Welcome back to another week’s worth of editorial thoughts here at The Jeopardy! Fan!
Happy 19th Birthday, J! Archive!
On Thursday, J! Archive celebrated its 19th birthday. I just wanted to look back on something that I said last year.
On its 18th birthday, I said, “Over the past 18 years, we have managed to enter just over 85% of the show’s games. Getting to 90% seems like a realistic goal for the 19th year…” — I can’t say that I expected us to clear 96%, let alone get close to 97%, over the past year. I also said 100% was an “ambitious but possible” goal. Do I still think that? Yes. Do I also think it will take J! Archive getting lucky? Yes.
Responding To A Mailbag Question In General
I’ve said this before in an editorial, and my stance hasn’t changed: the episodes we’re seeing now directly result from the AMPTP underestimating the resolve of the WGA and the AMPTP forcing the WGA out onto a lengthy strike. The best way to get back to the Jeopardy that the show most wants to produce is to support organized labor. At this point, we’re just over two weeks from the start of the programming that was intended to start Season 40.
I’m looking forward to the expanded postseason, and I hate to say it, but if you’re not looking forward to seeing some of last year’s champs again, that’s not the show’s problem. These are some of the best trivia minds returning to compete, and I can’t wait to see them.
My friends over at Geeks Who Drink have introduced a daily trivia game—Thrice! Existing to make daily clever trivia content accessible to a wide audience, it's a daily challenge that tries to get you to the answer via three separate clues. It has a shareable score functionality to challenge your friends and new questions every day will give you a new daily social ritual. You can find it at thricegame.com.
Are you going on the show and looking for information about how to bet in Final Jeopardy? Check out my Betting Strategy 101 page. If you want to learn how to bet in two-day finals, check out Betting Strategy 102. In case the show uses a tournament with wild cards in the future, there is also a strategy page for betting in tournament quarterfinals.
Are you looking for information on how to stream Jeopardy! in 2024? Find out information here on how to stream from most places in North America!
Do you appreciate the work I do here on The Jeopardy! Fan? Would you like to make a one-time contribution to the site? You may do so here!
You can find game-by-game stats here at The Jeopardy! Fan of all 17 players, now including Adriana Harmeyer, that have won 10 or more games on Jeopardy!
You can now listen to Alex Trebek-hosted Jeopardy! episodes from TuneIn Radio without leaving The Jeopardy! Fan — listen now!
It’s Reaching A Point Where More Episodes A Year Are Needed
I want to preface this by saying that I do like, in general, what Michael Davies’ plans are for the show overall. To maintain relevance in the 2020s and beyond, Jeopardy! needs to have its bankable personalities, like James Holzhauer, Amy Schneider, and Mattea Roach. However, it’s going to be very difficult within the “230 syndicated episodes a year + Jeopardy Masters on ABC” framework to both feature its important personalities regularly, in addition to giving the longtime fans the “regular play” they desire.
It’s time for Jeopardy to partner with a streaming service to increase the number of games that air yearly. For example, you could offer a 10, 13, or 15-episode package to an international streaming service, potentially offering an “International Tournament” (after all, there are new international versions of the show seemingly popping up weekly), or putting preliminary rounds to the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament on a streaming service to give more players on the Jeopardy ladder a chance to reach Masters without causing too much of an interruption in regular play. And I think that ultimately makes everyone happy—giving the fans that prefer regular play more of that, while giving extra content to the diehard fans who want to see top-tier play.
We have many new offerings at The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store! Here are our current featured items, including our new Masters Season 3 Player List T-shirt:
My Thoughts on the UK/Australian Jeopardy! Set
On Thursday, Buzzerblog released photographs of the new UK/Australian Jeopardy! set. Both countries’ limited runs of the series are set to air in 2024; UK Jeopardy will be airing on ITV, while Jeopardy Australia will be airing on Channel Nine.
The set design gives me the vibes of the American set, with a slightly more minimalist design. However, it also gives me the feeling that I’m watching someone play the PS4 or Switch version of the game instead of an actual game of the show.
My thoughts will change as I get used to the international versions, though. I’m still looking forward to watching the UK and Australian versions!
A Brief Celebrity Scheduling Note
As per reports this week from Deadline, Celebrity Jeopardy! moves to Tuesday this January for the semifinals and finals, as a lead-in to Only Murders in the Building. The semifinals and finals will be airing on January 2, 9, 16, and 23.
In Closing
I hope everyone’s making good headway on their holiday shopping—see you tomorrow when I answer some mailbag questions!
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To those who complain about the quality of the game material; Yes; it may not reach the standards of what is usually done by the Jeopardy writers. But, I don’t believe I could do better, so I’ll just sit back and enjoy the competitions.
How much regular play would this streaming proposal claw back? As an International Tournament isn’t presently on the syndicated show’s calendar, it doesn’t add any regular play back in. Moving the JIT quarterfinals off the syndicated show’s calendar would restore about two weeks, a small fraction of the roughly eight that the (pre-ToC) postseason will consume on the front end of each season. (And I’m not even sure that “preliminary rounds” is synonymous with “quarterfinals” here.)
32 weeks of regular games is what we got in the pandemic-shortened Season 36. The next lowest count (other than Season 21) is 35 weeks, in the Battle of the Decades-featuring Season 30. The mean number of regular-play games in 46-week seasons, excluding the UToC season (21) and pandemic-affected seasons (37 & 38), is 188.9 (or just under 38 weeks). I don’t see how what you propose gets us anywhere close to back to that number from the 150 that Davies thinks appropriate.
I therefore get something of a sense that this proposal pays lip service to the objections of those more traditional fans, while inadequately addressing their concerns — or not addressing them at all.
There being no response, let me add something I thought of after posting initially (while allowing you time to compose a reply); I may have misinterpreted your intent.
It now occurs to me that the thrust of your proposal may be not to “claw back” any of the regular play displaced by the postseason; it is to not further reduce the quantity of regular play per season below 30 weeks, while allowing for the introduction of the EVEN MORE tournaments you wish.
(In which case: absolutely, I totally agree, streaming would be the way to go.)
Your additional comment was the intent of my proposal.
my November stats:
16/22 on FJ! missed on (9,14,21,24,27,28). ~72.7%… a marginal improvement over last month (~68.2%) but still well off my record for September.
55/66 on DDs. Held steady with the same record from October (83.3%).
Missed DD1 four times (17,22,29,30), DD2 three times (8,13,30), and DD3 four times (2,8,22,24).
Got the quadfecta (FJ! + all three DDs) nine times.
Regarding the idea of streaming: I kind of like the sound of it. Maybe there would even be room for a fantastical idea I’ve had, using the new venue as a place to try out rules changes on a short-term basis. Not merely cosmetic changes but ones that could effect gameplay.