Summary
- Jeopardy! will continue airing its 40th season despite the writers' strike, using recycled questions and completed material to bypass the need for new content.
- Host Mayim Bialik has exited the show in support of the writers' strike, leaving uncertainty about who will fill the hosting role for season 40.
- The show plans to invite back contestants from previous seasons to compete against the winners of season 38's Second Chance Tournament, ensuring a fresh lineup of players, despite the absence of new contestants.
The writers’ strike may be causing havoc for many movies and TV shows, it seems that not even that can stop Jeopardy! from bringing its 40th season to screens even with the annual Tournament of Champions currently being on hold and host Mayim Bialik having exited the show in support of the WGA strike. Although all of this uncertainty put the immediate future of the long-running quiz show..well…in jeopardy, it seems this is not the cast as showrunner Michael Davies explained to Inside Jeopardy!
While many people associate the writer’s strike with movies and scripted TV shows, obviously the implications of all writers downing tools are much more far reaching the more you think about it. Shows like Jeopardy! still require writers to provide questions, but it seems that there is a firm plan in place to negate the need for fresh questions by recycling older ones and using those already completed ahead of the strike getting underway. This plan will also see contestants from season 37 facing off against the winners of season 38’s Second Chance Tournament. As reported by TVLine, Davies told Inside Jeopardy!:
“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! is Very Much The Name of the Game Right Now.
Having originally debuted in its current format back in 1984, Jeopardy! became one of the most successful quiz shows of all time under the watchful eye of host Alex Trebek from its inception until his death in 2020. As you would expected, finding a replacement for Trebek proved to be quite a task, but eventually it became apparent that one person just wasn’t enough to fill the host’s shoes, and the duo of Bialik and Ken Jennings eventually took the reins.
However, it is currently not known exactly what will happen when it comes to hosting on season 40. Following the walkout of Bialik in solidarity with the writers, Jennings completed season 39. While Davies revealed how the show would be able to find a loophole around the question-setting, he did not touch on the subject of whether Jenning’s will be stepping up as sole host.
For fans of the series, they can rest safe in the knowledge that they will be getting their fix of Jeopardy! regardless of the current strike, even if it won’t be quite the same as expected.