+C: I feel like humor is one of the most important qualities to look for.

MR: I don’t know that it’s the most important. If you aren’t a great broadcaster, don’t have a great voice, aren’t a great arbiter of the game, then being funny doesn’t matter, but it definitely is an important part. I always think that a great host in some way reflects the audience and is looked at to say, ‘Wow, that was amazing.’ The host’s job is to heighten the moment, increase the tension, lighten the mood — their job is to reflect the audience’s mood and heighten the experience. This is not someone who is necessarily going head to head with the contestants. It’s someone who lets the contestants shine and in letting them shine, they shine.

I grew up watching Johnny Carson; that is an important thing to look at. Alex was brilliant at it. [Alex] was never introduced as the star of Jeopardy!, he was always the host of Jeopardy! That is such a representation of the mentality of our show and of him. It’s the contestants who are the celebrities. The whole machine is built around them. 

Also Read: 'Jeopardy!' Guest Hosts' Ratings: How They Rank After 16 Weeks

B+C: There were obviously a lot of people who wanted to guest host and who lobbied to do it, such as Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who just finished up his two-week run and didn’t seem like an obvious choice when you selected him. How did you handle those asks, and how did you make your choices? 

MR: Jeopardy! is maybe the toughest show on TV to host. It’s so intense and you have to think quickly on your feet. The host of Jeopardy! is the person who reads every piece of content and who calls on the person who rings in and does it in a split second. That’s so important because if you wait, the show becomes so slow. It is so intense and mentally taxing to host the show and to manage it. It really came down to who could do it. 

With Rodgers, you start to look at what I looked at with him — such as how he has been described by teammates and coaches, how does he make split-second decisions, does he stay calm, can he be coached? I also went back and watched him on Celebrity Jeopardy! and I really thought the guy could do it even though he had done barely any broadcasting.

B+C: How are you going to choose the next host and does that job fall on you? Also, was all of this just a ruse so that you could choose yourself at the end, like Dick Cheney running for vice president? 

MR: We are going to look at everyone and consider the data and analytics, testing and focus groups and ultimately who we think the correct person is in the long term. My role is not to choose the person, my role is to make everyone as great as they can be in the role. Look at how Aaron was received or how [CNN’s] Anderson [Cooper] has been received — our production and producers are doing a very good job of giving them great looks. That’s the goal: Make everyone look great. Ultimately, the team at Sony will decide what they think is the right thing for the show.

We aren’t looking for a three-year host, we’re looking for a 10-year or a 20-year host. Stability is one of the show’s strengths, so we need to consider who’s got a 20-year horizon and who can focus on the show and make it great over that time. 

As for me hosting, I was never meant to be a part of that process — I was just meant to manage — but COVID had other plans. Sony will ask me how people are in the studio and how their days on set went so I will be part of that conversation but there’s a bigger group of stakeholders who will weigh in. My job is really to make everyone really good at this. The shoot days are brutal, because teaching someone the show is intense. We give everything we can to them to let them shine and then we serve it up. 

B+C: How well have people been prepared when they came in to guest host?  

MR: People have approached this in many different ways. Some have barely watched the show and then come in and worked hard on rehearsal day. Then there are people who watched hours and hours of tape and went back and looked at things. It’s been very different how people have prepared. I have had all different levels of questions.

What has been common to everyone is that there is a humility that no matter what you’ve done before, when you walk in that door and stand behind that lectern, you are stepping into something incredibly difficult. No one has been in any way arrogant about it. These are all very successful people — they have moderated presidential debates, interviewed world leaders, won Super Bowls — and hosting this game has humbled all of them. It’s a real testament to the brand and to what Alex did. Every single host at some point in their opening monologue has said this is so much harder than I realized.

B+C: Michael Gelman, longtime executive producer of Live with Kelly and Ryan, has been through this guest-host process two times and both times the search has resulted in higher ratings for Live. Did you talk to him at all about how to do this? 

MR: I did call Michael Gelman and we did talk this through. He is the best and even though I had never talked to him before I thought, ‘I don’t have to think this through on my own, why don’t I give him a call?’ 

We were on the phone for an hour and he was like, ‘Here are the upsides and the downsides.’ The best part of the guest-host process is that the audience isn’t seeing them for the first time when you announce the final host so it’s not a complete shock to the system. That’s important psychologically to the audience, especially because some people are going to be upset no matter who you pick.

Gelman also said, ‘You are going to get bad press, so you have to be ready for it.’ And then it dies down, and the fans come back. Also, whoever you pick will get beat up, it doesn’t matter who it is, so that person has to be resilient. That was what happened to Drew Carey on The Price Is Right. He got destroyed for years and then at some point, everyone looked up and was like, ‘Oh Drew Carey, I really like that guy.’ That’s exactly what will happen here. 

B+C: Will you have a permanent host in place by the time season 38 premieres or do you plan to have guest hosts next season as well?

MR: By the end of July or early August, we will have a permanent host in place. Some of the episodes won’t have aired before we make this decision, but we’ve already been doing lots of research on all of the guest hosts. 

Jeopardy!’s next round of guest hosts include Katie Couric, Aaron Rodgers, Bill Whitaker and Mayim Bialik after the game’s Greatest of All Time Ken Jennings took the first tour of duty January 11-15.  A donation will be made to the charity of each guest host’s choice, equaling the cumulative winnings of the contestants that compete during the weeks they host.

In total, Jennings taped 30 episodes so he’s expected to host the show over the course of six weeks. 

Also Read: Final Trebek Episodes of Jeopardy! to Air Jan. 4-8

“Sharing this stage with Alex Trebek was one of the greatest honors of my life," Jennings said on Monday’s episode after he was introduced by the show’s long-time announcer Johnny Gilbert. "Not many things in life are perfect, but Alex did this job pretty much perfectly for more than 36 years. And it was even better up close. We were dazzled by his intelligence, his charm, his grace – really, there's no other word for it."

After Jennings’ run, executive producer Mike Richards will host the show for two weeks before the next round of guest hosts take their turns. Jeopardy!, which is produced by Sony Pictures Television and distributed by CBS Media Ventures, aired the final five episodes of original host Alex Trebek’s run Jan. 4-8 after Trebek passed away on Nov. 8 at 80 of pancreatic cancer.

Couric will be Jeopardy!’s first-ever female host. Besides being the former anchor of NBC’s Today and CBS Evening News, Couric also is the founder of Katie Couric Media, which creates the daily Wake-Up Call newsletter as well as documentaries, digital and series and podcasts.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Rodgers is a Super Bowl MVP and nine-time NFL Pro Bowl selection. He’s also a Celebrity Jeopardy! champion, after competing on the program in 2015.

60 Minutes’ correspondent Bill Whitaker has worked as a journalist for CBS News for four decades. In 2018, he was awarded the RTNDA’s Paul White Award for career achievement.

Mayim Bialik is currently starring on and executive producing Fox’s Call Me Kat after a long run as Amy Farrah Fowler on CBS’ The Big Bang Theory. She also hosts her own podcast on mental health titled, “Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown.”

Additional guest hosts will be announced later in the season.

The new season of One Mississippi arrives on Amazon this Friday (Sept. 8). The writing started on Jan. 17, with President Donald Trump’s inauguration just three days away. The timing affected the writers’ room.

“We really focus on a lot of current events,” star Tig Notaro said. “Everybody was very fueled with ideas and feelings.”

Robert E. Lee, a key figure in the Charlottesville culture wars, gets a fortuitous mention. One Mississippidepicts that state celebrating Lee’s accomplishments on Martin Luther King Day.

Notaro called it “a huge relief” not having to deal with ratings in the streaming world. “It means we get to make the show we want to make,” she said.

One Mississippi may run for five or six seasons, she hopes. “As far as I’m concerned, it could go on and on. But who knows — maybe they kick us out after season two?”

Related: Watch the "One Mississippi" Trailer

Sept. 8 is also the launch date for Third Rail With Ozy, a lively PBS debate program. Guests include Katie Couric, Mark Cuban and Malcolm Gladwell. The host is Carlos Watson, creator of journalism site Ozy.com. Watson said the timing of its premiere is perfect. “People are hungry to have this kind of forum to participate in this kind of conversation,” he said.

Denise Dilanni, show creator and WGBH senior executive, said Third Rail offers some of the late-night vibe seen on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee and Real Time With Bill Maher. “It’s unplugged and electrifying,” Dilanni said.

Watson promises the debates will run hot. “We’re gonna grab a hold of the third rail,” he said, “and see what happens.”

Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville is ready to light up on Fox Sept. 10. The oddball space romp sees MacFarlane as a down-on-his-luck spaceship captain who leads a crew on a vessel known as The Orville.

Where did the name come from? MacFarlane was reading David McCullough’s book on the Wright brothers, aptly named The Wright Brothers. “It felt like they were down on Orville, that Wilbur was doing most of the work. I felt like we should be The Orville then.”

Not everyone at Fox dug the name, but according to MacFarlane “everyone recognized the oddness of it. It put the show in a space from the get-go that said to the audience, ‘This is a little offbeat.’ ”

The programming polymath has a unique way of calibrating a new sci-fi property. “If I was a kid, would I want this as a toy?” MacFarlane said. “If I was 12, would I want this in my room?”

Viewers will decide if they want The Orville in their room.

Hollywood stars are again lining up to support Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), which will stage its fourth biennial fundraising telecast Friday, Sept. 5, from 8-9 p.m. ET/PT.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Pierce Brosnan, Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Jon Hamm, Kiefer Sutherland, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Mark Harmon, Rob Lowe, Danny McBride, Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Tony Hale, Dane Cook, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Marg Helgenberger, Matt Passmore, Rob Riggle, Italia Ricci and Bree Turner will appear in the broadcast, with special performances by The Who, Jennifer Hudson, Lupe Fiasco & Common, Ariana Grande, and Dave Matthews, according to the producers. More stars and performers will be announced in the coming weeks, promoters said.

Paltrow and Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet Productions will co-executive produce the Sept. 5 broadcast, live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.  ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, along with ABC Family, American Forces Network, Bravo, Cooking Channel, Discovery Fit & Health, E!, Encore, Encore Espanol, EPIX, ESPNEWS, FOX Sports 2, FXM, HBO, HBO Latino, ION Television, LMN, Logo TV, MLB Network, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, Palladia, Pivot, SHOWTIME, Smithsonian Channel, Starz, TNT and VH1 are donating one hour of simultaneous commercial-free primetime for the nationally televised fundraising special. The show will stream live on both Hulu and Yahoo.

Instead of the traditional phone bank staffed by celebrities, the Sept. 5 telecast will feature a “digital lounge” on the set, hosted by Yahoo News Global Anchor Katie Couric. Stars in the digital lounge will reach out to viewers via phone, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms through a new campaign called "We're Calling You" that  SU2C’s supporters can sign up for, as of today, at werecallingyou.org.

“Since we started Stand Up To Cancer in 2008, social media has exploded, creating a whole new way to connect,” Couric, a Stand Up To Cancer co-founder, said in a release. “So in an unprecedented way, we'll have plenty of stars reaching out to donors via social media, thanking them through Facebook messages, digital shout outs, Instagrams and tweets. In other words, this year, we are so 2014!”  

Facebook has collaborated with Stand Up To Cancer since its first telecast in 2008 and is now SU2C’s primary social media partner. Over the years, SU2C has continued to expand on its relationship with Facebook through various initiatives to inspire and engage people and connect them with SU2C celebrity ambassadors. With the “We’re Calling You” activation, Facebook and Instagram will enable supporters and fans to engage directly with their favorite stars.

“Cancer affects us all,” Paltrow, who lost her father, Bruce Paltrow, to oral cancer in 2002, said in the release, “and each and every person can help the scientists who are working 24/7 to save more lives. We want to get that message out in as many ways as possible, so we’re excited to use social media to reach supporters from all over who are helping to grow the Stand Up To Cancer movement, and hopefully, get even more people to stand up with us.”

SU2C brings together scientists from different disciplines across institutions and international boundaries to collaborate on finding new treatments for a wide range of cancer types. 

For the first time, there will be a Canada-inclusive co-broadcast of the 2014 telecast, which will air simultaneously on all four major English-language Canadian networks: CBC, City, CTV and Global, along with Canadian services AMI, CHCH, CHEK, Fight Network and Hollywood Suite. All funds received from the Canadian general public during the broadcast will be directed towards the creation of collaborative research teams, as well as education and awareness programs conducted in Canada.

The first three SU2C telecasts took place on Sept.5, 2008, Sept.10, 2010, and Sept.7, 2012, and were made available to more than 190 countries. To date, more than $261 million has been pledged to support SU2C’s innovative cancer research programs. Since 2008, SU2C has funded 12 “Dream Teams” of researchers and two translational research teams, as well as 26 young innovative scientists whose high-risk, potentially high-reward projects are aimed at ending cancer’s reign as a leading cause of death worldwide.