Jeopardy! to ride out the WGA strike with old questions and old contestants
But the runners-up will at least be getting more money than they used to
Aux News Jeopardy!
Somehow, Jeopardy! has become a lightning rod for issues surrounding TV production during the WGA strike, first with co-host Mayim Bialik refusing to cross the picket line right when the strike started out of respect to the WGA members who write Jeopardy!’s clues (Ken Jennings stayed on to host without her), then with Tournament Of Champions contestants refusing to take part in the show until the strike is resolved, and finally with a representative for producer Sony Pictures Television explaining that the show’s return had been delayed because of the strike (which was supposedly the plan the whole time) and that any new episodes filmed during the strike would exclusively use “the best” of the show’s WGA-written material—in other words, old clues would be repurposed for new episodes.
Today, Jeopardy! showrunner Michael Davies shared a little bit of more information about how that will work on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast (via Variety). Davies confirmed that, yes, the show will be using older clues that have been “re-deployed” from past seasons of the show, combined with “material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database.” But there is another twist beyond that, with Davies declaring that it would “not be fair” to have new Jeopardy! contestants have to answer old questions, so the next season of the show will start with a tournament for players from last season who lost their first game (he frames it as a “second chance tournament”).
So, presumably until the WGA strike ends, Jeopardy! will feature old contestants answering old clues. But wait, because there’s yet another twist… though this one won’t impact the people watching the show very much: Davies also announced that Jeopardy! is increasing the amount of money given to the runners-up by $1,000, so second place gets $3,000 and third place gets $2,000.
This change was apparently done because of what Variety says are “growing criticisms” against the show for making first-time contestants pay for their own travel (Jeopardy! covers the cost of flying winners back out for follow-up appearances), which does seem frustrating. Imagine being the smartest person in Iowa, paying to fly yourself out to California to appear on Jeopardy!, coming in third place, and then having to use your meager $1,000 winnings to fly home. Terrible! Now imagine that happening but you have $2,000 instead. Slightly more tolerable!
15 Comments
I don’t like it. I love Jeopardy! and I will happily wait for new episodes until the strike is resolved. The writers strike anyway. I’d love it if the actors’ strike kept Mayim Bialik away from Jeopardy! forever.I do like that they’re increasing the 2nd and 3rd place winnings though.
I’m starting to think maybe Jeopardy writers are overpaid.
This little gem popped up in the article. I mean, how hard is it to write a decent “What are alligators?” clue without referencing a tragic murder of a young woman?
On this extremely relevant note: let me be the first to welcome AV Club Bot to the team! He seems to be a modest fellow – given how comments appear to be disabled on his posts – but I have a good feeling that he will make a strong mark with his contributions of lists, bullet point-style factoids, and other lazy, easily-scrapable data that readers of this site with a thirst for substantial content have come to appreciate above all else….and don’t worry about the occasional mistake, AV Club Bot; given the bonafides of the editing team here, you’ve got nothing to worry about when you eventually make a big mistake.
I was bummed at how empty the listicles were. They can’t ask the AI for a one-paragraph blurb about the movies in the “Best Summer Films of 2003″ list?
We knew it was coming after the Gizmodo Bot fiasco but, still, how depressing.
I’m going to have a bot take over my comments.Maybe they will fall in love.
I deduct a full letter grade from every article written by the bot.
“a little bit of more information”Try harder, bot!
They could probably have an AI write a decent set of questions for Jeopardy contestants.
LOL, Jeopardy is more about the buzzer than the actual questions, which are pretty uniformly easy. It’s not a very compelling show if you are into it for the trivia aspect.
It would be great if Jennings also refused to cross the picket line until the WGA strike is over. Maybe Jeopardy! could bring back another former contestant to fill in as host: Watson.
They’ve always had repeat questions, so I don’t know if this will end up being a noticeable difference.
There is potential for a game show clip show hybrid if they cut to archival footage of Trebek reading each question.
So…it’s reruns, but not? And if they’re using old contestants, people who are very likely to never miss an episode of Jeopardy, with old clues, aren’t they just going to already have the answers? Especially now that they know they’ll be reusing clues?
“Imagine being the smartest person in Iowa, paying to fly yourself out to California to appear on Jeopardy!, coming in third place, and then having to use your meager $1,000 winnings to fly home.”
I’m trying to imagine the smartest person in Iowa not already having booked their trip back to Iowa before actually appearing on Jeopardy.
Do they not allow return-trip booking in Iowa?