Jeopardy!: Tournament of Champions guest-host Buzzy Cohen is angling to become the permanent host

USA Today

"Alex (Trebek) and I had a funny exchange about my interest in potentially hosting someday when he retired, so the folks over at Jeopardy! knew that it's a dream of mine," said Cohen, who began his two-week guest-hosting stint on Monday." I didn't think anything would come of it, and I certainly wasn't calling Sony, being like, 'Hey, can I get a shoutout?'" The tradeoff: Hosting prevents him from competing again as a contestant. But is Cohen actually a candidate to fill Trebek's shoes? "I think everyone that comes on people should look at (as a candidate), and by human nature, they're going to say, 'Can I see that person doing it?' Buzzy is one of the great personalities to come out of Jeopardy!,'" says executive producer Mike Richards. As USA Today notes, however, "Cohen's nerdy appeal and playful rejoinders were polarizing; some viewers found him obnoxious. But it's a different Cohen you'll see this week." Cohen adds: "Certainly, there's Buzzy as a contestant and Buzzy as a host: It's a different role, and there's a different responsibility."

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