Well Jeopardy fans the
fortieth season is now behind us. And while the first half was a shit show of
epic proportions I think we can say the second half redeemed it, if not
completely made up for it.
We witnessed a Tournament
of Champions filled with more surprises in the shows history. We saw the first
ever Jeopardy Invitational Tournament which more than lived up to the hype and
was just as surprising as the Tournament that followed. We saw the winners of
both those tournaments, Yogesh Raut and Victoria Groce, demonstrate that they
deserved to be considered among the Jeopardy Masters with Victoria dethroning
James Holzhauer in an epic battle. And when the ‘regular games’ actually began
after more then two-thirds of the seasons over, we had what we actually have
had on Jeopardy since the passing of Alex Trebek: a period where we saw more
Jeopardy champions have successful runs over a sustained period.
Because in just 78 games
we have seen seven players qualify for the next Tournament of Champions all of
whom won four games or more. We also saw the longest run by a Jeopardy champion
since Cris Panullo more than two years ago, who was defeated by a real life Survivor
contestant who went on to win seven games in a row himself.
For the record, here are
the eight players who will be competing in the next Tournament of Champions:
Lisa Ann Walter: 2023-2024
Celebrity Jeopardy Winner
Allison Betts: 5 wins,
$121,500
Amy Hummel: 5 wins,
$100,994
Grant DeYoung: 4 wins,
$81,203
Amar Kakirde: 4 wins,
$55,899
Adriana Harmeyer: 15 wins,
$349,600
Drew Basile: 7 Wins,
$129,601
Isaac Hirsch: 9 wins,
$215,390
That’s not a bad array,
considering the real season started in March. There have also been multiple
three game winners during this same period, but I won’t recount them here for
purposes of space (though their relevance will come up later in this article.
I have little doubt the
Jeopardy producers are planning Season 41 as we speak, assuming they haven’t
begun to shoot it already. It’s hard to know if they’re capable of learning
from bad ideas and mistakes on a large scale but you never know. Two of the biggest
ideas that met with great backlash from Jeopardy fans - that contestants had to say the full name
and dollar amount of every category when they made their selections and both
highlighting the clue on the board – were quickly discarded. The former was
rejected before the season was halfway over and while the latter idea came into
play in prime-time tournaments, it never happened in the syndicated game. And
considering that in this year’s Masters last year’s ‘gimmick’ of revealing
where the Daily Double (s) were to the viewers was clearly never used, it is
clear that the show will listen to the fans if there is enough of an outcry.
So with that in mind, here
are some suggestions of what Jeopardy should – and shouldn’t – do in the coming
season. Some of the suggestions are painfully obvious, some less so, but I
think all of them will only benefit the game both short and long term.
1. No extended postseason at
the start of the season.
This is perhaps the most
obvious lesson to learn from how Season 40 played out but I think it needs to
be driven into the ground.
To reiterate, this was a
horrible idea even from a theoretical perspective and in practice it was
excruciating for every single fan of the show. While there were outside factors
to be sure – the writer’s strike and how it affected the Tournament of Champions
– it was a flawed concept from the start because it argued Jeopardy could
control outside events. Don’t do it again, and in a related subject:
2. Get rid of both the Second
Chance and Wild Card Tournaments.
Not to be Captain Obvious
but the Second Chance Tournament was a horrible idea when it was proposed in
2022 and it played out even worse when it was executed. To do so again on a
much grander scale was an equally horrible idea not mitigated one iota by the
fact that this time the winners only qualified for the Wild Card spot. And no
Juveria Zaheer isn’t nearly enough of a justification for six weeks of
tournaments.
The Wild Card Tournament
wasn’t done much better for the record. Considering that in the first wave
three of the winners were players who would have been eligible had you just let
three game winners in the first place – something you had to do anyway to fill
in the brackets – we have to acknowledge that while inviting back everybody who
won a Jeopardy game in the last three years was a horrible idea in every way.
Don’t try anything like this ever again.
That doesn’t mean we
should have special tournaments, however, which brings me to my next points.
3. Bring back the College
Championships and the Professors Tournament.
I really did question why
you spent so much of 2023 reinventing the wheel when not only didn’t you have
to, you had better examples before you. When you invited runners up in the
College Championship and Professors Tournament to play in the Second Chance and
Wild Card tournaments, didn’t anybody even suggest: “Why not just have whole
new tournaments in those categories?” And considering that Sam Buttrey very
quickly became one of the most beloved Jeopardy players in history, wouldn’t it
have been logical to hold the same tournament that first brought him into the
field? There might not be another Sam but considering how many great Teacher
Tournament winners there have been over the years, there might at least have
been another Colby Burnett.
And why didn’t you have a
College Championship, either in regular play or prime time? I realize that
there might have been some difficulties considering both of these had been
Mayim Bialik’s purview when she was on the show, but so what? Bialik was in
charge of the first Celebrity Jeopardy and you let Jennings take that
over. The College Championship has been
part of Jeopardy for more than three decades, why did you throw it over for a
tournament that no one wanted and didn’t pay off? And in a similar vein:
4. Bring back the Teen
Tournament and let the winner participate in the next Tournament of Champions
Considering that there
hasn’t been a Teen Tournament since before the pandemic, I’d say not only is it
time to reinstate it but to let the winner get the right to compete in the
Tournament of Champions, something no winner has been able to do since 2000. Jeopardy
will need young blood going forward and considering the success of Season
39’s High School Reunion Tournament, I think it’s time we have them back. And
considering that Leonard Cooper winner of the 2013 Teen Tournament more than
acquitted himself in your most recent Invitational Tournament, it’s hard to
argue that they shouldn’t be invited back now.
5. Spread out all future
Tournaments.
It worked fine for Jeopardy
in the Alex Trebek era and in the first full year after Trebek passed. I
never understood why you fixed something that wasn’t broken. How you do it I
will leave to your judgment but for now I’d suggest doing the Professors
Championship in November, the Tournament of Champions in February, and the
College Championship in May. As time goes by you may need to make adjustments
but that’s what Jeopardy had do throughout its long period on the air. You have
to adapt.
Now that I’ve told you
what changes you should make, here are some things you should keep doing.
1. Keep the format of 27
invitees and a single elimination format for all Tournaments.
I confess I’ve come to
change my mind on the idea of it, if for no other reason then I like seeing
more champions rather than less. It does throw out the tradition of the four
high-spots for wild-cards but since that was messier than some tournaments I’ll
let that go.
2. To fill out the brackets for Tournaments of
Champions, invite back 3 game winners if necessary.
Considering this was what
had to be done anyway in order to fill out this year’s roster and that many of
the winners of Champions Wild Card including Josh Saak and Yungsheng Wang, were
three game winners anyway this should be a no-brainer. Considering it was being
done in the Trebek era you’re not breaking any sacred trusts.
3. Go back to a two-game
total point affair in the finals for every tournament.
Considering you did it
both for the Masters and the Teen Reunion Tournament, I don’t think much is
lost by doing it. I honestly think more strategy would be in play in every
tournament rather than just trying to win a best of seven or four tournament.
4. Keep the Invitational
Tournament as a yearly event.
I’ll have some specifics
about how to do that going forward but I would suggest it happen immediately
after the Tournament of Champions every year in order to prepare for the Masters.
Hence the Tournament of Champions should be in February and the Invitational in
March. There would be a hiatus but at
most it would be about a month and considering the circumstances, I think the
fans can live with that.
5. For the last spot in the Masters
the fans should be allowed to vote.
Considering
that Amy Schneider had to publicly apologize for how she got into the Masters
this past year, I think we can agree the producer’s choice is a bad idea.
Instead, let’s have the fans vote on it.
The
format I have in mind would be based on something akin to the ‘fan favorite’
that was used for all three rounds of the Battle of The Decades in 2014. A
field of five would be chosen. I’m still working on the details but what I’m
considering for now is:
The
first and second runners up from the previous Tournament of Champions.
3
Players Who Did Not Play In The Most Recent Invitational Tournament
The
vote would take place on Jeopardy.com and whoever got the most votes would enter
the Masters as ‘the fan favorite’. It’s not a perfect method to be sure, but it’s
definitely better than how you completely dropped the ball this year on the
subject.
I believe with these
choices Jeopardy can overcome the shakiness that ‘the endless postseason’
wrought this year and have a successful run into the distant future. At the
very least it’s a better answer than bringing back every player who nearly beat
Adriana or won just one game this year. I think we can all agree those were the
wrong answers no matter how they were phrased.
I’ll be back when I learn
more about the new season of Jeopardy one way or the other. Otherwise I’ll be
writing about the show in September.
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