Alex Trebek's Successor

[clemon79]

The big problem I'd see with Kiernan is that he'd probably have to choose between giving up his job at NY1 or a pretty exhausting routine of doing early-morning news in NYC during the week then flying to LA for even more television during the weekend, since I can't imagine Harry Friedman relocating production to the east coast.

I'm not sure I see "not having to get up at oh-dark-thirty to host local morning news anymore in exchange for a two-day-work-week at double the salary" as a potential problem. I for one would not have a hard time making that decision.

[chris319]

when someone says "Wolf Blitzer," the first thing I think of is his cratering on Jeopardy and not his work on CNN.

Watching too many game shows will do that to you.

Did you ever see Bill Cullen playing Blockbusters?

[Matt Ottinger]

Did you ever see Bill Cullen playing Blockbusters?

I'm not sure that's the best analogy, only because we've all seen Bill play so many other game shows, and play them well, that we could only assume that he'd be able to handle Blockbusters well enough.

Meanwhile, Wolf Blitzer played Jeopardy back in 1997 and did just fine.  I don't think the world at large is particularly concerned about Wolf Blitzer's Jeopardy-playing skillz.

[chris319]

I'm not sure that's the best analogy, only because we've all seen Bill play so many other game shows, and play them well, that we could only assume that he'd be able to handle Blockbusters well enough.

Once during a rehearsal of Blockbusters, Bill said something to the effect of "If only I knew the answers to half the questions I've asked over the years". This tells me that while he may have been fine at word games, Q&A games such as Blockbusters or Jeopardy! were not his forte.

[Jay Temple]

And yet, when Trivia Trap had their celebrity week, Bill was the top winner.

[Matt Ottinger]

Once during a rehearsal of Blockbusters, Bill said something to the effect of "If only I knew the answers to half the questions I've asked over the years". This tells me that while he may have been fine at word games, Q&A games such as Blockbusters or Jeopardy! were not his forte.

Or that Bill routinely downplayed his own abilities so as not to come off like a know-it-all.

[Clay Zambo]

The big problem I'd see with Kiernan is that he'd probably have to choose between giving up his job at NY1 or a pretty exhausting routine of doing early-morning news in NYC during the week then flying to LA for even more television during the weekend, since I can't imagine Harry Friedman relocating production to the east coast.

If they want him, they can work around his schedule.

And if he wants it, he can quit NY1.  Nobody says you have to  -- or even get to -- keep all your jobs all the time.  I betcha hosting Jeopardy would pay a living wage.

/Generally annoyed by speculation threads, especially when they devolve into these sorts of specifics.

Not to mention it might not be an all-or-nothing issue: if NY1 wanted to keep Kiernan badly enough, they could probably work out a 3- or 4-day-week schedule for him, allowing for some flights to LA for Jeopardy!.

[BillCullen1]

I'm not sure that's the best analogy, only because we've all seen Bill play so many other game shows, and play them well, that we could only assume that he'd be able to handle Blockbusters well enough.

Once during a rehearsal of Blockbusters, Bill said something to the effect of "If only I knew the answers to half the questions I've asked over the years". This tells me that while he may have been fine at word games, Q&A games such as Blockbusters or Jeopardy! were not his forte.

Uncle Bill was on the original Jeopardy with Art Fleming. I saw a picture of him, Peter Marshall and Art James behind the podiums. I'm guessing they were playing for charity and that it was an anniversary show. There was a cake in the picture as well. IIRC, the pic was in The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows. I'm pretty sure Cullen had the high score.

[Jamey Greek]

I have two votes:

1. Marc Summers-Having seen him host History IQ and The Nova Quiz on PBS I know he can handle a serious quizzer.
2. Bob Goen-He indicated that he wanted to host Jeopardy should Alex retire on an interview with buzzerblog several years back.

[Twentington]

Cullen also cleaned up on Game Show Hosts week on Wheel, didn't he? (At least based on comments on the following episode with Tom Kennedy.)

In conclusion: Bill was the Chuck Norris of game show hosts.

[SRIV94]

Once during a rehearsal of Blockbusters, Bill said something to the effect of "If only I knew the answers to half the questions I've asked over the years". This tells me that while he may have been fine at word games, Q&A games such as Blockbusters or Jeopardy! were not his forte.

Or that Bill routinely downplayed his own abilities so as not to come off like a know-it-all.

I've mentioned this before, but pop culture seemed to be a weakness of his.  The week Ludden came back to P+ after Uncle Bill filled in for him, one of the puzzles was Laverne And Shirley.  Cullen could get the passwords to the puzzle with little trouble, but openly lamented as he was trying to figure the puzzle out that while he knew it was a TV series he was bad at coming up with titles like that.

On the other hand, he got the puzzle "Senator Joseph McCarthy" after one clue, so while pop culture might have been a weakness, other subjects seemingly were strengths.

[Jimmy Owen]

Once during a rehearsal of Blockbusters, Bill said something to the effect of "If only I knew the answers to half the questions I've asked over the years". This tells me that while he may have been fine at word games, Q&A games such as Blockbusters or Jeopardy! were not his forte.

Or that Bill routinely downplayed his own abilities so as not to come off like a know-it-all.

I've mentioned this before, but pop culture seemed to be a weakness of his.  The week Ludden came back to P+ after Uncle Bill filled in for him, one of the puzzles was Laverne And Shirley.  Cullen could get the passwords to the puzzle with little trouble, but openly lamented as he was trying to figure the puzzle out that while he knew it was a TV series he was bad at coming up with titles like that.

On the other hand, he got the puzzle "Senator Joseph McCarthy" after one clue, so while pop culture might have been a weakness, other subjects seemingly were strengths.

On TTTT, Bill knew about the movies and actors of a certain era.  Who else would have asked a question about '20's star Milton Sills to ferret out the impostors?

[Mr. Armadillo]

It's been awhile since that particular era counted as popular culture.  :-P

[cyclone45]

Here's an idea. How about just cancelling the show when Alex retires? Jeopardy has been his since 1984 and the only sub i can recall ever was Pat Sajak in that April Fool's switch.

[Jeremy Nelson]

The big problem I'd see with Kiernan is that he'd probably have to choose between giving up his job at NY1 or a pretty exhausting routine of doing early-morning news in NYC during the week then flying to LA for even more television during the weekend, since I can't imagine Harry Friedman relocating production to the east coast.

If they want him, they can work around his schedule.

And if he wants it, he can quit NY1.  Nobody says you have to  -- or even get to -- keep all your jobs all the time.  I betcha hosting Jeopardy would pay a living wage.

/Generally annoyed by speculation threads, especially when they devolve into these sorts of specifics.

Not to mention it might not be an all-or-nothing issue: if NY1 wanted to keep Kiernan badly enough, they could probably work out a 3- or 4-day-week schedule for him, allowing for some flights to LA for Jeopardy!.

Now the good people at Sony Television wouldn't ever give this much thought since they have their own studios in LA, but if they wanted Pat Kiernan badly enough, couldn't moving the show back to New York be a consideration? After all, when The Price is Right wanted Tom Bergeron, and Tom wanted to stay grounded in New York, they offered to move the show to New York.