'Big Bang' Actress Bialik One of Two New 'Jeopardy!' Hosts

Mayim Bialik. (AFP)
Mayim Bialik. (AFP)
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'Big Bang' Actress Bialik One of Two New 'Jeopardy!' Hosts

Mayim Bialik. (AFP)
Mayim Bialik. (AFP)

"The Big Bang Theory" actress Mayim Bialik has been named as one of two new hosts of the long-running US television game show "Jeopardy!", replacing the award-winning presenter Alex Trebek, who died of cancer last year.

Bialik will share hosting duties with the show's executive producer Mike Richards, producers announced Wednesday, after a prolonged search for Trebek's successors.

Richards will helm daily syndicated episodes when the show embarks on season 38 next month, while Bialik will take charge of special primetime events and spin-offs, including a new collegiate championship, Sony Pictures Television said.

The 45-year-old Bialik, who played geeky neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on the hugely successful "The Big Bang Theory" -- and has her own PhD in the same field -- said she was "thrilled" with the news.

"What started out with my 15-year-old repeating a rumor from Instagram that I should guest host the show has turned into one of the most exciting and surreal opportunities of my life!" she said.

"Jeopardy!" has been running in one form or another on US television since 1964, scooping up a bevy of awards over the decades.

In a twist on the quiz show format, contestants are given answers, to which they must provide the question.

Trebek, a Canadian by birth, became synonymous with the program over his 36 years as host, and his death after a battle with pancreatic cancer provoked an outpouring of emotion from contestants and fans

Finding a replacement was always going to be a challenge for producers, who ran through a series of guest presenters this year, including Bialik and Richards, in the wake of Trebek's death in November 2020.

That group included celebrity journalists Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper and George Stephanopoulos, as well as Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and sports commentator Joe Buck.

The final decision came after months of speculation about who would take charge -- and months of heated debate among the show's most loyal fans.

The appointment of Richards, 46, has sparked controversy in some circles, not least because of renewed media attention on employment discrimination lawsuits filed by women when he was executive producer of "The Price is Right."

In an internal memo obtained by CNN, Richards defended himself, saying "the way in which my comments and actions have been characterized in these complaints does not reflect the reality of who I am or how we worked together on 'The Price is Right'."



Movie Review: 'Eddington' Is a Satire About Our Broken Brains That Might Re-Break Your Brain

 This image released by A24 shows Joaquin Phoenix, left, and Pedro Pascal in a scene from "Eddington." (A24 via AP)
This image released by A24 shows Joaquin Phoenix, left, and Pedro Pascal in a scene from "Eddington." (A24 via AP)
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Movie Review: 'Eddington' Is a Satire About Our Broken Brains That Might Re-Break Your Brain

 This image released by A24 shows Joaquin Phoenix, left, and Pedro Pascal in a scene from "Eddington." (A24 via AP)
This image released by A24 shows Joaquin Phoenix, left, and Pedro Pascal in a scene from "Eddington." (A24 via AP)

You might need to lie down for a bit after "Eddington." Preferably in a dark room with no screens and no talking. "Eddington," Ari Aster's latest nightmare vision, is sure to divide but there is one thing I think everyone will be able to agree on: It is an experience that will leave you asking "WHAT?" The movie opens on the aggravated ramblings of an unhoused man and doesn't get much more coherent from there. Approach with caution.

We talk a lot about movies as an escape from the stresses of the world. "Eddington," in which a small, fictional town in New Mexico becomes a microcosm of life in the misinformation age, and more specifically during the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, is very much the opposite of that. It is an anti-escapist symphony of masking debates, conspiracy theories, YouTube prophets, TikTok trends and third-rail topics in which no side is spared. Most everyone looks insane and ridiculous by the end, from the white teenage girl (Amélie Hoeferle) telling a Black cop (Michael Ward) to join the movement, to the grammatical errors of the truthers, as the town spirals into chaos and gruesome violence.

Joaquin Phoenix plays the town sheriff, a soft-spoken wife guy named Joe Cross, who we meet out in the desert one night watching YouTube videos about how to convince your wife to have a baby. He's interrupted by cops from the neighboring town, who demand he put on a mask since he's technically crossed the border.

It is May 2020, and everyone is a little on edge. Joe, frustrated by the hysterical commitment to mandates from nowhere, finds himself the unofficial spokesperson for the right to go unmasked. He pits himself against the slick local mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), who is up for reelection, in the pocket of big tech and ready to exploit his single fatherhood for political gain. At home, Joe's mother-in-law Dawn (Deirdre O'Connell) spends all day consuming internet conspiracy theories, while his wife Louise (a criminally underused Emma Stone) works on crafts and nurses unspoken traumas.

Joe's eagerness to take on Ted isn't just about masking. Years ago, Ted dated his now-wife, a story that will be twisted into rape and grooming accusations. Caricatures and stereotypes are everywhere in "Eddington," but in this world it feels like the women are especially underwritten - they are kooks, victims, zealots and the ones who push fragile men to the brink. But in "Eddington," all the conspiracies are real and ordinary people are all susceptible to the madness.

In fact, insanity is just an inevitability no matter how well-intentioned one starts out, whether that's the woke-curious teen rattled by rejection, or the loyal deputy Guy (Luke Grimes) who is suddenly more than happy to accuse a colleague of murder. Louise will also be swayed by a floppy-haired internet guru, a cult-like leader played with perfect swagger by Austin Butler.

The problem with an anarchic satire like "Eddington," in theaters Friday, is that any criticism could easily be dismissed with a "that's the point" counterargument. And yet there is very little to be learned in this silo of provocations that, like all Aster movies, escalates until the movie is over.

There are moments of humor and wit, too, as well as expertly built tension and release. "Eddington" is not incompetently done or unwatchable (the cast and the director kind of guarantee that); it just doesn't feel a whole of anything other than a cinematic expression of broken brains.

Five years after we just went through (at least a lot of) this, "Eddington" somehow seems both too late and too soon, especially when it offers so little wisdom or insight beyond a vision of hopelessness. I wonder what world Aster thought he'd be releasing this film into. Maybe one that was better, not cosmically worse.

It's possible "Eddington" will age well. Perhaps it's the kind of movie that future Gen Alpha cinephiles will point to as being ahead of its time, a work that was woefully misunderstood by head-in-the-sand critics who didn't see that it was 2025's answer to the prescient paranoia cinema of the 1970s.

Not to sound like the studio boss in "Sullivan's Travels," trying to get the filmmaker with big issues on the mind to make a dumb comedy, but right now, "Eddington" feels like the last thing any of us need.