“Seattle’s Ken Jennings, about to guest host ‘Jeopardy!,’ gets embroiled in Twitter storm over ‘Bean Dad’.”

Robert Thompson, Trustee Professor of radio, television and film and director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture in the Newhouse School, was interviewed for The Seattle Times piece “Seattle’s Ken Jennings, about to guest host ‘Jeopardy!,’ gets embroiled in Twitter storm over ‘Bean Dad’.” Thompson, an expert on popular culture and television, says that Ken Jennings was the perfect candidate to take over hosting Jeopardy! from the late Alex Trebek, but his recent tweets may affect the long-term standing of his position as he is now listed as interim host. Despite a chaotic news cycle in the U.S. the news about Jennings still made it to the top of many networks, which “really goes to show how much ‘Jeopardy!’ is at the center of this culture,” says Thompson.