'Jeopardy!' GOAT Tournament: ABC Teases More Primetime Specials After Success

After the Jeopardy! GOAT tournament turned out to be a massive success for ABC, the network is [...]

By Stephen Andrew

After the Jeopardy! GOAT tournament turned out to be a massive success for ABC, the network is teasing a possibility for more primetime specials. Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time featured the top three all-time best players if the game show — Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhauer — all duking it out to see who the true GOAT was. prior to the tournament's finale, ABC's head of alternative programming, Robert Mills, told Deadline that they would welcome an opportunity to bring the trio back again.

"Whether it's something with Jeopardy! or not, certainly I would argue these three guys are the biggest stars in primetime right now. Is there a different game? I don't know," Mills told Deadline. "But you can't look at this and not acknowledge the impact that they have had over the 20 years and this past week without saying, 'OK. how do we tap into it.'"

Mills was careful to point out that there have not been any formal conversations regarding another special, but added that "when you look at (the success of the primetime specials), you say, we have got to do something, something that taps into what these guys are."

Interestingly, Mills also revealed that this was not the first time ABC wanted to do a Jeopardy! primetime special, but it was the first time the show's producers felt right about it.

"We have been talking with (Jeopardy! executive producer) Harry Friedman literally for years, we basically had offered a series of primetime Jeopardy! for years, and Harry, to his credit, and Alex too, were the keepers of the flame and the brand," he shared. "They always said, 'we are not doing anything until it feels right.' And then a funny thing happened. Last April, James Holzhauer started going on this run."

Holzhauer's winning streak led to Jeopardy! breaking ratings records, and prompted conversations of how to keep the momentum going.

"We talked to Harry and he said, 'This is exactly the right time to do this.'" Additionaly, considering that Alex Trebek was "probably closer to the end than to the beginning" of his longtime tenure as host of the show, "it was one of the few times when the stars alined perfectly," Mills added.

Jennings ultimately came out on top, winning the right to call himself the Jeopardy! GOAT.

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