We might just see comedy legend Steve Martin on Jeopardy! if the game show’s team gets their wish. Recently, Jeopardy! champion Sam Buttery claimed a $100,000 prize on the show’s first-ever Professors Tournament with Mayim Bialik hosting. The winner bears more than a passing resemblance to Martin, and this prompte the Only Murders in the Building star to make light of that fact on Twitter.
“So great to split the prize money with Sam!” Martin joked, responding directly to Jeopardy! announcing the big win. That’s when the show’s official Twitter account invited Martin to appear on the show in any way, meaning he could guest host, compete, or even just show up to say hello. The tweet says, “We would love to have you on Jeopardy! anytime, in any capacity!”
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Buttery, the Steve Martin lookalike, is in fact an Associate Professor of Operations Research at The Naval Postgrad school in Monterey, California. His win also means he’s guaranteed a spot to compete for more earnings in the 2022 Tournament of Champions. This was the inaugural Professors Tournament which had a format similar to the traditional Tournament of Champions editions of Jeopardy!.
Unless he took that conversation private, Martin has not addressed whether or not he plans to physically appear on the game show. Even so, the past year has seen a plethora of celebrities coming onto the program to serve as guest hosts. After the death of Alex Trebek last year, the decision was made to hold off on naming a permanent replacement right away. Instead, different celebs took turns hosting with some of them hoping to turn the job into a full-time gig, such as LeVar Burton. Mayim Bialik, who now serves as an alternating guest host with Ken Jennings, also first served as a guest host during that time.
At the end of the guest hosting run, Bialik was named as the host of the special tournaments while executive producer Mike Richards would be the show’s full-time host. Those plans very quickly changed when offensive comments from Richards’ past on a podcast had been given renewed attention, prompting calls from viewers for Richards to get sacked. While he did step down as host, he was fired from his job as executive producer soon after, and Bialik and Jennings have been serving as the guest hosts since.
“There’s no other job I would rather have,” Bialik previously told Glamour, noting she wants the job full time. “I love my sitcom work, I do. I love all the other things I do. I love the podcast. But I absolutely have never had a better job … the use of my brain and my skillset feels best suited by this job on Jeopardy!. It is a dream job. I think it’s a dream job for anyone, but especially for someone who is trained first as a performer and then as a science communicator.”
As for Steve Martin, the veteran comedian has been impressing fans with his performance in the acclaimed Hulu series Only Murders in the Building with Martin Short and Selena Gomez. The second season just recently started filming. Martin also just appeared on Saturday Night Live to help welcome Paul Rudd into the five-timers club.
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Jeremy Dick
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Jeremy Dick has been writing for MovieWeb and Horror Geek Life for years, is the self-proclaimed biggest fan of Bob Saget, and doesn’t particularly like talking about himself in the third person.
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