When Alex Trebek died, there was lots of speculation about who would take over as host of Jeopardy. There were lots of temporary hosts trying out for the job, but the clear winner (for me) was Ken Jennings. Ken was a former contestant and a friend of Alex's and after all the "testing" of others was done, he was chosen, first as temporary host, and now as permanent host.
It is amazing to me how often I see long diatribes from lots of people complaining about Ken. I find him as easy to watch as Alex Trebek, and as a former contestant, he has a better relationship with the current contestants. I enjoy their banter.
This week, Ryan Seacrest has taken over as host of Wheel of Fortune, following the retirement of Pat Sajak. I find Seacrest enjoyable and while he's still learning the ropes, I enjoy him as host. But, like with Ken Jennings, there are lots of people on Facebook who think he's terrible and there is a move to fire him (after one week?) and replace him with Vanna White. I don't know if those people saw Vanna take over for Sajak once. She was OK, but definitely not good. Seacrest has so much more experience hosting shows and I think he's wonderful. Vanna is better looking beautiful and turning letters.
Then yesterday I saw a long discussion about how Kelly Ripa is no longer the star of Kelly and Mark now that her husband has joined the team, talking about how he takes over everything she says. I no longer watch the whole show because I don't know the newer celebrities, but I always watch the first 15 minutes because I enjoy the banter between Kelly and Mark and maybe I'm missing something, but I certainly don't see Mark taking over for her and I love getting a feel for how their marriage is (whether this is true or not)
Perhaps I don't watch television properly, but I'm glad I don't. I enjoy these shows and hate to think of spending time complaining about them. We will never get Alex Trebek or Pat Sajak back and I'm just so glad that I am enjoying their replacements.
We have always watched Jeopardy every night and we like Ken Jennings a lot. To be honest, I think he is better than Alex. Ken is very comfortable with the contestants, he is quick-witted and responds to their stories far better than Alex ever did. Not that I didn't like Alex, I did, but too many people think that no one could possibly be able to replace him. If you have ever seen the early year episodes of Alex, they showed them a couple of years ago, he was awful. He grew into his role on the show but early on, he certainly was not as good or as comfortable as Ken was at first.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Wheel since Ryan took over but he does have so much experience in a hosting role that I'm sure he is fine on that show. I don't think that Vanna would be the right choice as host.
I agree with everything you said about Ken...and abut Alex.
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