'Jeopardy!' Looks to Expand With Newest Game Off-Shoot Idea
The popularity of Jeopardy! has survived the death of Alex Trebek and weathered the storm of the Michael Richards controversy. Now, with a new executive producer at the helm, the venerable game show is looking to expand even further. Executive producer Michael Davies has multiple ideas for spin-offs, including a "masters league" highlighting the best players.
"What we really need to develop is the pro-level version of the game," Davies told The New York Times. "It seemed ridiculous to me that we have this sport where every single year we take all of our best players – we take our LeBrons and our Dwyanes – and we switch them all out."
This past season saw multiple contestants join the all-time leaderboard. Amy Schneider won 40 games in a row, while Matt Amodio came in close behind with 38 victories. They will both be back, alongside others with long winning streaks like Mattea Roach and Ryan Long, for the 2022 Tournament of Champions, but this airs as part of the regular syndicated series, not as its own show.
Davies' efforts to modernize Jeopardy! have included listening to fans. The Second Chance Tournament has long been supported by fans and will see promising contestants return. Two of them will participate in the Tournament of Champions, alongside 2022 National College Championship winner Jaskaran Singh and 2021 Professor's Tournament champion Sam Buttrey. Davies said he dreamed of airing new Jeopardy! tournaments live, an idea that "makes a lot of my staff nervous," he said.
During a recent episode of the Inside Jeopardy podcast with producer Sarah Foss and former Jeopardy! champ Buzzy Cohen, Davies teased another off-the-wall idea he has in his head: a bonus cash prize for a contestant who can "run a category," that is get each clue correct in a category. Davies even thought it would be great to test it during tournaments. The executive producer added that the contestant would only be eligible for the bonus if they answered all six clues correctly in a row.
The Jeopardy! team also listened to fans by reviving Celebrity Jeopardy!, which debuted on Sunday night with Simu Liu, Ego Nwodim, and Andy Richter as contestants. Michael Cera, B.J. Novak, Patton Oswalt, Ray Romano, Iliza Shlesinger, Aisha Tyler, and Constance Wu will compete in later episodes. Mayim Bialik, who will again split hosting duties with Ken Jennings, is hosting the spin-off. Celebrity Jeopardy! airs on ABC Sundays at 8 p.m. ET and is available to stream on Hulu.
Even the decision to come forward and announce Jennings and Bialik as hosts were in response to fans who appreciate consistency. "With Mayim and Ken hosting, the show is considerably up in viewership year over year, with more than 27M viewers tuning in each week this season," Davies wrote in July. "When you consider that almost every other show in broadcast television and syndication is declining, this has been a quite remarkable season: we're the most-watched entertainment show on all of television. Yes, all of television."