Why James Holzhauer Is Slamming 'Jeopardy!' Producers Ahead of New Season

Jeopardy! kicks off a new season this week with some alterations to account for the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. The show typically employs union writers to create its clues, but last month executive producer Michael Davies explained how they planned to skirt that process in a podcast about the new season. One of the show's biggest champions, James Holzhauer, mocked this plan in his own social media posts.

Davies discussed the plan for Jeopardy! Season 40 on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast in early August, detailing how the new season would be different without new clues. He filled a lot of airtime with this description, but Holzhauer summed it up with mocking brevity, writing: "If you don't have time to listen, here's the executive summary of today's announcement." As Holzhauer saw it, the first two minutes of the segment were Davies' way of saying: "Jeopardy's writers are invaluable and we couldn't produce the show without them." The following 13 minutes were summarized as: "Here is how we will produce the upcoming season without them."

If you don’t have time to listen, here’s the executive summary of today’s announcement:

1:00-2:00: Jeopardy’s writers are invaluable and we couldn’t produce the show without them
2:00-15:00: Here is how we will produce the upcoming season without themhttps://t.co/w6XzbTXutV

— James Holzhauer (@James_Holzhauer) August 7, 2023

Davies' exact words were a bit longer. He said that he missed the writers at work, and that "they are beloved and valued members of the Jeopardy! team, just as they value every other member of our team... This really is a family who make this show who've been through a lot together over the last few years. And just the respect that everybody holds for each other is something remarkable about this program. And I think it comes across on air."

Davies then explained that the planned post-season tournaments wouldn't be able to work without the writers, so those would be postponed until the writers were "able to write original material that the tournament deserves." He went on: "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. So we're going to open the season with a second chance tournament for players from Season 37, who lost their initial game, and winners from that will advance to a Season 37 and Season 38 champions wildcard."

"For the Season 37 and Season 38 contestants, the material that we're going to be using is a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database, and material that is being redeployed from multiple, multiple seasons of the show," he went on.

Many commenters were as disappointed as Holzhauer by this announcement. Quality and logistics aside, many believed that the producers should have found a way to show more solidarity with the striking writers rather than trying to work around them. However, fans will soon see if the quality of the show is impacted. Jeopardy! Season 40 premieres on Monday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. ET.