Jeopardy! executive producer Michael Davies has finally revealed how the classic game show can return for Season 40 despite the ongoing writers’ strike: A whole lot of recycling.
While talking to the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, Davies shared that the show will have a “changed” approach that will back prior contestants for a sort of second chance tournament. The decision was made, first and foremost, to keep pumping out new episodes, but also, to not rob new contestants of the full Jeopardy! experience.
“I believe, principally, that it would not be fair to have new contestants making their first appearance on the Alex Trebek stage, doing it with non-original material or… a combination of non-original material and material that was written pre-strike,” Davies said before breaking down how the new season will work for the time being.
Via Deadline:
So we decided that really we needed to invite back and give a second chance in general to players who probably thought that their chance to come back and play on the Alex Trebek stage had gone forever. We’re going to open the season with a second chance tournament for players from Season 37 who lost their initial game, and winners from that will advance to a Season 37 and Season 38 Champions Wild Card.
While Davies couldn’t offer a timeline on when Jeopardy! could return to normal, he did stress that the “best” situation is when the classic game show has its full writing staff.
“I understand that the best episodes that are possible are episodes that feature our writers writing original material and the very best contestants that we put on the air playing that original material,” Davies said.
(Via Deadline)