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Trebek is irreplaceable, but if the show must go on I hope Ken Jennings takes a shot at the job.
Former contestants could, in principle, be biased against their rivals. Not that Ken is likely to behave unethically but that makes it hard to have him as host.
There’s not a whole lot of room for discretion here though.
Alex frequently bends the rules.
He does? I haven't watched enough to see how that would work
Yes, he does.
No, he doesn't. There are judges and lawyers at the airing that decide pretty much everything controversial to be in line with their legal and contractual requirements. Can you name a single instance of your claims?
Sometimes it happens. I was watching a season premiere episode and the last question of Double Jeopardy had Keyser Soze as the answer.

One of the contestants answered "Keyser SOSA", immediately followed by Alex confirming with "Keyser SOZE, yes". There was a clear distinction between how the contestant pronounced it and how Alex pronounced it, but the contestant was given credit for the answer anyway.

I am 100% sure the judges considered the pronunciation and found it acceptable. Perfect pronunciation isn't actually a rule of jeopardy, like it is in Wheel of Fortune.
I’ve seen cases like this where the judges reverse the decision and adjust the scores later. The fact that that didn’t happen in this instance indicates that they agreed the pronunciation was acceptable.

There’s really very little room for Alex to nudge things in a way that last more than a couple of minutes.

I am curious why you think this? Or how you think it's possible?

Jeopardy! has judges who are sitting in front of the audience. If Trebek is unsure of an answer he consults them (you can tell when he does this cause he'll look off to stage-right for a tick, usually holding his pencil in their direction).

If he gives credit for a question that he should have or shouldn't have, they correct him during the commercial break and adjust the score after the break (anybody who's watched the show has seen this).

He does not, because the rules are defined to allow some discretion on the part of the host. It's not bending the rules, it's deliberate leeway in them functioning as designed.

In particular, if a contestant gives an ambiguous or incomplete response such that it's not immediately right nor wrong, it's up to Alex how soon to rule them wrong or how long to wait for the contestant to supply more information. Besides that, the host does have some discretion on whether to accept a close mispronunciation, and if the judges disagree enough then it will be addressed and corrected at the next break.

Could tap Watson for the job. I bet it's fair
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This would be the best idea. The robot judges all.
Openly adversarial game shows could be interesting
Interesting. However, that law requires "intent to deceive the listening or viewing public" and a "purportedly bona fide contest", so in principle a show that makes it very clear that it's rigged could be okay.
Personally, I'd love to see Andy Richter or Michael McKean as a successor. They're both suuuuper sharp, and probably the best ever Celebrity Jeopardy! contestants.
Andy Richter would be fantastic. I wonder if he could stay on Conan or if that would be too much of a workload.
The travel would be the problem. Conan tapes in New York and Jeopardy is in L.A.
Conan is based in LA now as far as I know. He moved from New York to LA when he got The Tonight Show. Then when he was fired, he stayed in LA. He then got the TBS show which is still in LA.
Jennings has said he doesn't want it. He would have to relocate his family to L.A. or commute weekly from Seattle, which he doesn't want to do. He also doesn't really want any more of a celebrity/showbiz lifestyle than he already has.
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