Mayim Bialik Out, Ken Jennings In on 'Celebrity Jeopardy!'

Ken Jennings will be replacing Mayim Bialik as host for "Celebrity Jeopardy," Entertainment Weekly has confirmed.

While the pair have shared hosting duties for the main series, Bialik helmed the star-studded spin-off. However, she has turned down her hosting responsibilities as a show of support for the Writers Guild of America. Additionally, she belongs to the actors' union, SAG-AFTRA, which commenced its own strike in July.

Bialik initially withdrew with just a week of filming remaining for season 39 of the ABC trivia series. Now, the show is gearing up for its 40th season, scheduled for September. Similarly, "Celebrity Jeopardy" is on track to make a comeback in September.

During an episode of the behind-the-scenes podcast "Inside Jeopardy!" showrunner Michael Davis revealed the upcoming plans for the fall 2023 seasons while addressing how the strike's effects have influenced the show.

"Celebrity Jeopardy" will return with all-new material that Davies said was finished before the writers' strike began. "Jeopardy" season 40 meanwhile, will move forward with "a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database, and material that has been redeployed from multiple seasons of the show."

The show will also bring back participants from previous seasons.

Meanwhile, Jennings has faced his share of backlash for continuing to work amid the strike. Earlier this month, he addressed one critic who called him a "disgrace" whose actions would make Trebek "turn over [in] his grave."

In response, Jennings shared a statement from Sony Pictures TV, which produces the show, noting that Trebek continued hosting during the comparable 2007-2008 writer's strike.

" 'Jeopardy!' has a long history with and tremendous respect for the WGA and our writers," the statement read in full, according to Yahoo! Entertainment. "We have always been careful to honor our WGA agreements and we would never air game material not created by WGA writers. However, just as we did, led by Alex Trebek, during the 2007-2008 strike, we will deliver first-run episodes again this fall to more than 200 affiliate stations nationwide. Our current plan is to go into a holding pattern of sorts, pushing back the season 39 postseason to first produce original episodes featuring the best of our WGA written material."

The statement added that, "everyone at 'Jeopardy!' hopes that the guilds and the AMPTP can reach a fair resolution quickly."

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