DR Oz is set to start his two-week run as host of Jeopardy! on Monday, March 22.
Mehmet Oz is the latest in a series of special guests to appear on the game show in wake of the death of Alex Trebek, who lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in November of 2020.
Television personality Dr Oz is hosting Jeopardy! for two weeks starting on March 22, 2021.
“Dr. Oz is someone who was very close to Alex,” executive producer Mike Richards told USA Today.
Richards added that the guest hosts are “people just kind of in the orbit that I knew feel very strongly about stepping in, not to try out for the role but to honor Alex.
“This is not a host competition. These are people who love this game, and their respect for Alex is off the charts.”
Dr Oz was a frequent guest on Oprah Winfrey’s inconic talk show before The Dr Oz Show launched in 2009.
Oz follows Ken Jennings, Richards and Katie Couric, who ended her run as guest host on March 19.
Future guest hosts of the show include Aaron Rodgers, Savannah Guthrie, Mayim Bialik, and CNN’s Dr Sanjay Gupta.
“There’s a lot of responsibility that falls on the host,” Bialik, 45, told People.
Five hundred former Jeopardy! contestants signed a letter that opposed the selection of Oz as guest host.
Hemant Mehta, a former contestant, tweeted the contents of the letter on March 22 – hours before Oz’s debut was set to air.
“Here’s a letter signed by over 500 former contestants (myself included) opposed to Dr. Oz hosting the show because of his rampant promotion of pseudoscience,” Mehta tweeted.
The letter states that “we understand that first and foremost, Jeopardy! is a television show, and ratings are important.
“However, Dr Oz stands in opposition to everything that Jeopardy! stands for.”
The letter continues: “Jeopardy! is a show that values facts and knowledge. Throughout his nearly two decades on television he has used his authority as a doctor to push harmful ideas onto the American public, in stark contrast with his oath to first do no harm.
“These ideas include promoting supplements that do nothing, legitimizing gay conversion therapy (which is banned in California, as well as 19 other states), dangerous ‘cures’ for autism, and, most recently, the use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19.
“None of these things is backed by any scientific fact and by promoting them he is actively putting his viewers in danger. In fact, his ideas are so dangerous that thousands of his colleagues have petitioned to have him fired from his position at Columbia Medical School.
“And what kind of message does this send to the LGBTQ+ and autistic contestants and viewers of Jeopardy!?”
The letter adds: “Dr Oz represents what has become a dubious trend in America: the elevation of the credentialed talking head at the expense of academic rigor and consensus.”
It concludes by saying that the inclusion of Oz “is a slap in the face to all involved.”
