Who is 'the host of Jeopardy!'?, part 2

200 // Setting aside any debate over the merits of Mike Richards’ character, this whole hosting kerfuffle has saved Jeopardy! from a wrong decision on host. Richards is not bad as a game show host — I liked him as host of GSN’s brief and surprisingly good revival of Pyramid in 2012 — but he is not The One. I do not condone the trend of random actors and third-tier comics getting game show hosting gigs, and this is a situation that needs something more, a bit of heft, like when Regis Philbin became host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

400 // Mayim Bialik seems to be an acceptable answer. Some stuff has come out about strange things she has said but, thus far, not enough to get her canceled. Her turn as host was very solid, and she would only get better. So why isn’t she making it happen? A sitcom that no one knows about?

600 // Everybody loves LeVar Burton, but his performance did not look like The One. On a side note, I wanted him to stroll out onstage wearing his Star Trek visor.

800 // I had never seen or heard of David Faber, but I thought he did a smashing job. Smooth, engaging and in control, like a classic game show overseer. 

1000 // Ken Jennings would also make sense — he’s now in the DNA of the show and seems to be generally well-liked — but he has the disadvantage of having Tweeted.

Daily Double // As I’ve said before, there was already a very solid audition in the can from Jeff Probst, who nailed it as host of Rock & Roll Jeopardy! (1998-2001). And that completes my shortlist — Probst, Faber, Jennings and Bialik.

Final Jeopardy! // How appropriate that all this drama unfolds as the show gets one of its biggest champions of all time, Matt Amodio, who will resume his reign of terror when the new season opens Sept. 13.

Netflix's Black Summer

It’s like someone looked at The Walking Dead and said: What if we took out all the boring parts? Rather than concocting an elaborate new villian every time the crew moves to a new fracked up town, as The Walking Dead does (at least up to the point that I bailed out, which I think was season 4), what if it’s mostly just about getting from point A to point B? Also, change the zombies from lumberingly slow to super fast. Thus far, it’s a winning formula for Netflix’s Black Summer, a relentless exercise in zombie fight-or-flight tension. It’s best not to get attached to any particular character, because (spoiler) a lot of them don’t make it.

The story does not always unfold in a linear fashion, and I like how they’ve done it, going back to give us a bit of back story on something that just happened. Some have criticized the show for lacking character development, but I think Rose’s character is progressing just fine every time she blows away another non-zombie who’s gotten on her wrong side.

This show is derived from Z Nation, and the good news is that this is far better than that, based on the little bit of Z Nation I’ve seen. I’m not particularly a fan of the zombie genre and am perplexed by its enduring popularity — it seems a daunting task to bring anything new to its apocalyptic storylines — yet I tore through the two eight-episode seasons (season 2 just recently arrived) and was left wanting more when I came to the end. It’s pretty rare that I say that about a new show these days.

Score: Considered merely as escapist fare, it's a solid 4 out of 5.