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‘Jeopardy!’ Ratings Slip After Katie Couric Finishes Guest-Hosting

As Jeopardy! continues cycling through guest hosts after Alex Trebek’s death, its ratings continue to change. The latest ratings brought a five percent decrease with Katie Couric behind the podium. However, it still finished tied for first place with Wheel of Fortune for game show ratings.

In fact, all three of the top-rated game shows from this week-long period experienced a drop in ratings. For instance, Wheel of Fortune was down two percent from the past week, and Jeopardy! and Family Feud saw five percent dips.

Jeopardy! Curious Rating Patterns

Without a doubt, this season has been the most complicated and interesting season in quite some time. In November of 2020, long-time Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek passed away after battling pancreatic cancer. However, his final performances on the show aired on a farewell week in January of this year.

Those, unsurprisingly, brought in the season’s highest ratings with a whopping 6.6. His final episode ever on the show aired on January 8th. That episode alone brought in roughly 14 million viewers, which is more than any other single episode in over a year.

After Alex Trebek’s final episode, Ken Jennings took the reins for Jeopardy!. Jennings, who had won millions as a contestant on the show, brought in similarly high ratings in his first week with a 6.2. For his second week, however, the show’s ratings dipped down to 5.9. Despite the ratings, many fans of the show showed a ton of support for Ken Jennings on social media, even going as far as to boycott the show if he left.

The Dip Continues

With that in mind, the dip in ratings continued when executive producer Mike Richards took over as host. The ratings did not fall significantly, however, and the fans eventually came around to the Jeopardy! producer. Following him, journalist and news anchor, Katie Couric took to the podium only to see another decrease.

This downward trend in Jeopardy! ratings do not seem to reflect the show’s actual performance. For instance, almost every other syndicated game show experienced a drop in ratings over the past few weeks. This week, Dr. Oz takes over for Couric, so we will see if the trend continues.