This morning, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post has reported that sportscaster Joe Buck from FOX Sports will be given a guest host spot on Jeopardy!.
The air dates of Joe Buck’s episodes have yet to be announced.
As BuzzerBlog said on Twitter in reply to the news, “If you’re going to get one of TV’s most disliked fake doctor, may as well get TV’s most disliked sports broadcaster.”
Meanwhile, we still hear complete silence from the show on LeVar Burton. The more I think about this whole guest host situtation, the more I think that Mike Richards, who has twice been cited in his career in discrimination lawsuits and has a genre-wide reputation for not caring what fans think of his decisions, comes out looking increasingly bad over the whole guest host selection process.
Ignoring a petition signed by what amounts to 5% of your show’s entire viewership is going to negatively affect the show for years to come, and may even amount to the show losing 5 to 8 years off its potential life. Thanks to the NFL television deal which is currently scheduled to last until 2033, local broadcasting and the syndication model likely isn’t going anywhere soon. Thus, Jeopardy! easily has another 12 years left in it, assuming that it is stewarded properly. It’s currently not being stewarded properly, and Sony Television needs to find a new steward for its cash cow.
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“I’ll take “Worst Decisions in TV History” for $2,000.”
“This was the second-worst decision made on any game show since the quiz show scandals. In fact, second only to letting a well-known scam artist sit behind a sacred podium, over letting a universally-respected TV icon who made the childhoods of millions, host.”
“What is letting Joe Buck host Jeopardy?”
“Correct. Pick again.”
That said, you are starting to convince me that Mike has final say on the choices. Mike was a decent host during these two weeks, but I think we should blame Sony for picking him at all. They could’ve let Friedman have a say in his successor, unless he said no. In fact, I still wonder what he thinks of how Mike’s doing? Mike’s actually doing well on Wheel, as a matter of fact. But on J!, it’s a bizarre reversal of how Friedman did on Sony’s two big cash cows (good on J!, but ruined Wheel).
Already, people are saying J!’s credibility died with Alex. But it already died with the “Berry vs. Barry” and “The Eagle and the Elephant” fiascos. I don’t mean to put words in a dead man’s mouth, but Alex would’ve HATED this concept of a rotation of guest hosts, especially if it involves TV’s most hated fake doctor or TV’s most hated sports broadcaster sitting behind Alex’s podium.
I still have faith Mike could pull it off in the long run. But he’ll have to convince me and millions of fans that Sony’s faith in him wasn’t misplaced. LeVar’s selection is Mike’s best chance to redeem himself, but it would’ve happened under an EP who knows what Alex and the public would’ve wanted rather than someone who claims he knows but can’t care any less. And I apologize for this rather long rant, but I feel like I had to vent my anger at this horrible decision. Already it’s been Mike’s second-worst decision on J!, only behind letting Mehmet host, even for two weeks (and that “Dr.”‘s J! tenure was two weeks too long). It’s still Sony’s fault for selecting Mike, as I said. If they don’t fire him from J!, then they just shaved some potentially good years off its life single-handedly.
And for the record, I don’t really follow sports outside of NASCAR, but I’m looking into following other sports as well.
God and I thought Dr. Oz was bad.
Please, everyone posting on this story so far (including Andy himself)–if you’re going to rip on Joe Buck, please at least provide some rationale, for those of us who aren’t familiar with his perceived shortcomings. I haven’t heard of him practicing pseudoscience (like Oz), or being more political one way or the other than a certain segment of the audience may prefer (like Cooper). The worst thing I’ve heard about him in the past is that there is a segment of the sports viewing public who simply say they don’t like him. As a regular sports viewer who is somewhere between indifferent to Buck and liking him, I frequently ask sports fans who say they dislike him, why that is–and if I get an answer at all, it usually boils down to the fact that he doesn’t fawn over their personal favorite team the way the local sports journalists do. To me, though, that’s his job as a national sportscaster, and is not a reason to have such disdain for him.
So what is it? Is there something more to him I’m not aware of that incites such vitriol?? I think that if you’re going to post the way you have, you at least need to include your reasoning…
As for Burton–let me first say that I really want Burton to get a stint, and that IMHO, J! is really missing the boat by not pursuing it. That said–IMHO, the whole change.org petition angle is WAY overblown–both in this case, and in virtually all petitions on that site. I suspect most people here are familiar with one or more iterations of the dihydrogen monoxide parody, and the signatures that such petitions have received. And many of those pre-date the internet, where gaining signatures in support of nearly anything are far easier to gather. So for a petition–be it for Burton, or for any other subject–to gather signatures which amount to only “5% of an audience” is really not saying that much. I suspect that if similar petitions were started asking for Lebron James, Fran Drescher, and Donald Trump to be guest hosts, they’d each probably be able to exceed that 5% level–and none of them would be a good idea.
For Joe Buck, he’s one of the most hated sports broadcasters ever, if not the most hated, period. The most common criticism I heard is that he sounds way, way too bored; as in, he couldn’t care any less about his job so long as he gets his paycheck. The fact that he’s even hosting at all has left millions of sports fans royally pissed.
There is nothing wrong with Joe Buck. Just because some think he is a terrible sports announcer at times, that he would be bad during a hosting stint on Jeopardy. You all are in the mentality of “guilty until proven innocent” and you never have given anyone a chance if you don’t agree with them.
If he is select to host for a couple of weeks, give the guy a chance with an open mind, of course most here already had their minds made up for Dr. Oz came on, so I doubt that will happen here either.
I apologize for going overly back-and-forth on Mike. Sometimes I let my fandom overshadow common sense.
Eric, I think you’re missing the mark at the end of your commentin the way you equate the Buck negativity to the Oz negativity. The Oz negativity was based on his track record of pseudoscience, etc–things which run directly contrary to the spirit of this show. I think that’s a much stronger rationale to be opposed to someone appearing than I’m hearing from anyone opposing Buck.
Levar Burton is hosting Jeopardy for a week!
Link: https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/news-events/jeopardy-guest-host-schedule?utm_source=news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=finalguesthostlist&utm_content=seetheschedule&j=567859&sfmc_sub=61099320&l=29_HTML&u=19905558&mid=6403989&jb=8050
“Holding off on announcing LeVar until the internet had worked itself into a frenzy over the lack of LeVar, thus ensuring monster ratings for his eps and a ton of additional coverage, is a genuinely impressive bit of marketing.” — Steven Grade
Any thoughts?
That’s showbiz!
Speaking of showbiz, I have to wonder why Joe Buck was chosen to be a host. Someone like Al Michaels (a California resident and an all-time great announcer) would have been a terrific choice, though perhaps Al wants a quiet offseason from his Sunday Night Football duties. His color announcer, Cris Collinsworth, would also have been a fine choice — glib, extremely smart and a very positive, empathetic person.
On the other hand, Joe Buck is nothing but a verbal transcriber. On NFL games, he is obsessed with giving the viewer the down and distance on each play — which appears on the screen usually at the same time he gives the update, and on baseball, it’s a repeated “strike one, strike two ball one,” on each batter. Talk about ruining the World Series. Very little give and take with the color announcer, unlike ESPN’s crews.
But maybe Jeopardy! just needs someone to move the episodes along and not offer much else, even a definable personality. Be ready for the most blandest, humorless interviews with the players. Of course Jeopardy fans will watch, but turning down the sound is always an option.
On the other hand, great to see Robin Roberts get a week of hosting! The first Black woman on ESPN, a true trailblazer and positive, upbeat person. Good on you Jeopardy!