God bless Alex Trebek.
His final week on “Jeopardy!” was huge, and even bigger was the rating for his final show.
Overall, he an average of 11 million viewers from Monday to Thursday, January 4th through 7th. That was up 29% from the previous week.
But the final show, on Friday the 8th, scored a whopping 14 million fans. That’s pretty great.
Now TV insiders will be studying the ratings for Ken Jennings, who came in a temporary host after Trebek’s exit. Jennings is supposed to be the permanent replacement, but there will be a faux ‘audition’ period with people like Katie Couric and football player Aaron Rodgers doing guest weeks.
But the reality is that “Jeopardy!” is filmed in Los Angeles. It’s not moving. Most of the guest hosts have other jobs or live in New York. Jennings was made a consulting producer on the show last year to groom him as Trebek’s replacement. He’s done a fine job so far.
“Live with Kelly and Ryan” is still the number 1 syndicated talk show. “Drew Barrymore” continues to flounder. Ellen DeGeneres is waiting for new episodes to air, otherwise her holiday reruns remain at less than a million, 900,000– a series low.
