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Jeopardy Season 40 Will Feature Significant Changes As New Episodes Move Forward Despite Strike-TGN

Summary

  • Jeopardy! season 40 will still air new episodes, despite the writers’ strike, but will use recycled and pre-written questions.

  • The season will begin with a second chance tournament featuring players from season 37.

  • Second and third-place prizes will increase, with the runner-up receiving $3000 and the third-place finisher getting $2000.

Jeopardy! season 40 is going ahead with new episodes in spite of the writers’ strike, but will undergo some significant tweaks. The current iteration of Jeopardy! debuted way back in 1984, with Alex Trebek serving as host, and went through very few changes over the course of the coming decades. But the show underwent a seismic shift with the death of Trebek in 2020, leading to a host search that finally settled on the tag team of Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings. Now thanks to the writers’ strike, the future of Jeopardy! has been in doubt, with Bialik exiting the show in solidarity with the WGA at the end of season 39, and the annual Tournament of Champions being placed on hold.

The labor situation in Hollywood indeed continues to cause disruptions, but Jeopardy! Season 40 will go on says showrunner Michael Davies, who just outlined some major tweaks for the new season (via Inside Jeopardy! via TVLine). Without writers on-hand to craft new questions, Davies says the show will use questions recycled from previous seasons, along with some new ones that were written prior to the WGA hitting picket lines. Davies also says the season will open with a Second Chance Tournament bringing back players from Jeopardy! season 37, who will then be pitted against winners from season 38’s Second Chance Tournament in a Champions Wild Card event. As Davies explained:

I believe, principally, that it would not be fair to have new contestants. Making their first appearance on the Alex Trebek stage, doing it with non-original material or … a combination of non-original material and material that was written pre-strike. And so we decided that really, we needed to invite back and give a second chance in general to players who probably thought that their chance to come back and play on the Alex Trebek stage had gone forever.

Jeopardy! Season 40’s Host Situation Is Still Up In The Air

Davies also says that once the WGA strike ends, Jeopardy! will stage its delayed season 39 Tournament of Champions. He also announced an alteration in the show’s prize structure, with second-place finishers now getting $3000 and third-place getting $2000. This is in response to ongoing concerns about travel costs incurred by contestants as they get to Los Angeles to attend tapings.

Though Davies’ remarks did clear up a lot of confusion about how Jeopardy! season 40 will play out without writers, the showrunner did not offer any clarity about the show’s host situation, which has been up-in-the-air since Bialik’s premature season 39 exit. Bialik’s co-host Jennings may have stepped in to finish off season 39, but it’s not known if Jennings will take the stage for Jeopardy! season 40, or follow Bialik in walking out. It will indeed be fascinating to see how Jeopardy! season 40 plays out with recycled questions, a new tournament format, and possibly a new host.

Source: Inside Jeopardy! (via TVLine)