Cooper’s 10 episodes of Jeopardy! kicked off on Apr. 19. He succeeds Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who also expressed interest in getting the full-time gig. Other guest hosts who’ve stepped in so far include former champ Ken Jennings, Katie Couric, and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Among the guest hosts still to come are 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker, contestant Buzzy Cohen, and actor/neuroscientist Mayim Bialik. Monday night wasn’t Cooper’s first time on the Jeopardy! set. He competed on Celebrity Jeopardy! four times between 2004 and 2016, winning twice. Ahead of his hosting debut, the journalist got some advice from Jennings, based on what the champ learned from Trebek, who passed away last November. “[Trebek] would kind of take himself out of the spotlight and very generously put it on the players,” Jennings explained to Cooper, per CNN. “And I found that the more you could do that, Jeopardy! kind of runs itself.” To learn about a recent guest host controversy, check out Jeopardy! Fans Are Boycotting the Show Because of This Guest Host. Monday night, Cooper shared a shot to his Instagram of one-year-old Wyatt sitting up on a bed, watching his dad at the Jeopardy! lectern. “Wyatt has never seen me on tv before, and he likely won’t for a long while, but apparently he caught a bit of me on @Jeopardy!” he captioned the snap. “It was a dream come true to be guest hosting, and to pay tribute to #AlexTrebek and raise money for @hashaiti,” referring to Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, a non-profit healthcare organization in Haiti." For more celebrity news sent right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. Of course, being a father is a dream come true for Cooper, but in an interview on Jeopardy!’s official YouTube page, Cooper said hosting the show is also a longtime goal. He recalled starting to watch the game show with his family when he was in high school. “I think that’s one of the great things about Jeopardy!” he said. “There’s not a lot of stuff you can do as a family together and know that it’s intelligent and educational and fun and exciting. So I love that Jeopardy! has been able to keep that going for these generations.” He went on to share that he sees himself carrying on that tradition with Wyatt. “And now there’s a whole new generation of people who are watching Jeopardy! who watched as kids with their parents,” Cooper continued. “And now I have a son and I cannot wait to sit at home and watch with him.” For a fan-favorite pick, check out This Is Who Fans Want to Succeed Alex Trebek as Host of Jeopardy! Cooper and his former boyfriend Benjamin Maisani split romantically in 2018, but they co-parent baby Wyatt, who they welcomed via surrogate. The arrangement suits everyone so well that they all live together, Cooper shared in a February appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, adding that “it’s weird, but it works out.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb “It’s interesting, because he wasn’t really sure he wanted to have a kid,” Cooper said of Maisani, via Oprah Daily, “which is one of the reasons we probably broke up—but then, he came around to the idea. Now he is such a great parent.” But when Ellen DeGeneres asked if their domestic happiness meant that the two would ever start dating again, Cooper was clear, saying, “No, that’s not gonna happen.” A stronger possibility may be Cooper having another child. “I think it would be great for [Wyatt] to have a sibling,” he explained. “I’m not sure I can handle another, but he’s such an easy kid.” For more on Wyatt, check out Anderson Cooper’s Son Was Just Named the Cutest Baby Alive.
