Remembering Alex Trebek: A harsh review of Jeopardy! early in its run

[jlgarfield]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHWqOb2FiZV/?igshid=1cb9afcu751ww - From October 5, 1984, just barely several weeks into the current Jeopardy! run, the Raleigh (NC) News and Observer had some harsh words for it:
“The new Jeopardy is a disgrace”

“[Trebek] used to host “High Rollers,” which should have been a tip off that the new Jeopardy would be a joke”

Alex proved those guys wrong.

[jlgarfield]

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1325664257556492288?s=19 - Here's another swing and a miss from TV columnist Gary Deeb, sometime before the show's premiere.

[tyshaun1]

We talked about that in the 1985 Matt Ottinger thread awhile ago http://www.gameshowforum.org/index.php/topic,32070.0.html. Several people in those days were slow to come around to Alex's hosting of the show they grew up with and how it was presented, since they were so used to the Art Fleming version's style. Up to that point, Alex's longest running show only ran 2 years... No one could've seen what was coming.

[trainman]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHWqOb2FiZV/?igshid=1cb9afcu751ww - From October 5, 1984, just barely several weeks into the current Jeopardy! run, the Raleigh (NC) News and Observer had some harsh words for it:
“The new Jeopardy is a disgrace”

Can't remember if I posted it here or over on JBoard a while back, but this was a syndicated review that originated with the Detroit Free Press (Mike Duffy was their longtime TV critic), so these weren't technically the News and Observer's words. It did run in a bunch of papers within the first week or two of the September 10 premiere, so the N&O was actually a little late with it.

[mmb5]

Duffy really came around after the Chuck Forrest run (since he was a local).