Mayim Bialik Gives Emotional Behind-the-Scenes Look at ‘Jeopardy!’ Set

Mayim Bialik couldn’t help but get “emotional” backstage filming Jeopardy! as the Call Me Kat actress filled in as a celebrity guest host following the death of longtime host Alex Trebek in November. Bialik, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA, shared to Instagram Wednesday some behind-the-scenes footage of her time as the Jeopardy! host, writing simply in the caption, “The emotions get me every time.”

Bialik was clearly feeling her feelings as she waited to be introduced on stage, pointing out backstage the place where she rests her tea and the sign that reminds her to take a big step before going out onstage. “I get very emotional here,” The Big Bang Theory alum admitted, sounding choked up as she called the whole experience “very exciting.”

Bialik’s hosting stint comes amid a star-studded guest-hosting schedule including Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper and Aaron Rodgers, Bill Whitaker, Dr. Oz and Ken Jennings, all of whom have taken their place behind the Jeopardy! podium recently. Taking on the guest-hosting gig in the future include stars like LeVar Burton, Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, David Faber, and Joe Buck.

“As I start my second week of guest-hosting Jeopardy!, I want to thank my 15-year-old, Miles,” Bialik said at the top of Monday’s show. “He was the one who first suggested I give this a try and I hope I am making him and his little brother, Frederick, proud.” She continued that it was an “immense honor” to take Trebek’s place, even temporarily, after he passed away following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

“This is such an iconic and unbelievable piece of our collective culture, to be considered to be part of it really in any way, it’s an immense honor,” she said in a Jeopardy! interview. “Especially for someone who’s dedicated so much of my life to academia to knowing things and to being able to communicate things.”

“Being a woman of science, as I am, is something that I’m obviously very passionate about presenting myself as,” she continued. “I really didn’t grow up with a lot of female role models and I think especially for young people – not just young girls, but for young girls and boys – to see that women can be scientists and can do these types of intellectual things, that feels very important to me.”