Jeopardy! is officially out of new pre-COVID-19 shutdown episodes to air, but the legendary game show has some fun reminders of its immediate past in the reruns it will air until filming can resume.
Jeopardy! had its final new episode air on Friday, and though the show’s Twitter account has stayed strangely silent —as of this writing it hasn’t posted once the entire month of June, in fact — reports indicate the game show has a plan for what it will air during weeks that usually see new episodes on weekday evenings.
E! News reported on Thursday that the show plans to air episodes involving both James Holzhauer and Emma Boettcher, the former of whom went on an epic Jeopardy! run in 2019 before being dethroned by the latter. Those episodes will lead up to a re-airing of another special event: the 2019 Tournament of Champions in which Holzhauer (spoilers!) was able to exact his revenge and beat Boettcher in the finals to win another $250,000 last November.
Starting June 15, Jeopardy! will showcase big champions and big wins leading up to the encore presentation of the 2019 Tournament of Champions starting July 6.
James Holzhauer and Emma Boettcher are among the spotlighted contestants.
“For the first time, we have a chance to shine a light on each individual player before we revisit a big tournament,” Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards said in a statement. “Some of these contestants played quite a while ago, so we hope that highlighting their biggest games will provide a deeper understanding of their specific strengths and how they earned their places in the Tournament of Champions.”
It certainly makes sense to highlight some past big winners instead of just running a normal season’s reruns, especially given the outstanding play from Holzhauer and Boettcher that got the show so much attention over the last year. Jeopardy! had already stretched its syndication schedule a bit by re-airing episodes involving Ken Jennings, as well as the Greatest of All Time Tournament from earlier in 2020 that aired in primetime and featured Jennings, Holzhauer, and Brad Rutter.
Those episodes were sprinkled in amid some extra features about the contestants, which seems to be what the plan is for these other re-runs as well. It’s no substitute for new episodes and more chances for Alex Trebek to poke fun at new contestants, but it’s far better than nothing. Perhaps the episodes will give viewers another chance to appreciate Boettcher’s play and stop trading in conspiracy theories about how Holzhauer’s run originally came to an end once they see it again for themselves.
[via E! Online]