NBC’s ‘College Bowl’ Adds ‘Jeopardy!’ Vet Harry Friedman as Season 2 Showrunner

NBC has renewed its game show College Bowl for a second season — and is bringing aboard a revered producer to run it.

Former Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune executive producer Harry Friedman has signed on to be the showrunner for season two of College Bowl. The Peyton Manning-hosted quiz show is set to return in the 2022-23 season.

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Friedman has won 14 Daytime Emmy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award. He began his game-show career on The Hollywood Squares, winning his first Daytime Emmy as part of the show’s writing team in 1974.

Friedman retired in 2020 after 25 years overseeing Wheel of Fortune and 21 years running Jeopardy!. Mike Richards took over both shows but was let go in August 2021 after controversy arose around discrimination lawsuits he faced while running The Price Is Right and offensive comments he made on a podcast. (Richards was also briefly Alex Trebek’s replacement as host of Jeopardy!, which sparked its own controversy among the show’s fans after a long and public audition process for numerous guest hosts.)

Michael Davies has since taken the reins of Jeopardy!, while Bellamie Blackstone runs Wheel of Fortune. Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik have split Jeopardy! hosting duties this season.

College Bowl is a revival of a long-running game show format that features teams from 16 universities answering trivia questions on a wide range of subjects. The show averaged about 2.7 million viewers during its first season in summer 2021.

Village Roadshow Television and Universal Television Alternative Studio produce the series. Brothers Peyton, Eli and Cooper Manning executive produce via their Omaha Productions along with Richard Reid of Richard Reid Productions, Mark Itkin of Tough Lamb Media and Friedman.

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