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Following the news of longtime host Pat Sajak stepping away from Wheel of Fortune and Ryan Seacrest taking over hosting duties, a former Jeopardy! champion has expressed his viewpoint on the matter. James Holzhauer, who had 32 nights of consecutive wins on Jeopardy! in 2019 and is the third-highest-earning American game show contestant of all time, took to Twitter to share his thoughts.
Holzhauer humorously commented on the relative ease of replacing Sajak with Seacrest compared to the challenges faced in finding a suitable successor for the late Alex Trebek. “Wheel of Fortune went about this all wrong,” he wrote. “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.’”
Following Alex Trebek’s death, Jeopardy! went through a series of temporary celebrity hosts who were duly criticized by fans before ultimately selecting former executive producer Mike Richards as the permanent host. However, a mere nine days after his initial announcement, Richards stepped down from the role due to backlash over offensive comments he had made on a podcast several years prior. Shortly after, he also resigned from his producing position.
In order to put an end to the growing controversy, the popular gameshow took a different approach and announced Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings, the show’s all-time greatest winner, as the permanent co-hosts.
Although Holzhauer’s tweet was meant to be humorous, however, some of his Twitter followers genuinely expressed their dismay as regards the choice of Ryan Seacrest to take over hosting duties on Wheel of Fortune. “I think I’d rather they did it like Jeopardy because I’m tired of seeing Ryan EVERYWHERE!” a fan commented. “Pick someone else!”
“I feel very strongly that Wheel of Fortune made the wrong choice. Vanna White should have been Chosen hands down..and Maggie Sajak second choice,” another person wrote. “Wheel of Fortune really blew the show. I’m a lifelong viewer but not now..”
However, the tweet also gained the attention of Redditors who playfully picked on it to criticize Mike Richards. “Pretty savage from James haha,” one person wrote. Another fan commented, “If you’re quiet enough and listen real closely you can hear Mike Richards’ skin sizzling from that burn.”
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