Alex Trebek says he may retire from J! in 2020--link

[Matt Ottinger]

Ahem....Jeopardy is as synonymous with Alex Art Fleming as TPiR was with Bob Barker Bill Cullen.

Fixed that for you.  Also made a point.  Do you see it?

No, I didn't think so.

[BrandonFG]

Ahem....Jeopardy is as synonymous with Alex as TPiR was with Bob Barker.

Which means what, exactly? Drew Carey enters his 12th season this fall. You say all this as if those two shows didn't have long-running hosts before Alex or Bob took over.

If a TV show stopped because its longtime host stepped down, there would be a whole lotta shows not airing now. TPiR, CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson...I could go on and on. A money-making show isn't going away just because its iconic host leaves.

I suspect that when Trebek & Sajak's tenure are over, Sony will not adjust the formats to accommodate the new hosts. They will choose hosts that will work within the existing formats.

But where did the TPIR format really change? I know you have your gripes with Drew, but the meat and potatoes are still there. The show was on cruise control for a few years before Bob retired.

Wheel is feeling a little similar, so a refresher there could work IMO.

[Scrabbleship]

Ahem....Jeopardy is as synonymous with Alex as TPiR was with Bob Barker.

Which means what, exactly? Drew Carey enters his 12th season this fall. You say all this as if those two shows didn't have long-running hosts before Alex or Bob took over.

If a TV show stopped because its longtime host stepped down, there would be a whole lotta shows not airing now. TPiR, CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson...I could go on and on. A money-making show isn't going away just because its iconic host leaves.

I suspect that when Trebek & Sajak's tenure are over, Sony will not adjust the formats to accommodate the new hosts. They will choose hosts that will work within the existing formats.

But where did the TPIR format really change? I know you have your gripes with Drew, but the meat and potatoes are still there. The show was on cruise control for a few years before Bob retired.

Wheel is feeling a little similar, so a refresher there could work IMO.

I would think that Bob purging most of what remained from the glory days - getting Kathleen/Janice/Paul Alter sacked and unpersoning a dying Rod Roddy - was what had me check out until Barker was gone. TPIR was more of a husk those last six years pre-Drew than it has ever been under Drew.

[cyclone45]

Ahem....Jeopardy is as synonymous with Alex Art Fleming as TPiR was with Bob Barker Bill Cullen.

Fixed that for you.  Also made a point.  Do you see it?

No, I didn't think so.

J! I'll give you but Fleming didn't host it nearly as long as Trebek. TPiR w as a Contestant Row only format back then.

[BrandonFG]

I think what Matt is saying is that the shows didn't begin or end with Trebek or Barker, as you implied. It's okay to associate TPiR or J! with the long-running hosts, but life goes on and eventually you pass the torch.

Again, see my Tonight Show and CBS Evening News examples. People of a certain age will only associate them with Carson or Cronkite. Many more people realize that there are others like Leno, Fallon, Dan Rather, etc. who still make great hosts, and don't need to be compared to their predecessors.

[TLEberle]

And now they're different. Perhaps with a new host Jeopardy will kick off with each contestant playing a thirty second sprint round. Or TPIR will have two players in a bidding war to determine who plays a pricing game and who goes back to his or her seat. Each show has survived a new host or new format therefore there is little reason to believe it cannot do so again.

/my compatriot Brandon F.G. beat me to the punch by mere seconds--his addition is well worth reading as well.

[cmjb13]

Ahem....Jeopardy is as synonymous with Alex as TPiR was with Bob Barker.

Which means what, exactly? Drew Carey enters his 12th season this fall. You say all this as if those two shows didn't have long-running hosts before Alex or Bob took over.

If a TV show stopped because its longtime host stepped down, there would be a whole lotta shows not airing now. TPiR, CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson...I could go on and on. A money-making show isn't going away just because its iconic host leaves.

I suspect that when Trebek & Sajak's tenure are over, Sony will not adjust the formats to accommodate the new hosts. They will choose hosts that will work within the existing formats.

But where did the TPIR format really change? I know you have your gripes with Drew, but the meat and potatoes are still there. The show was on cruise control for a few years before Bob retired.

Wheel is feeling a little similar, so a refresher there could work IMO.

Wasn't there a quote by Mike Richards somewhere that basically said they had to work the show around Drew?

[Jimmy Owen]

Johnny Gilbert?  Knows the show and has hosted network game shows.

[Scrabbleship]

And now they're different. Perhaps with a new host Jeopardy will kick off with each contestant playing a thirty second sprint round. Or TPIR will have two players in a bidding war to determine who plays a pricing game and who goes back to his or her seat. Each show has survived a new host or new format therefore there is little reason to believe it cannot do so again.

/my compatriot Brandon F.G. beat me to the punch by mere seconds--his addition is well worth reading as well.

Can we make it sixty seconds. Then have the contestants pick categories and then choose a choice of three questions. And center the questions on current events?

Or in that case can we just reboot The Challengers and start anew? /s

[Casey]

Johnny Gilbert?  Knows the show and has hosted network game shows.

Everyone else can laugh at me and I'll accept it for taking the bait - but you can't be serious, can you?

[BrandonFG]

Johnny Gilbert?  Knows the show and has hosted network game shows.

Everyone else can laugh at me and I'll accept it for taking the bait - but you can't be serious, can you?

I won't laugh. But yeah, I would disregard that one.

[Unrealtor]

I suspect that when Trebek & Sajak's tenure are over, Sony will not adjust the formats to accommodate the new hosts. They will choose hosts that will work within the existing formats.

But where did the TPIR format really change? I know you have your gripes with Drew, but the meat and potatoes are still there. The show was on cruise control for a few years before Bob retired.

Wasn't there a quote by Mike Richards somewhere that basically said they had to work the show around Drew?

The format, at least in the way that I would use the word, hasn't changed since they went to an hour. It's still four contestants picked from the audience participating in six one-bids for the right to play a pricing game, with a showcase showdown after each three and then the showcase. With the design of the show, what prizes they play for and what pricing games are played are intentionally varied. With the right line up of pricing games and a time machine, you could abduct Bob Barker from 1978, drop him at Studio 33 in 2018, and you wouldn't have to explain to him anything other than five-digit cars and that the cash bonuses and DSW threshold have increased (at least as far as gameplay is concerned; the models might be a different story.)

When I think of game show formats changing, I think more about things like Wheel eliminating shopping or Sale of the Century adding the speed round. The overall flow of the show changed at that point.

[Matt Ottinger]

Wasn't there a quote by Mike Richards somewhere that basically said they had to work the show around Drew?

My understanding (and I can't remember if I heard it here or from people who worked on the show at the time) was that the only real issue they had to "work around" was that it took time for Drew to get up to speed on how the various pricing games were played.  So for a while, they weren't using nearly all of the games at their disposal.  That's a far cry from changing the format of the show.

[chrisholland03]

Johnny Gilbert?  Knows the show and has hosted network game shows.

Ok, I'm not going to ignore this one.  You know he's 94 years old, right?

[cmjb13]

Wasn't there a quote by Mike Richards somewhere that basically said they had to work the show around Drew?

My understanding (and I can't remember if I heard it here or from people who worked on the show at the time) was that the only real issue they had to "work around" was that it took time for Drew to get up to speed on how the various pricing games were played.  So for a while, they weren't using nearly all of the games at their disposal.  That's a far cry from changing the format of the show.

Point taken on the format, but I believe the quote Richards was referring to in working the show around him, was that they were adding elements (comedic and gimmick) to the show that weren't necessarily there before and removing others that had worked.

Example #1: I know in the beginning of his tenure, they added more cameras.

So instead of having the host fit in and integrate around the existing camera structure, they added more cameras to work around the host.

Example #2: Barker's Marker's being retired because apparently nobody wanted to tell Drew he made a mistake during gameplay.

So instead of correcting, game is retired

Example  #3: Drew did an aisle entrance rehearsal in June 2008. After doing it, Drew had a look like he did something really dumb. It was either Roger or Syd that basically said "Well, that went well"

These items are minor and I'm sure there are others.