Jeopardy! fans and contestants protest Dr Oz turn as guest host: ‘He’s the opposite of what the show should stand for’

Oz, a physician and TV host, has long faced criticism for the advice shared on his daytime talk show

Jeopardy! fans and former contestants are protesting the inclusion of Dr Oz as a guest host on the show.

Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and professor at Columbia University, has long faced criticism for the advice shared on his daytime talk show, The Dr Oz Show.

The physician and TV host is featured on Jeopardy! as part of a rotating slate of guest hosts following the death of Alex Trebek in November last year. Oz began his turn on 22 March and is scheduled to remain as guest host until 2 April. He will be followed by Aaron Rodgers, Anderson Cooper and Bill Whitaker.

After the Jeopardy! Twitter account announced on Monday that Oz would be this week’s host, viewers and users of the platform made their disagreement known.

“I'm writing, not to be snarky, but to sincerely register my objection to this show associating its long-established identity of fact-based knowledge with a man whose stature has become increasingly dependent on dangerous pseudo-science,” one person wrote.

Someone else called the decision to feature Oz “the most disgraceful disrespect to Alex's legacy”, adding: “Especially after all of America told y'all that we want [actor LeVar Burton] and the powers that be acted like they had better options.”

“Thanks, I'll be skipping Jeopardy! for the first time in my adult life,” another person tweeted.

“It is disgraceful that you are giving Dr Oz a platform,” someone else wrote. “He is the opposite of what the show should stand for.”

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A group of “concerned” former Jeopardy! contestants also condemned the decision to include Oz in the pool of guest hosts in an open letter shared in February.

“When we heard that Dr Mehmet Oz was slated to be a guest host, agreement came quickly – we were opposed,” the missive states, adding that “Dr Oz stands in opposition to everything that Jeopardy! stands for.”

“Jeopardy! is a show that values facts and knowledge,” the former contestants wrote. “Throughout his nearly two decades on television he has used his authority as a doctor to push harmful ideas onto the American public, in stark contrast with his oath to first do no harm.”

The Independent has contacted Jeopardy! and Dr Oz for comment.

The Dr Oz Show has been on the air since 2009 on syndication. Throughout its run, the show has been a topic of controversy, with Oz facing criticism for some of the claims he has made on air.

In 2014, Oz testified in front of a Senate panel during a hearing about diet products. “When you call a product a miracle, and it’s something you can buy and it’s something that gives people false hope, I just don’t understand why you need to go there,” then-Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill told Oz at the time, according to Reuters.

Oz said during the hearing he “actually [does] personally believe in the items that [he talks] about on the show”.

In April last year, Oz admitted he “misspoke” after calling schools a “very appetising opportunity” in the context of reopening measures amid the coronavirus pandemic during an appearance on Fox News. On that occasion, he had said he had read a “nice piece” arguing that “the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3 per cent in terms of total mortality”.

Back in 2013, a New Yorker profile of Oz wondered: “Is the most trusted doctor in America doing more harm than good?”

“He is rarely without blueberries, almonds, or easy access to the ‘green drinks,’ made mostly from cucumber, spinach, apples, and herbs, that he often mentions on his show,” the piece noted. “Oz doesn’t follow any of the miracle cures or fad diets that he trots out so regularly for his audience.”