Skip to main content
Packer Central

‘Deeply Grateful’ Rodgers’ Two Weeks on ‘Jeopardy!’ Result in $236,725 Donation

While Aaron Rodgers' two weeks as host were a hit for the North Valley Community Foundation, was it a big enough hit among the public for Rodgers to live his dream?
Bill Huber|
‘Deeply Grateful’ Rodgers’ Two Weeks on ‘Jeopardy!’ Result in $236,725 Donation
‘Deeply Grateful’ Rodgers’ Two Weeks on ‘Jeopardy!’ Result in $236,725 Donation

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Aaron Rodgers’ two-week stint as the guest host of Jeopardy! was a rousing success from one key perspective.

Each day for each guest host, the show is matching the amount of money earned by the winner, plus $2,000 for the runner-up and $1,000 for the third-place finisher, to a cause of the host’s choice. With his 10-episode run as host of the iconic television trivia show complete, the program donated $236,725 to the North Valley Community Foundation, a nonprofit organization located in his hometown of Chico, Calif.

Rodgers recently donated $1 million to establish NVCF’s Aaron Rodgers Small-Business Covid-19 Fund. Eighty businesses received significant help in the first round of funding; Rodgers’ Jeopardy! money will help create a second round of grants.

“(That donation) is an incredible amount of money that's going to go so far and change so many people's lives,” Rodgers said. “People who have lost hope. Businesses that are on the brink of bankruptcy. This cause means a lot to me, and I’m very, very thankful for the money that we raised.”

Rodgers signed off for the final time by saying, “In the words of the great Alex Trebek, ‘So long.’”

While Rodgers' time as host was a hit for the North Valley Community Foundation, was it a big enough hit among the public for Rodgers to live his dream?

“I’m not shy at all about saying I want the job,” he recently told The Ringer. “I don’t think I’d need to give up football to do it. They film 46 days a year. I worked 187 this year in Green Bay. That gives me ... 178 days to do ‘Jeopardy!’ So, I feel like I could fit 46 into that 178 and make it work. It would be a dream job, for sure.”

The Nielsen ratings will have a role in that decision. While ratings were strong when former champion Ken Jennings was the host, they fell under Katie Couric and fell even further with Dr. Oz at the lectern.

The ratings for Rodgers’ tenure have not been released.

There are other Jeopardy! guest hosts in the pipeline, with news anchor Anderson Cooper up next. The show likely won’t announce a permanent host until the new season starts in September, the Deseret News reported.

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

Home/News