Jeopardy! is coming to the end of its year of celebrity guest hosts, with only four famous faces remaining once George Stephanopoulos vacates the podium on Friday, July 16.
The Good Morning America co-anchor and former adviser to Bill Clinton follows big names like Anderson Cooper, Aaron Rodgers and Katie Couric in the Jeopardy! hosting spot, which has been taken on by a rolling roster of celebrities since the death of Alex Trebek last year.
Stephanopoulos presented just five episodes of the show, and will be followed by four guest hosts doing a week's worth of shows, before a permanent host is chosen in the fall. The host after Stephanopoulos is not only someone America wakes up with, but also a person that the GMA presenter leaving the podium will be very familiar with.
Who is the Next Jeopardy! Guest Host?
Following the former host is his co-anchor on Good Morning America, Robin Roberts.
The Peabody Award-winning journalist, Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame member and author will take to the podium from Monday, July 19, until Friday, July 23.
Roberts is the last of the female guest hosts, following Couric, Mayim Bialik and Savannah Guthrie. She is also the first woman of color to host Jeopardy!
As with all the guest hosts, the makers of the show are making a donation to a charity of Roberts' choice. She has chosen Be the Match, part of the National Marrow Donor Program.
After Roberts, three hosts remain: one-time Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton (July 26 to 30); Squawk on the Street's David Faber (August 2 to 6) and sportscaster Joe Buck (August 9 to 13).
Three Previous Contestants
Robin Roberts was previously a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy!, as were guest hosts Aaron Rodgers and Anderson Cooper. Before she was invited to host the show, she joked she hadn't been asked because she had done so badly on the game.
In 1999, when Roberts worked at ESPN, she faced off against fellow sportscasters Bob Costas and Keith Olbermann. Costas was the runaway winner of the night, with Roberts losing her winnings after incorrectly guessing a Final Jeopardy! question about ice hockey.
Speaking to Ellen DeGeneres in March, Roberts joked of this: "I knew I was not destined to be a guest host because I was on Celebrity Jeopardy! I was so bad as a guest, that I think that if I had been on the list, that anybody who remembers me from being on the celebrity show, they knew that."
She went on to say: "I contest that it was the buzzer. That's my story and I'm sticking to it."
Roberts holds the distinction of being both a Jeopardy! guest host and a solution to one of the questions. "Who is Robin Roberts" was the answer to the following 2012 question: "This co-anchor of Good Morning America was a hoops star at Southeastern Louisiana University."
Other guest hosts who have also been the answer to questions include Stephanopoulos ("After the 1996 election, this 35-year-old Clinton adviser moved to ABC News"), Couric ("This TV personality rises early, even for a mother of 2") and Rodgers ("In 2013 this Green Bay quarterback signed a 5-year, $110-million deal making him the highest-paid NFLer ever").
Roberts was also the person who secured an interview with Trebek to discuss his cancer diagnosis. In 2019, he told her: "After you've passed, after you're dead, people say: 'Oh, he was such a good guy, we really liked him. But I am getting all that before that event. It makes me feel really, really good."
