Jeopardy! Reflections February 2022
For fans of the Sony Pictures Television fan favorite answers-and-questions game Jeopardy!, this has been an interesting two years as there have been several major changes going on both in the studio and outside as the show is now halfway through it’s thirty-eighth season of original syndicated quiz programming.
There was actually so many changes within the show these past two seasons that it actually took me over a page to give the short version of it all (See below if interested).
Nevertheless, these past two seasons have been a fun one, and has seen the likes of various different contestants, and hosts for that matter (guest and permanent alike), have fun playing the game while earning tons of money.
The ongoing pandemic aside, the biggest change to the show was the loss of beloved host Alex Trebek part way through season, with consulting producer and former champion Ken Jennings initially filling in as an interim guest host followed by celebrities to finish out the season.
In Season 37, we saw numerous champions meet the threshold to enter the Tournament of Champions, and even a double champion game thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic sending a former champion home early to return months later. However, none of us were truly prepared for the force that would be known as Matt Amodio about thirteen guests hosts into the season.
Amodio, a PhD student at Yale University, breezed through countless games towards the end of the season, starting with guest host and Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts and ending with sportscaster Joe Buck. He then continued his streak into the beginning of the season and through the entirety of permanent host Mike Richards’ run, ending within the first few weeks of new host (again?) Mayim Bialik’s time hosting.
The fun didn’t stop there, as actor Jonathan Fisher beat Amodio, taking his own streak during the time of Dr. Bialik’s run. Amodio and Fisher had a collective 50 episodes that they were featured on, with Amodio having a 38 day winning streak, and Fisher having 11 before being stopped in his following episode.
By this point, we once again began seeing more smaller win champions grace the screens leading up to Jennings’ return to the host lectern. Though the show made the distinction that he was simply hosting the show, and was not the host. Interestingly enough, the transitions between hosts was rather smooth, and didn’t cause much disruption this season than in the previous ones.
Just weeks later there was yet another force to be reckoned with, Amy Schneider. She dominated the board for weeks with Jennings as the one at the lecture, that is before the show took a two-week break to host the first ever professors tournament, hosted by Dr. Bialik, where Sam Buttrey won admittance into the Tournament of Champions. However, following the conclusion of the tourney, Schneider was back dominating the board and buzzer going into the new year, eventually exhausting the buzzer for the final time in regular play after a 40 day winning streak.
Prior to 2020, a super champion of the show was a rarity, with only Ken Jennings himself having a long streak (74 games won in 2004) followed much later by the distant James Holzhauer (32 games in 2019). Thus, it was truly a shock to have this many super champions within a single decade, let alone a year.
At the beginning of 2020, an ABC special event program (Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time) had Trebek host the biggest tournament between Jennings, Holzhauer, and former contestant Brad Rutter to declare the greatest of all time player, which turned out to be Jennings. [The three currently star together in the quiz show The Chase, also on ABC.]
Nevertheless, by having these new streaks now, the show now has numerous big champions within the post-Trebek era on the show already, leaving behind a new generation of contestants to come. In fact, it would be quite fascinating to watch Schneider go against Amodio and Holzhauer in a championship in the new future as the three most recent mega champions. [Jennings retired as a player as a result of him accepting the position of consulting producer, thus can no longer compete himself.]
This paired with the work of the new executive producer, Michael Davies, truly is helping to push the legacy show in the right direction. Davies, who began on the day that Amodio was defeated, has dedicated himself to rebuilding the legacy of the show, which was somewhat tarnished prior to his arrival, and recently introduced measures to listen to the fans of the program and take in their suggestions. As one of the many initiatives he has started, he has recently released “Jeopardata!,” daily score boxes of each player of the series going forward per game.
I honestly can’t wait to see what the show has in store next!
Let's hope that champion Emma Saltzberg can go on a streak of her own!
(Though I wish that Buzzy Cohen can return back to host a slew of new episodes!)
Jeopardy! airs in syndication nationally within the United States and Canada currently hosted by Mayim Bialik, PhD, alongside Ken Jennings.
The Jeopardy! National College Championship airs beginning on February 8, 2022, on ABC in Primetime at 8:00 PM EST.
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History of Jeopardy! (2020-Present)
Starting with the obvious, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the set of Jeopardy! in early 2020, sending home early the returning champion and prematurely ending the thirty-sixth season of the series. At that same time, longtime executive producer Harry Friedman retired, and was replaced by former FremantleMedia producer Mike Richards. Towards the summer of that year, host Alex Trebek turned 80 years old and the show celebrated him by rerunning older content, some which included newly added commentary from Trebek and famous contestants alike.
In September 2020, the show returned with new episodes to kick off Season 37, with Trebek returning to the lectern once again, though with the addition of newly-crowned Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time champion Ken Jennings as a consulting producer of the show and a designed set made to maintain social distancing. At this point, the show resumed its normal standing until the unfortunate passing of Mr. Trebek from pancreatic cancer, which he had been fighting for twenty months prior.
With the exception of an initial video message from Richards and a memorial vanity card at the conclusion of every episode, Trebek’s final episodes ran through early January 2021 (though were filmed for a Christmas week release), concluding with a tribute video in his honor.
To keep continuity with the show and to allow the audience to mourn the longtime host, Jennings filled in for six weeks of episodes as an interim host, followed by producer Mike Richards, who filled in for two weeks due to Jennings’ other commitments.
Following Richards’ stint, a series of celebrity guest hosts took turns hosting for two weeks to include Katie Couric, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Aaron Rodgers, Anderson Cooper, Bill Whitaker, Mayim Bialik, Savannah Guthrie, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. These guest hosts each had a connection with the late host, and donated their earnings to charitable contributions. Following them for one week each were George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, LeVar Burton, David Faber, and Joe Buck. Additionally, now-retired Jeopardy! Champion Buzzy Cohen returned to host the Tournament of Champions, though had to forfeit his chances of returning as a contestant in the future.
Towards the end of the guest host tenure, it was announced that it was decided that the hosting duties would be split between executive producer Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik, with Mr. Richards continuing his producing duties alongside hosting the syndicated show while Dr. Bialik hosted the primetime episodes that were to debut in 2022. In addition to this, Jennings would continue being a consulting producer of the show. However, this now-infamous decision by Sony Pictures was later reversed after Richards’ hosting resignation after a single day of taping, and later termination from hosting duties following several accounts of controversy.
This led to Sony changing course and later announcing Dr. Bialik as the temporary host of both versions of Jeopardy! through the remainder of the year. Meanwhile, Ken Jennings was brought back to fill in for Mayim Bialik whenever there were scheduling conflicts for the syndicated episodes, though not necessarily as the host of the show.
This made for an interesting dynamic as the season started with short-lived permanent host Mike Richards followed by incoming primetime host Mayim Bialik, with Jennings covering a stretch of those episodes hosting in her place when she wasn’t available.
As a quick sidebar, that meant that Dr. Bialik was starring in Fox’s sitcom Call Me Kat, hosting her video podcast, and hosting Jeopardy! simultaneously; meanwhile Jennings was also hosting Jeopardy!, also serving as its consulting producer, and starring in GSN’s Master Minds and ABC’s The Chase quiz shows.
While this “temporary” hosting decision was originally just for the remainder of 2021, it was extended to go through the remainder of Season 38. All the while Michael Davies, creator of trivia show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, was announced as the show’s newest executive producer. Phew!
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