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Why did James Holzhauer troll 'Jeopardy!'? Masters champ takes a dig at quiz show after 'Wheel of Fortune' finds new host

James Holzhauer won 'Jeopardy! Masters' in May 2023 and was the self-proclaimed 'villain' of the show

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘Jeopardy!’ Masters 2023 champion James Holzhauer anointed himself as the villain of the game show during his winning run and the sports gambler from Las Vegas, Nevada continues to live up to his reputation. In a recent vicious tweet, James brought attention to Ryan Seacrest’s quick appointment as the new ‘Wheel of Fortune’ host and took a jab at ‘Jeopardy!’ for their rocky stint to find a host after Alex Trebek.

Pat Sajak, the longtime host of ‘Wheel of Fortune’, recently announced his retirement from his duties as a host. The show's executives scrambled to find his replacement and were able to do so in a relatively short time as compared to ‘Jeopardy!’. The infamous ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant, James, knew how long it took to replace Alex and used the news of the appointment of Ryan Seacrest to remind ‘Jeopardy!’ executives that the game show still needs to improve in a lot of spheres.

What did James Holzhaeur say?

‘Wheel of Fortune’ announced that Ryan Seacrest will take over from Pat Sajak in 2024. When James learned of the news, he instantly took to Twitter. He praised ‘Wheel of Fortune’ for their ability to find a replacement in a mere 20 days while ‘Jeopardy!’ found it extremely difficult at the time to replace Trebek. He sarcastically tweeted, “Wheel of Fortune went about this all wrong. First, you subject the contestants and viewers to an endless parade of temps who don’t prepare before hosting. Then the producer in charge of the search says “Actually, *I* would be the perfect host.” Then “jk we have two hosts now.” 

Fans took note of James’ tweet and replied to his tweet with their thoughts. One fan wrote, “This type of reply is why I stay on this site. Good work, James,” while another wrote, “Perfectly put James!! Where’s all the drama Wheel of Fortune??” A third mentioned, “I think I’d rather they did it like Jeopardy because I’m tired of seeing Ryan EVERYWHERE! Pick someone else!” a a fourth chimed saying, "I was hoping Mayim would be named host of Wheel of Fortune.” However, a user wondered if James wanted to take over. “You're not mad they didn't pick you, are you?”

‘Jeopardy!’s’ never-ending search for host after Alex Trebek

Alex Trebek died of pancreatic cancer in 2020. There was no successor named at that point. The 2020-21 season of the game show saw many guest hosts like Anderson Cooper, Savannah Guthrie, Levar Burton, and Mike Richards. Richards was the executive producer of ‘Jeopardy!’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune’ in 2020. He was later a subject of a lawsuit that led to his termination from both shows which led ‘Jeopardy!’ executives to bring in Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik as the new hosts of the game show.