Every Jeopardy! Guest Host Ranked From Worst To Best

To say Dr. Mehmet Oz was an unpopular choice would be an understatement. Viewers actually launched an appeal to remove the controversial TV star from the show! Co-created by two past contestants, a petition on Medium.com was signed by a total of 600 fans.

Why was Oz such a lightning rod for bad feeling? Well, the petition made it clear. “Throughout his nearly two decades on television, he has used his authority as a doctor to push harmful ideas on to the American public – in stark contrast with his oath to first do no harm,” it said. Dr. Oz advocated hydroxychloroquine as a way to combat COVID-19, for instance.

And the doctor’s performance on the show was widely criticized, too. Emily Seaman, a contestant on one of Oz’s episodes, told The New York Post, “It was just odd. I don’t think he likes Jeopardy!” She also claimed that he struggled to say a difficult word during the Final Jeopardy! round, and that meant the segment had to be re-shot up to eight times. Oh dear.

“Joe Buck shouldn’t even be a sports announcer.” “I will never watch a single episode of Jeopardy! featuring Joe Buck.” “If there’s one person that would disrespect the class and honor of hosting Jeopardy!, it’s Joe Buck.” That’s just a small taste of the social media fury that came after the Fox Sports commentator was announced as a guest host.

And while social media doesn’t speak for the whole world, it definitely wasn’t the reaction producers were looking for. Perhaps the backlash came because he wasn’t LeVar Burton, who many fans have been desperate to see host.

Savannah Guthrie’s time as Jeopardy! guest host was fairly uneventful. When news broke that she had landed the temporary gig, she shared photos that showed her on the Jeopardy! set, along with the message “So honored and excited for this!” But for some observers, that seemed to ring a bit hollow.

Guthrie didn’t appear to be a genuine Jeopardy! superfan like some of the other guest hosts. And while viewers didn’t hold this against her, it may have dampened the enthusiasm of a certain section of the fanbase. Even her Today co-stars’ well wishes were lackluster, with Al Roker replying, “So excited for tonight!” and Natalie Morales adding, “Amazing!” Is that the best they could come up with?

When 60 Minutes journalist and Jeopardy! fan Bill Whitaker was asked if he wanted to guest host, he jumped at the chance. But he was totally unprepared for the fanfare that surrounded his appointment. He told The Washington Post, “I truly did think, silly me, that I was going to be a Jeopardy! guest host and carry on with my life as usual.” That definitely wasn’t the case.

Whitaker was met with a whole lotta scrutiny, including column inches in People magazine and The Hollywood Reporter. He admitted that the fast-paced nature of hosting a game show took a bit of getting used to, and ultimately that reflected in his performance. It wasn’t bad, per se, but it was a tad wooden.

Whitaker was able to do the basics of hosting, but he struggled to inject real personality into proceedings. Game shows are meant to be entertaining as well as brain-teasing, after all. As one fan tweeted, “Current Jeopardy! host Bill Whitaker seems like a pleasant enough fellow. He also has the stage presence of a coat rack.” Ouch.

When David Faber got the guest host gig, he sent out a solid gold tweet. The Squawk on the Street co-host wrote, “He is the least well-known out of an incredible group of guest hosts but promises not to disappoint Jeopardy’s many fans. Correct response – this guy!”

The tweet undoubtedly proved Faber was at least a fan of the show, and that goes a long way. He was able to bring his experience on Celebrity Jeopardy! to his hosting duties, too, and we reckon he did a solid job overall. He wasn’t one of the best guest hosts, but he certainly wasn’t one of the worst, either.

“I used to watch Jeopardy! with my parents and now with my own kids,” Dr. Sanjay Gupta tweeted when he was announced as a guest host. “The thing is, there is just something so beautiful and reassuring about facts; simple, straightforward facts. I cherish that. An honor to be an upcoming guest host, but seriously miss the great Alex Trebek.”

Gupta took time out from his duties as the associate chief of neurosurgery at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital. And he did well on the show, easily eclipsing the other medical professional chosen to step in as guest host. Sorry, Dr. Oz. But you were no Dr. Gupta.

Not long after Trebek’s unfortunate passing, reports emerged that George Stephanopoulos wanted the full-time job hosting Jeopardy! He had already told Howard Stern, “I think it would be a lot of fun.” But an ABC source denied that Stephanopoulos was campaigning for the role. That would have been disrespectful to Trebek’s family, you see. It also wouldn’t have been a good look for the GMA co-anchor.

But Stephanopoulos did at least become a guest host. He did a good job, too, with his decades of familiarity with the American public making him a compelling presence. Let’s not forget that Stephanopoulos was referenced on Friends, played himself in Spin City, and was reportedly the basis for Rob Lowe’s character in The West Wing!

Buzzy Cohen exactly didn’t bring much mainstream name recognition to his hosting role at the 2021 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions. But for fans of the show, he was a familiar – and beloved – face. Lest we forget, he appeared on Jeopardy! in 2016. He even went on to win the 2017 edition of Tournament of Champions.

During his time on the show as a contestant, Cohen was dubbed “Mr. Personality” by Trebek, which should tell you something about his charisma. And the former music exec – whose real name is Austin David Cohen – took to Twitter to spill his excitement at being chosen to host the tournament. He even made it a family affair.

Cohen tweeted a video of his nephew’s jaw dropping when his mother said, “Guess what? Uncle Buzzy is going to be the host of Jeopardy!!” Alongside the clip, he posted, “Same emotion when I found out I was hosting Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions.” So he was like a returning hero to the show, and he made everyone smile. Nobody can complain about that.

History was made when Jeopardy! producers announced Robin Roberts as a guest host. That’s because the GMA co-anchor became the first black woman ever in the role. It was another step forward for representation, and it made a lot of people get emotional on social media.

One fan tweeted, “Excuse me while I cry,” while another wrote, “Great to see a female representing, and especially since it’s the great Robin Roberts.” Considering the show has sometimes faced criticism for its lack of black contestants, it was a small step toward addressing that imbalance. Perhaps Roberts’ hosting gig will attract a more diverse base of people to apply for the show?

When Mike Richards stepped in as guest host of Jeopardy!, fans would have been forgiven for not recognizing him. He isn’t a famous actor, musician, or news anchor. He definitely isn’t on the A-list. But Richards was a perfect choice. He was the executive producer of Jeopardy!, you see!

Richards is also something of a game show expert. During his career, he has executive produced Let’s Make a Deal, The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? His hosting skills were also honed on Beauty and the Geek and The Pyramid. That’s one pretty packed resume!

Viewers immediately warmed to Richards, with his slick delivery and razor-sharp wit recalling the late Trebek. And he did a great job of staying in the same lane as Trebek while never falling into the trap of trying to imitate the legendary presenter. The only reason he isn’t higher on this list is because he isn’t as famous as some of the other guest hosts.

Katie Couric seemed to split viewers when she guest hosted Jeopardy! Some fans loved that she brought her bubbly personality to the role. Others? They felt she drew attention away from the contestants. And Twitter reactions varied wildly from high praise to complete disdain.

Couric still made history when she hosted the show, as she was the first woman to ever do so. And during her two weeks on camera, she helped raise an impressive $230,000 for Stand Up to Cancer. She took her opportunity and did her best with it, which is why we’ve placed her relatively high on our list.

At the end of her stint, Couric was asked by Poynter if she would ever consider hosting the show full time. She replied, “It was a really fun thing to do. But I love what I’m doing now.” And she did say that filming Jeopardy! had made her respect Trebek and the contestants even more, as shooting five shows in one day had been gruelling.

CNN host Anderson Cooper was a natural at hosting Jeopardy!, and fans mostly thought so, too. Somehow, though, he wound up with the worst first-week ratings of any of the guest hosts. That’s why he hasn’t quite hit the heights on our countdown that his hosting skills deserved.

Cooper’s first seven days got a 5.1 rating, which lagged far behind Aaron Rodgers’ at 5.6 and Ken Jennings’ at 6.2. He also lost out to Dr. Oz, who drew a 5.2 rating. Yes, he somehow attracted fewer viewers than the guy who had people petitioning against him!

So it wasn’t a pretty picture for Cooper, ratings-wise. But he was warmly received, nonetheless, and he raised $138,000 for his chosen charity. His experience as a newscaster undoubtedly helped him think on his feet as Jeopardy! host, and he was smooth, funny, and comfortable dealing with contestants. Maybe viewers just needed some time to adjust to him... or perhaps not.

LeVar Burton has made something crystal clear when it comes to Jeopardy!: he wants to be the permanent host going forward. The Star Trek actor told The View that he believes he’s good enough. And his guest-hosting stint may have been crucial in deciding whether he got the job.

Burton was certainly popular enough with fans to be in serious contention. More than 250,000 people signed a petition requesting that he get the job! He also picked up celebrity support from Stephen Colbert and Yvette Nicole Brown. We reckon Jeopardy! and Burton are a great match, so we’ll be eagerly watching to see if he ever gets his wish.

Ken Jennings took on one of the hardest jobs in show business. As the first guest host of Jeopardy!, he somehow had to fill Trebek’s shoes. He was a fitting choice by producers, though, as his legacy as a contestant is second to none. To this day, he still holds the record for most consecutive wins on the show.

Jennings also won Jeopardy! The Greatest Of All Time in 2020, taking home the $1 million prize, and in 2020 he became a consulting producer on the show. So despite not being a true television personality, he made perfect sense to take over from Trebek for a while. And he repaid the producers’ faith in him by delivering a comforting performance during the awkward transition.

Jennings even killed it in the ratings. His first week of shows got 10.3 million viewers, which was enough to make it the second most-watched week of the season. The first most-watched? Trebek’s final week, of course. And after his time as host concluded, Jennings paid tribute to the fans and to Trebek in particular when he tweeted, “Thanks for watching” and “As always, thank you, Alex.”

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers wowed everyone with his guest host stint on Jeopardy! And no one seemed to be a bigger fan than New York Post writer Andrea Peyser, who gushed, “He’s funny, self-effacing, whip-smart and ridiculously handsome, with a sense of comedic timing that should be the envy of every seasoned television professional out there.” Who’da thunk?

USA Today also noted the totally chill, friendly bro vibe Rodgers brought to his hosting duties, which was pretty on the money. His comfort level with hosting was pleasantly surprising, and he always seemed at ease. It all led one Twitter user to hilariously write, “So it turns out Aaron Rodgers is a TV game show host who happens to be good at football.”

Rodgers’ presence led to a huge $236,000 being raised for charity. And it also let the professional athlete live out one of his personal dreams. He said during his first show, “As a lifelong fan of Jeopardy!, it is an incredible honor to guest host.” He then fondly remembered Trebek, who he had shared the stage with during his winning run on Celebrity Jeopardy! A class act.

The Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik had all the right ingredients for excelling as a Jeopardy! host. On top of being a famous comedic actress with bundles of personality, she’s a neuroscientist with a Ph.D. from UCLA. Her charisma and smarts are more than enough to place her at number one on our list.

And Bialik rocked it despite not being a big fan. She admitted to People magazine, “It wasn’t, like, a cultural cornerstone of my parents’ and my life growing up, but obviously I’ve watched it.” She also doubted how well she’d fare as a contestant, as she felt her scientific knowledge may be too narrow. So, she’s smart, but maybe not Jeopardy! smart.

Nope, hosting a cherished TV show like Jeopardy! is no easy task. While some presenters can scrape by on sheer charisma, others crumble. And what happens when they have to be laugh-out-loud funny, too? Well, if Saturday Night Live’s guest hosts are anything to go by, the results can be... awkward to say the least!

Bond star Daniel Craig hosted a hilarious episode of Saturday Night Live in 2020. It was enough to redeem himself for his disastrous first attempt at hosting in 2012. On that occasion Craig tried his best, but it was painfully obvious why he’s not exactly known for being funny. Very awkward. It was also too obvious that he was reading from cue cards. 

It’s kind of amazing that it took until 2002 for Robert De Niro to finally host SNL. This was the period when he’d had a few hit comedies, such as Meet The Parents and Analyze This under his belt. So maybe he felt more confident with tackling live sketch comedy. It’s a pity that he sort of crumbled as the night went along, though, too often resorting to cue cards. Maybe expectations were just too high.

Canadian hockey icon Wayne Gretzky was a revelation on the ice. In 1989 he became the first hockey player to host SNL and, while he wasn’t awful, he was hardly a revelation. But he’d originally turned down the invitation, when his wife called back and accepted. He told Conan O’Brien that he found out he was booked when he read it in the newspaper, and his immediate reaction was, “Nooo!”

Before you react with fury, yes, we know Dwayne Johnson is a five-time host of SNL and is generally a delight. But this entry is about his first time, way back in 2000. This was when he was a wrestler trying to break into movies, and the whole show played on this, even taking the spotlight away from Johnson with other wrestler cameos. He was also extremely wooden in the Clark Kent sketch. Sorry, Rock.

At the height of his leading man fame in 2004, hellraising Irish heartthrob Colin Farrell hosted SNL. He made a big mistake by swearing during the closing recap, but his biggest gaffe came when he introduced the music act Scissor Sisters. He turned to Seth Meyers and joked, “Maybe you could get with one of those girls?” Sure, the band was camp, but there was only one female member. Oh dear. 

Houston Texans football star J.J. Watt came to host SNL with a fire and vigour that was obvious to see. But the material served up to him by the writers did not have that same level of passion. And it made for a mediocre show overall. No matter how game Watt was, he needed decent material to work with, as sketch comedy was not his day job. Ah well. 

Conventional wisdom dictates that the 2003/04 SNL season was the worst one of the modern era. Potentially the worst host of that dismal season was the Reverend Al Sharpton, a man who sometimes looked like he was offended by the very sketches he was a part of. At other points he looked so bored he might actually fall asleep. Best to give this one a miss and go back to activism, Al.

When Academy Award nominated Saoirse Ronan hosted SNL in 2017, she reportedly asked producers to include a sketch about her Irish heritage. The subsequent skit, which made fun of the Irish airline Aer Lingus, mentioned potatoes a lot and saw Ronan exaggerate her natural accent, wasn’t overly funny. But the stereotypes presented aggravated many people in her homeland, and a backlash quickly formed on Twitter.

Pop superstar Katy Perry’s 2011 hosting gig was hampered by some dreadful writing which didn’t give the singer much opportunity to show off her comic skills. She was pretty great when impersonating other singers, such as Florence Welch and Christina Aguilera. But otherwise she was shunted into the background of sketches that were way, way less funny. A missed opportunity.

Mere months after she was assaulted in the leadup to the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan hosted SNL. A strange choice, given that she had no acting experience and had just experienced a mentally draining media frenzy. It was perhaps unsurprising that Kerrigan bombed. In fact, the only funny sketches were ones that played on the fact that her delivery was so stilted and boring.

On July 30, 1990 New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was banned from managing the baseball franchise day-to-day amid a scandal. A few months later he was hosting SNL, with most of the sketches leaning into his reputation as a hot-headed bully. He reportedly said no to many of the writers’ best ideas, preferring to go with what he thought was funny. Spoiler warning: it wasn’t. 

NFL hero Deion Sanders hosted SNL in 1995, and he seemed like a sure bet. He was charismatic and funny in interviews and was undeniably cool. Yet he used his hosting privileges to perform two songs from his lamentable rap album Prime Time. It went down like a lead balloon. Because Sanders is a terrible, terrible rapper. 

In 2019 Kristen Stewart hosted SNL for the second time. Her first stint was well-received, so anticipation was high for this go-around. Yet lightning didn’t strike twice, with most observers feeling the sketches were happy to keep Stewart in her place, rather than push her with any material outside her comfort zone. So she came across far too aloof for anyone to laugh along with.

Walter Matthau was an incredibly funny presence on-screen. Just go watch The Odd Couple or The Bad News Bears. He could also play it (mostly) straight in gritty crime movies like Charley Varrick. What he couldn’t do, though, was host SNL with any kind of conviction. During a 2018 Watch What Happens Next interview, cast member Jane Curtain said the half-hearted Matthau was the worst host she had ever worked with. Ouch.

Nobody likes arrogance, but this is how cyclist Lance Armstrong came across when he hosted SNL in 2005. In the midst of doping allegations, Armstrong vehemently denied any wrongdoing and smugly joked about it during his opening monologue. It was all made infinitely worse eight years later when he admitted he had, in fact, taken performance enhancing drugs for all seven wins at the Tour de France.

Insecure star Issa Rae’s first time hosting SNL was dealt a cruel hand by fate. Due to COVID, she had to host in October 2020 instead of the originally scheduled March. It meant she had nothing to promote, plus the creative team was going through a weird period trying to cope with the pandemic. In the end, her material was forgettable, and it was obvious she had no experience in sketch comedy characters. 

Casey Affleck won an Oscar for his performance in the melancholy film Manchester By The Sea. An actor known for his lowkey, sensitive delivery, he tapped new realms of emotion. Yet, to promote the film, he was sent onto SNL as a guest host. It went about as well as you’d expect...so not well at all. Paste magazine noted that Affleck looked like a condemned man.

Swimmer Michael Phelps’ 2008 hosting gig was yet another case of “athlete unsurprisingly sucks at live comedy.” But perhaps it was to be expected. Because his episode was pretty excruciating to sit through. Like many others, he floundered in the live setting and resorted to awkwardly reading his cue cards. 

Actress Catherine Oxenberg is the daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. And her SNL gig came in 1986, during the brief period where Robert Downey Jr. was part of the cast. Yet her performance demonstrated her inexperience all too often. At one point she didn’t realize the camera was on her, then let out an embarrassed laugh when introducing musical guest Paul Simon.

Basketball superstar Charles Barkley has hosted SNL four times. Why is he on this list then? Surely, he can’t be that bad if he’s been invited back so often? Well, Barkley is a strange case because his returns are predicated on being a good sport. He’ll try anything in a sketch, no matter how absurd. Yet he’s never gotten any better at his comic delivery. Just sad.

On any list of actor hosts completely ill-suited to SNL, January Jones has got to rank highly. She is known for her icy, almost emotionless persona on Mad Men as Betty Draper, and has rarely shown any other modes in her acting career. On SNL that persona was awkward as hell, with Jones appearing wooden and uncomfortable. She even asked for some of her cues out loud. Oof.

Who is Miskel Spillman? Well, she is, to date, the only non-celebrity to ever host SNL – a senior citizen who won the “Anyone Can Host” competition in 1977. She wasn’t great; the writers mostly wrote around her lack of showbiz experience. Still, we will always have the hilarious gag that landed her the gig: “I’m 80-years-old. I need one more cheap thrill, since my doctor told me I only have another 25 years left.”

In defense of this hosting decision, there are a lot of people out there who love Bill Burr’s trademark humor. And this is what he delivered in spades with his SNL opening monologue, which took aim at white women hijacking the “woke” movement, amongst other things. But there are also a huge number of viewers who despise Burr and think his humor punches down, instead of satirizing those in power. 

In the early 2000s Canadian comedian Tom Green was a big deal. His particular brand of gross out body humor led to him getting his own star vehicle Freddy Got Fingered. But the humor didn’t translate particularly well to the SNL stage. Seeing Will Ferrell regurgitate food into Green’s mouth, as if he were a baby bird being fed by his mother, just made the audience want to barf.

Poor M.C. Hammer. In early 1990, he broke out with “U Can’t Touch This,” a single that made him super famous. By the time he hosted SNL in December 1991, though, he was already on the verge of falling off the map. He performed as the episode’s musical guest on top of hosting, but it was all to no avail; his stilted acting sunk the sketches and it was a laugh-free zone.

UFC superstar Ronda Rousey hosted SNL on January 23, 2016 and, while she wasn’t good, she wasn’t terrible either. It was obvious she was being protected by the show, though, given her lack of experience with acting and comedy. Two of her sketches were pre-filmed, and in a live one she could be seen looking at cue cards, while generally gesturing with her arms a lot and pulling silly faces. It was all a bit sad.

This entry is a weird one. Some people believed that Charles Grodin’s hosting gig in 1977, in which he reportedly refused to rehearse, improvised constantly and derailed sketches by forgetting lines, was bad enough to get him banned. But Grodin himself told The A.V. Club that it was all planned, and that he was actually invited to host again; he just didn’t want to. We guess we’ll never know.

SNL cast member Bill Hader wasn’t a fan of the entourage pop superstar Justin Bieber brought with him when he hosted in 2013. During a SiriusXM interview, he told Howard Stern, “Justin Bieber showed up with like 20 guys. He had a guy holding a slice of pizza. A guy holding a Diet Coke. You’re trying to fight through all these people to get dressed.” He also seemed unprepared during his sketches.

Hollywood veteran Robert Blake hosted SNL in 1982 and did something so disrespectful backstage that he was banned from ever returning. According to writer David Sheffield, he had a script for a sketch handed to him by writer/performer Gary Kroeger. Blake read it, then he proceeded to throw it at Kroeger’s head, telling him to wipe his rear end with it. Not cool.

Frank Zappa’s entire comic persona hinged on him being weird, experimental, and non-conformist. So when he hosted SNL in 1978, he did this, too. And it was a total disaster; he repeatedly pointed out the artificiality of the sketches and semi-ironically acted like he didn’t care he was the host. Several cast members refused to return for the goodnight segment, as a result.

Legendary vaudeville comedian Milton Berle hosted SNL in 1979, and he was such a pain to work with that Lorne Michaels banned him from ever darkening the show’s door again. And Michaels even stopped the episode from airing on TV for years, too. Berle reportedly wouldn’t play along with the writer’s ideas, using his own dated vaudeville humor. His backstage behavior was also questionable, to say the least.

Before her gig in 2012, Lindsay Lohan had hosted SNL three times and equipped herself well. This time was different, though, as a lot of jokes were made about her troubled personal life and brushes with the law. The star fumbled her lines and looked like she wanted to be anywhere else. It’s hard to imagine this being allowed to happen in 2021.

Adrien Brody won the Academy Award for his astonishing performance in The Pianist, aged just 29. He is still the youngest person to ever win Best Actor. That same year, riding high from his success, he hosted SNL. But success would elude him this time. Because after introducing reggae star Sean Paul using his own Jamaican accent with fake dreadlocks, he was never going to be invited back.

Louise Lasser’s bizarre hosting performance in 1976 blurred the lines between reality and fiction. Prior to hosting, she’d been arrested for cocaine possession, so her personal life was in turmoil. So when, as part of the sketch, she declared she was having a nervous breakdown and then ran off crying, the audience didn’t know what to make of it. She also reportedly refused to perform with anyone except Chevy Chase.

Martin Lawrence became a huge movie star in the late 1990s/early 2000s thanks to movie franchises like Bad Boys and Big Momma’s House. But in 1994 he was the stand-up comic and sitcom star who delivered an opening monologue so offensive that NBC were reportedly inundated with 200 complaints. Maybe a rant about women’s hygiene wasn’t the best idea he’s ever had.

Paris Hilton’s SNL hosting job raised such ire in cast member Tina Fey that she blasted her on Howard Stern’s radio show. Fey said, “She’s unbelievably dumb and so proud of how dumb she is.” She then called the heiress something unrepeatable. A few years later, though, Fey admitted to Gotham magazine that this was no way for a grown woman to behave.

“The Diceman,” a controversial stand-up comedy character created by Andrew Dice Clay, was a phenomenon in the late 1980s. But, when he was chosen to host SNL in 1990, cast member Nora Dunn refused to work on the show because of the character’s deliberate homophobic and misogynistic attitude. As she told Salon in 2015, “His material was terrible. He just wasn’t smart enough to handle that material.” Ouch.

Despite being the original breakout star of SNL, it seemed Chevy Chase made enemies on the show every time he returned. He and Bill Murray had a fist fight in 1978. He allegedly said something homophobic to gay star Terry Sweeney in 1985. Then, during a hosting gig in 1997, he slapped Cheri Oteri on the head. This was the final straw, and he never appeared again.

In a scathing May 2021 review, The Wrap’s Phil Owen declared controversial Tesla CEO Elon Musk the worst host in SNL history. He ranted that Musk never got anywhere near funny or entertaining and had zero charisma. He also called him a “black hole of fun.” To be fair, though, it seemed like the world largely shared this view. 

Lorne Michaels himself once dubbed Steven Seagal the worst SNL host of all time, so who are we to argue? The one-time action superstar hosted in 1991, was difficult to work with and, worst of all, was staggeringly unfunny. Cast member Tim Meadows once said the problem was that Seagal didn’t get most of the jokes that were being written for him, so therefore he considered them bad. A disaster.