Mayim Bialik craves appreciation from fans amid backlash against 'Jeopardy!' hosting
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘Jeopardy!’ special ‘High School Reunion Tournament’ host Mayim Bialik craves validation from her viewers. Recently in her podcast 'Mayim Bialik's Breakdown', she opened up about being compared to the regular host Ken Jennings who returned to the show on March 10.
While the doctorate-holder from the University of California, Los Angeles hosts the ‘Jeopardy!’ franchise’s spin-offs and tournaments, the holder of the show’s longest-running streak Ken Jennings hosts the main show. Talking to the ‘Buddhist Boot Camp’ author Timber Hawkeye, the ‘neurophysicist’ talked about the importance of validation and how she wants her viewers to tell her she “did good” while hosting.
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In a clip posted by her on her Instagram, the ‘Pumpkinhead’ star was heard saying to Hawkeye, “I've actually been noticing, you know, a lot of places where my ego is, it's wanting love, you know. It's wanting acknowledgment in ways that I'm now realizing, 'Oh, that's just ego'."
She added "A lot of times, it's the child in me that wants to be told like, 'You did good, you're a good person’” in the clip.
Following Alex Trebek’s death in November 2020, after serving as the interim hosts, Bialik and Jennings signed new contracts in July 2022 where the duo shared the duty of hosting the show and its spin-offs. It should be noted that Bialik is at the receiving end of criticism for her child-rearing philosophy.
'I kind of take everybody's opinion both with a grain of salt'
In an appearance in the ‘Inside Jeopardy’ podcast on August 2022, Bialik told the host Sarah Whitcomb Foss about how she feels at the online backlash, “We're still people, so I can't say that when you hear things that are constructive criticism that you don't start thinking a little bit too much about it," before adding, "But, I don't know, I kind of take everybody's opinion both with a grain of salt and also believe everybody has a right to their opinion."
However, in June 2022, in a podcast episode of her ‘Mayim Bialik's Breakdown’, she said to Justin Long that she is often compared to Ken Jennings. However, on being asked by Long whether she is ever preferred over Jennings, she replied, “Sometimes. . . sometimes I get, 'We don't prefer you to Ken’,” reports Newsweek.
'The ultimate host'
In a recent turn of events, the two ‘Jeopardy!’ hosts will compete against each other in a rival game show ‘Celebrity Wheel of Fortune’ of ABC Network, reveals The US Sun. The two extremely learned 'Jeopardy!' hosts will be competing against each other as well as against the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ host Vanna White on the show. White will "call the letters rather than reveal them." The three quizmasters will compete against each other while solving riddles in an effort to win $1 million for charity. The premiere of the 'Celebrity Wheel of Fortune' episode featuring the two hosts is set on May 10.