What Do You Need From A Jeopardy! Host?

Plus: Our Big Oscars Preview and What's Making Us Happy by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when the Independent Spirit Awards [honored a bunch of very good movies](. It was the week when LeVar Burton [learned he would get his shot]( at guest-hosting Jeopardy! And it was the week when we learned that How I Met Your Mother would get a sequel (spin-off? reboot?) called How I Met Your Father, starring Hilary Duff -- [and not, as once planned, Greta Gerwig](. Opening Argument: What Do You Need From A Jeopardy! Host? Do you ever think about how weird it is that Jeopardy! is called Jeopardy!? That this very tame quiz show is named after peril, and peril followed by an exclamation point at that? Wheel Of Fortune is also pretty strange if you stare at it too long, but at least it doesn't sound like the whole thing is life or death. Jeopardy! is one of those cultural institutions that can float along as a constant for a very long time, and then all of a sudden, boom: zeitgeist. This happened, of course, because of the death of beloved host Alex Trebek, who handled a cancer diagnosis with uncommon candor and had some time to hear from the many, many people who appreciated and admired him. And now, the time has come to think about who hosts next. This season, the show is using rotating guest hosts from the sublime (the upcoming Robin Roberts!) to the ridiculous (the already-gone Dr. Oz!), some of whom seem to be in the running for a permanent job and some of whom do not. The internet got involved -- surprise, surprise -- in part because LeVar Burton made it clear that just a like a lot of viewers and fans, he thought he should get a shot at hosting. Not just the star of television series including Roots and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but also the longtime host of Reading Rainbow, Burton seems extremely qualified for the gig, and now he's going to get his shot. The list of guest hosts they've tried has been rightly criticized for being not diverse enough; for a while, it seemed like all eyes were on Ken Jennings, the former super-winner who parlayed his run as a champion into a whole thing. His ascent once looked inevitable and now does not, for a variety of reasons, so if we assume the slate is relatively clean, what should we all hope for in a new host? [Burton image]( Theo Wargo/WireImage Well, obviously, anyone who's going to be on television every night for hopefully years needs a measure of charisma. And charisma is a weirdly hard thing to quantify. Burton certainly has it. Trebek had it. But those are two guys with very different energy. Rodgers has it too -- he was a surprisingly successful host in the eyes of a lot of observers, I think. Anyone who hosts this show has to also have the ability to tell people they're wrong a lot, and to tell them what the right answer is a lot. In other words, that person is constantly in the position of being a know-it-all, so it takes a very specific light touch not to seem like you're either going in the direction of "I know more than the simple people" or "Ha ha way to fail, NERD." Any sense of humor has to be somewhat dry, I think -- this is why I was never fully convinced by the fairly muggy Jennings. Trebek's humor was dry as a desert, often not even really noticeable until the later years. So to me, a funny smart person like Burton is a better pick than a person who's trying specifically to be funny, like Drew Carey operates over on The Price Is Right. (And by the way, I think Carey was a good pick for that very different show.) There are multiple good options out there, I'm sure, including many who won't even get a tryout. And I can't honestly say I would have picked Trebek as a legend in the making back when he first got the gig. So I'm patiently waiting to hear how it shakes out. But I'll tell you this: I'm at least glad that LeVar Burton is getting to shoot his shot. And if that works out, it will be another thing 2021 managed to get right. --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- We Recommend: Our friend Sam Sanders had a chat this week over on his show, It's Been A Minute, with Eric Andre of Bad Trip (recently covered on our show!). [Check it out](. Frequent PCHH guest Soraya Nadia McDonald [wrote a beautiful piece this week]( about the very hard experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer. I know you're all with us in wishing her the very very best. Can't wait to read more from her on happier subjects. Sometimes, stories that begin with a vow that they will uncover something interesting about the character of someone who's recently died don't quite live up to the promise of their introductions. But [this story from Joe Trippi]( about Walter Mondale, the Minnesota legend and former vice president who died this week, is truly, honestly, a wonderful story. Vulture's [reporting on super-producer Scott Rudin]( via interviews with some of his assistants, is hard to read. But it's essential to understanding just how much change is desperately needed in Hollywood and elsewhere. Team PCHH -- along with some of our other colleagues at NPR -- is gearing up for Oscars coverage this weekend. We'll be contributing on both digital and radio platforms, and of course, thanks to the hard work of our team of producers (Jessica Reedy! Mike Katzif! Candice Lim! Mallory Yu!), we'll be topping off our week of episodes with a recap you'll be able to hear by the time you wake up Monday morning. If you want to listen back to our episodes on all of the best picture nominees, you can find them in [a playlist over at Spotify](. And a note! We're going to be talking about The Nanny, now streaming on HBO MAX. If you have burning questions you want us to dive into, send them right over to [pchh@npr.org](mailto:pchh@npr.org?subject=). What We Did This Week: [international image]( Henrik Ohsten/Courtesy of TIFF As you know if you've been following the podcast feed, we brought you a whole week of Oscars coverage -- not just the big categories that get the most attention, but some of the smaller ones that honor movies that might be even more worth your time. We started on Monday's show, with Glen talking to first-time panelist Carlos Aguilar about the 2021 nominees for [best international feature](. On Tuesday, Aisha and I tackled [the nominees for best documentary feature]( -- all of which are truly worth a watch for varying reasons. On Wednesday, Glen and I covered the nominees [for best animated feature]( including the one that was both of our favorite: Wolfwalkers. On Thursday, it was time for Stephen and Aisha to cover the nominees for [best original song]( which gave Stephen a chance to expand upon a theory he also published this week on NPR.org while ranking the five nominees, about an Oscar genre [he called "glorycore."]( And on Friday, all four of us sat together to go over all the major categories and make predictions for who will win (I am always wrong!) while also saying who we wish would win (I am always thwarted!) [in our big Oscar preview](. It might seem like the Oscars are all that we're paying attention to right now, but that's not the case! [Glen wrote a lively review]( of the new Netflix series Shadow & Bone, which almost made me want to watch a kind of show I usually think of as not for me. And I wrote about the Romeo & Juliet adaptation that's coming to Great Performances this weekend, which I [really do recommend to you]( particularly if you have a wistful attachment to currently imperiled theater spaces. Don't miss Stephen over at NPR Music's [New Music Friday](. What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: - What's making Glen happy: [Staged, streaming on Hulu]( - What's making Aisha happy: [Concrete Cowboy, on Netflix]( - What's making Stephen happy: [Disenchantment, on Netflix]( - What's making Linda happy: [Tom Holland's appearance on Lip Sync Battle]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. --------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [pchh@npr.org](mailto:pchh@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? 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