I can understand people not being wowed by Richards; he isn’t *exciting* but he also won’t distract from the questions, answers, or contestants.

By “we” did you mean “Jeopardy!”? Because the whole guest host thing was their idea, not ours.
But I do agree about the host’s role, which is why I like the nondescript guests like Faber. Honestly, I thought Richards did pretty well and would have been fine with him if not for all the surrounding stink.

Some of the guest hosts, i found that i really disliked their performance on the show, but it didn’t make me like them less. LeVar Burton, for example.
I came into Mayim Bialik’s stint prepared to forget what she’s said for a half hour each day, because she’s a pleasant TV presence. But her performance was so willfully…

I like Burton and was excited to see him/rooting for him when he finally did get to host, but...yeah, sorry, he was mediocre at best, or even outright bad at worst. He had multiple gaffes peppered throughout his stint, and the random shouts of “YESSSSS!” at times for correct answers was a bit much, for Jeopardy. And…

He wasn’t that good in his guest stint. Could see him growing into the role though.

Bialik is not delightful. She is a danger to society and shames women for causing their own harassment and walks too fine a line regarding public health with her confusing stance on vaccines and her hawking of snake oil pills.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sticking up for Mike ‘Corporate Dystopia’ Richards. It’s just that Bialik was easily one of the most obnoxious of the guest hosts and shouldn’t even be in the conversation, much less enthusiastically cheered on by multiple A. V. Club articles.

To be completely accurate, it seems like the well-liked Black professor emeritus actually did really want the job and campaigned hard for it, but when he gave a few tryout lectures it turned out to be not quite what where his skills were best applied and he choked a couple of times. Other than that, though, spot-on. 

When I first read they selected “dual hosts”, I assumed it was mostly so she could finish off her show, then come over full time.

Dump them both.

I actually watch Jeopardy; I hadn’t missed an episode in years until this year, when I found Richards so incredibly dull I decided to wait until his stint was over to watch more. I wholeheartedly agree with A.V. Club’s take. Bialik wouldn’t be my first choice, but she’s much, much higher on my list than Richards.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s still not a bad look that Jeopardy! producers (including Richards) spent the better part of a year conducting a lengthy search to find the best replacement for Alex Trebek,”

You thought Jeopardy, a show hosted by the same man for 36 years changed hosts frequently and without fanfare? You thought that so confidently that you popped in to express your opinion that nobody should care in about the 40th AVClub article about selecting a replacement host for Alex Trebek?

Not sure about Bialik being third on the list of best hosts. She felt to me like that weird time period on Big Bang when she was going from cardboard Sheldon clone from season one to more normal. I mean, she was fine, but third?

Why does the A.V. Club have a party line on this issue, a party line that’s completely out of step with people who actually watch Jeopardy?

I’d prefer they not pollute the clues with unhinged Cesar Romero-like laughter.

I mean...no, they didn’t commit fraud.

For the record, I’m calling out the hypocrisy, and if anything I’m more annoyed with them for pillorying Ruffalo over some standard Hollywood ass covering. But what do I know--I’m a Nazi, apparently.

Anti-vaxxer. Pusher of the same kind of quack garbage as “Dr.” Oz. Rape apologist/slut-shamer. Proponent of dangerous, mentally scarring parental techniques.

A lot of similar “entertainment” eateries get featured in movies and TV making people assume they are fictional. I knew somebody who was surprised that Medieval Times (the restaurant where knights on horseback joust while you eat) was a real thing.