Numlock Sunday: Sarah Shevenock on the Jeopardy! fiasco

By Walt Hickey

Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.

This week, I spoke to Morning Consult’s Sarah Shevenock, who wrote “Viewers Still Want LeVar Burton to Win ‘Jeopardy!’ Host Gig Following Mike Richards’ Exit last week. Here's what I wrote about it:

A new poll found that a majority of Jeopardy! viewers supported newly minted host Mike Richards’ decision to resign the post following the reveal of a number of derogatory remarks on a podcast he once hosted, with 68 percent of 1,469 Jeopardy! viewers backing the decision to step back and only 17 percent opposing it. The kerfuffle proved to be a fairly significant story on the pop culture radar, with 43 percent of U.S. adults hearing at least something about Richards’ exit, a degree of notoriety greater than Chris Harrison’s resignation from The Bachelor (32 percent). Both Ken Jennings and LeVar Burton have seen their support increase a bit over the course of the news cycle.

I have been following the Jeopardy! host search with rapt attent…