Mike Richards has emerged as a dark horse to take over as the new host of Jeoppardy!

Mic

After a few shows, the Jeopardy! executive producer -- and veteran game show host and finalist to succeed Bob Barker on The Price is Right -- has been widely praised by many on social media who feel he's the perfect replacement for Alex Trebek. "I’ve seen most of his first two episodes, along with hazy memories of some Pyramid reruns, and might be coming around to the Richards evangelicals," says Shawn Cooke. "Charming, good-looking, and lending a sort of anonymous polish to the proceedings, he seems to honor the central tenet of the show. 'It’s about making people that are smart the most important people in the room, and I just think it’s so important to keep that going and to continue Alex’s legacy,' he said in an on-set interview. There’s the issue of swapping Trebek’s knowing deadpan for a more overtly vanilla, playful MC — which you wouldn’t expect Richards to mirror in his earliest episodes — but maybe the next iteration of Jeopardy! doesn’t really need to be about the host."