Now that Mayim Bialik has been hosting Jeopardy! through regular-season games and a big tournament, she feels more confident.
Bialik has been trying her best to get used to the game and establish herself as a consistent presence on the show. With the National College Championship and the earlier Professors Tournament, Bialik got a lot of time to hone her skills. Jeopardy! is lucky to have two solid hosts in her and Ken Jennings.
The longer she spends behind the podium, the better she does. Bialik is really starting to get the hang of things. Fans have noticed, and so has the host herself. During a conversation with TV Insider, Bialik talked about hosting and how she has started to feel better as the guide of the show.
“My heart is not completely leaping out of my chest,” Bialik said. “Which is what it did for most of the first months. I do feel a little bit calmer.”
The host and actress has a lot going on in her career at the moment. When she isn’t on Jeopardy! she has her own sitcom, Call Me Kat. It’s clear she has enjoyed her time as host. However, she knows not everyone is going to like her.
“I’m not everybody’s cup of tea, and I totally get that,” she said. “My goal is to blend into the podium as much as I can and have it not be about all of that other stuff. … You know, that’s the nice thing about me. I really don’t have secrets, people. It’s all out there and I’ve made a YouTube video about it already.”
One thing that is great is that Bialik is not controversial. Jeopardy! had enough controversy last year for the next few decades.
‘Jeopardy!’ Host ‘Weathered’ Bad News Cycle
Although everything has calmed down now, there was a time when folks thought Bialik was going to move on from Jeopardy! She had made some comments regarding vaccines in general years ago. When the comments came back up after she was hired, it was a strange few days of news.
“I think it’s really kind of incredible,” Bialik said. “And it was an absolutely fascinating turn of events to be kind of, like, raked over the coals for literally things that I said and have spoken about. I feel like I weathered it to the best of my ability. It definitely felt embarrassing to be on CNN about being the Jeopardy! host because my kids weren’t vaccinated as newborns.”
Social media has led us to a very strange moment in time. Jeopardy! moves on, though, with Mayim Bialik behind the podium. She made it through the cycle and came out on the other end.
