10 people who should be the new host of 'Jeopardy!'

Jennings won 74 straight games in 2004, setting the record for the show's longest winning streak. He returned for the Greatest of All Time tournament in 2020 and won that, too. He now works on "Jeopardy!" as a segment producer.

CNN's Brian Stelter reported that Jennings was a finalist for the hosting job before Richards' brief time in the role and remains a favorite in the new search.

The name "Ken Jennings" is already synonymous with "Jeopardy!" His clear love and respect for the game makes him a worthy contender.

Burton played engineer Geordi La Forge on "Star Trek: the Next Generation" and hosted 21 seasons of the educational children's show "Reading Rainbow." He's the clear fan favorite for the hosting job, with celebrities like Stephen Colbert voicing their support.

Burton won "Celebrity Jeopardy!" in 1995, and he served as a guest host this past season. He has talked about wanting to host the show for years, and the audience is clearly on his side. After the controversy surrounding Richards' appointment and departure, the show is in desperate need of a wholly unproblematic, beloved figure who embodies the wholesomeness at the heart of "Jeopardy!"

She has also been named as the first guest host to take over when filming begins on the new season this week, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She will film 15 episodes over three weeks.

Bialik's appointment as "Jeopardy!" host is not without controversies of its own, and there are questions over whether she can fit full-time hosting duties around filming her Fox show "Call Me Kat." But her infectious enthusiasm and authoritative command of the board made her undeniably one of the best guest hosts this past season. It wouldn't be a huge leap for the producers to promote her to the show's full-time host.

Rodgers took his guest hosting duties seriously. NBC's Peter King wrote that he prepared for hosting "Jeopardy!" like it was an NFL playoff game, studying hours of old episodes and rehearsing potential scenarios. A few humorous moments between Rodgers and "Jeopardy!" contestants also made his episodes fun to watch.

He wasn't shy about expressing his interest in the role.

"I don't think I'd need to give up football to do it," Rodgers told The Ringer's Claire McNear in April. "They film 46 days a year. I worked 178 this year in Green Bay ... 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."

Roberts became the first Black woman to host "Jeopardy!" this past season, and she called it "a once-in-a-lifetime experience I will never forget." She struck the perfect balance of warmth and gravitas in the role, putting contestants at ease and delivering clues with the clarity of an experienced news anchor — she would be a fitting replacement as full-time host.

In a 2018 interview with TMZ, Trebek named Coates as someone he would like to see take over for him when he retired. At the time, Coates replied on Twitter: "Incredibly honored & humbled [that Jeopardy's Alex Trebek] 1) knows who I am 2) thinks I'd be a great host of my fave game show ever that I grew up watching w/ my family & still watch w/ my own kids (who saw him say this & now think I'm a genius)."

Coates was snubbed from the lineup of guest hosts this past season. It would be a touching tribute to Trebek's legacy to pass on his role to someone he thought would do it well, and by hiring a host who isn't already a household name, it would keep the focus on the contestants.

Trebek also told TMZ in 2018 that he could see Faust replacing him when he retired. The sports announcer was not invited as a guest host this past season, but he could potentially have his chance to try out the role during the upcoming round of guest hosts in the fall.

Like Coates, hiring Faust would honor Trebek's wishes and keep the focus on the contestants.

Colbert has thrown his support behind Burton's bid for the hosting job, so it seems unlikely that he would ever be in the running. But the quick-witted late-night host would make "Jeopardy!" even more fun to watch with quality banter and his delightfully nerdy disposition.

Chen has hosted "Big Brother" since 2000, and she told Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross that she intends to continue hosting "as long as I can form a sentence."

That kind of hosting longevity would serve "Jeopardy!" well, as Trebek hosted the show for 37 years.

Chen was also friends with Trebek. After his passing, she posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram calling him "Always a class act, and a prototype of perfection when it comes to being a host."

This one is a long shot, but like Bialik, Portman is a talented actress with academic prowess. She holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard and has been published twice in scientific journals.

If she wasn't too busy filming the Marvel movie "Thor: Love and Thunder," Portman would bring star power and intellectual curiosity to the hosting gig.