Yahoo Movies Aaron Rodgers' Guest Hosting Gig on Jeopardy! Led to 14 Percent Ratings Spike for the Game Show: Report
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Aaron Rodgers recently scored another win, this time off the field.
The Green Bay Packers quarterback, 37, brought a 14 percent ratings boost to Jeopardy! during his recent two-week guest hosting gig, according to TVNewsCheck and The Wrap. The game show also finished at the top of the syndication chart for the period ending April 11.
It also turned out to be the best Jeopardy! ratings performance in a month, after Dr. Mehmet Oz and Katie Couric's served as guest hosts.
Anderson Cooper is filling in now, ahead of Savannah Guthrie, Mayim Bialik, Bill Whitaker, Buzzy Cohen and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, all of whom will have the chance to prove themselves as the next permanent host.
The search comes after the game show's beloved host of 37 seasons, Alex Trebek, died in November, after he was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. He was 80.
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Rodgers has expressed his interest in taking over as the full-time host of Jeopardy!, even if it means shedding his beard.
"If [shaving] is ever a prereq to get the full-time gig, no problem with it at all. No problem at all ... I would love to be the host of Jeopardy!, yes," he said earlier this month on The Pat McAfee Show.
But that doesn't mean the former Super Bowl MVP is giving up on the game, after playing 16 seasons with the NFL. Rodgers plans to balance his time on Jeopardy! and with the Packers if he lands the job.
"I don't think I'd need to give up football to do it," he added. "They film 46 days a year. I worked 187 this year in Green Bay. That gives me 178 days to do Jeopardy! So I feel like I could fit 46 into that 178 and make it work. It would be a dream job for sure, and I'm not shy at all about saying I want the job. That's how I went into it. I want an opportunity to be in the mix."
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Rodgers competed on Celebrity Jeopardy! in 2015, and he recently raved about his experience behind the host's podium. "Other than the Super Bowl, this is the honor of a lifetime," he said in a clip on social media, adding that it was his "favorite show" as a kid.
