Mayim Bialik announced as new Jeopardy host with Mike Richards

Who are the new hosts of Jeopardy, for $600? The search for a host has officially ended as the classic American quiz show announced both Mayim Bialik and Mike Richards as its official permanent leaders.

The two will be replacing the late Alex Trebek, who had previously hosted the show for 37 years but passed in 2020 from pancreatic cancer. Now, Richards (who was previously speculated as the new host of Jeopardy!) will take over as the host for the weekday episodes of the show, while Bialik will take on the role for some of Jeopardy's prime-time and all spin-off series, “including the upcoming all-new Jeopardy! National College Championship set to air on ABC next year,” Sony said in a statement.

Unable to contain her excitement about her new role, the Big Bang Theory and Blossom actress took to Twitter to share the news.

“IT’S TRUE!!! Been waiting a long time to tell you all,” she wrote. “Really really honored and astounded and excited for this—it’s beyond anything I ever imagined could happen.”

The news almost broke the internet and even landed the actress as the top trending topic on Twitter. To commemorate the moment, she posted a video on Instagram sharing with fans how "super freaked out" and "very, very thrilled" she is about being a permanent part of Jeopardy.

Though most-known for her acting, Bialik boasts an academic background, which may come in handy for when she starts her hosting gig.

Is Mayim Bialik a real doctor?

As the new Jeopardy host, Mayim Bialik will be bringing a brainy background. The actor studied neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles right after her time on the NBC sitcom Blossom.

"I basically walked off the television and onto the UCLA campus," she told CNN.

Before moving onto her Ph.D., she earned an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and Hebrew and Jewish studies. From there, she stayed at UCLA for her doctorate where her research focused on obsessive-compulsive disorder among people with Prader-Willi syndrome—a rare condition where the hypothalamus malfunctions. 

She believed her studies would lead her to become a research professor, but she realized an academic career would leave little room for time with her children. Instead, she landed a gig acting as the neuroscientist Amy Fowler on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. In 2012, she became a published author, writing a book about parenting based on the science of hormones involved in parent-child bonding.

What is Mayim Bialik’s net worth?

Her appearances in movies, including as the child version of Bette Midler in the 1989 movie Beaches helped kick off her net worth. It was her time as a series regular on The Big Bang Theory, though that really skyrocketed her career. 

During her time on the show, she earned about $200,000 per episode (totaling around $4.5 million per season). Things changed in 2017, thanks to the generosity of the five core stars of the show, who agreed to take a $100,000 pay cut. Bialik and her co-star Melissa Rauch were able to receive a significant pay raise to $450,000 per episode. That came to be about $10 million per season for the final two seasons of the series. This suggests that her net worth is around $25 million, according to CelebrityNetWorth.com.

Bialik’s takeover for the spinoffs will mark a new era for the show as she becomes the first permanent female host for the game show.

“After all the conversations we’ve had about this partnership, I am just so ready to get started!" she said in an official statement. The new co-hosts will begin their time on the show starting September 13, when the new season of weekday episodes begins.