'Jeopardy!' is CHANGING: Here's what you need to know about revamped game show
CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA: 'Jeopardy!' is an innovative take on the traditional game show. The contestants provide questions while the answers are delivered by the channel first. Each episode has three competitors (including the previous week's victor) competing for cash prizes across six categories and three rounds and some wild moments on the show. Art Fleming was the first host of NBC's 'Jeopardy!' from 1964 through 1975.
The show got a new lease of life with Alex Trebek taking on the hosting duties who joined the show in 1984 (during its initial syndication run) and remained as host until his untimely demise in the year 2020. Trebek won the Daytime Emmy Award for the Outstanding Game Show Host title eight times. On November 8, 2020, at age of 80, he lost his fight against stage four pancreatic cancer. Initially, it was agreed that Trebek would host 'Jeopardy!' till 2022 but his sudden death threw spanner in the works causing a lot of debate and discussion as to who could take over his role. Hosts Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik were ultimately chosen as official hosts after filling the roles temporarily following the former longtime host's death.
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How will 'Jeopardy!' change in 2023?
During 'Inside Jeopardy!' podcast, producers Michael Davies and Sarah Foss, while discussing their New Year resolutions, revealed that they were planning some changes for the game show. Interestingly, the producers have taken into note a lot of what fans had been asking in the past year.
They agreed on having a weird start this season where they kicked off the regular season for five weeks, and then went into post-season, and came back and went back into regular season again, they also put some light on their ideas and strategies they have for the next season. Davies said. "I think what we’re going to do next season is we’re going to kick off the season with the post-season, and then go into regular season thereafter."
The post-season program features both 'Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions' and a 'Second Chance Tournament'. These will be added to the beginning of the season so as not to disrupt normal gaming or a prospective winning run in which the audience has invested. They understand the value of new players getting the chance to get on the stage and get opportunities to play, and that adding more post-season episodes won't stop new players from getting on the stage.
During the podcast they also said that if needed they would also increase the post-season by several weeks and wont let it affect the regular season, even if it mean having less of the the tradional tournaments "I think we’re going to expand the post-season. I think it's going to be a really important thing" he said. This means that all the fan wishes have now been granted, alot of the fans wanted more people to have that first-time opportunity, and some of their tournaments in the past haven’t necessarily allowed for a spot so this might be a way to have a balance.
Additionally, one of Davies' goals for the year 2023 is to launch 'Jeopardy! Masters', a project he has described as both his "baby" and his "fondest dream." He said he's wanted to produce the show since his first day on the job but the timing just wasn't perfect until now. Davies also spoke on how the champions from previous years and the fans of the show make a great impact when the victors play against each other. They noticed that this idea of making the masters play aganst each other takes their game show to another level in form of interactions, engagements, trp, etc.