‘Jeopardy!’ Bosses Make Controversial Season 40 Decision, Amy Schneider Boycotts Show
Jeopardy! WILL be coming back in September, the show’s bosses have announced. But it’s not going ahead exactly as had been planned. And, controversially, the show will feature questions that have been used previously during its long history. This decision has not gone down well with Jeopardy! super-champ Amy Schneider who has announced that she will not be appearing on the show in the current climate.
After several recent champions vowed to boycott the upcoming Tournament of Champions in solidarity with the ongoing WGA strike, the show’s producers have said they “never had any intention” of running the contest “until the strike is resolved.”
“Our current plan is to go into a holding pattern of sorts, pushing back the Season 39 postseason to first produce original episodes featuring the best of our WGA written material,” a Jeopardy! spokesperson said in a statement. “Next month, we will share more news about exciting plans and enhancements to the contestant experience for this upcoming season and beyond.”
The statement also revealed that nobody from Season 39 had been contacted for the postseason specials, including the Tournament of Champions, which have all been put on the back burner.
Referring to the TOC specifically, the spokesperson said it “represents the pinnacle of our competition, and it should feature our strongest players playing our toughest original material.”
Last week, a number of Season 39 champions, including Ray LaLonde, Cris Pannullo, and Hannah Wilson, announced they would not participate in the TOC so long as the WGA strike was ongoing.
“Jeopardy! has a long history with and tremendous respect for the WGA and our writers. We have always been careful to honor our WGA agreements and we would never air game material not created by WGA writers,” the statement added.
The statement revealed that the show will go into a “holding pattern,” postponing the postseason contests and instead producing new episodes for Season 40 with WGA material written before the strikes.
“Just as we did, led by Alex Trebek, during the 2007-2008 strike, we will deliver first-run episodes again this fall to more than 200 affiliate stations nationwide,” the spokesperson explained. “Everyone at Jeopardy! hopes that the guilds and the AMPTP can reach a fair resolution quickly.”
Filming is currently scheduled to begin on August 5; more details are expected to be announced next month.
The 2022 Tournament of Champions winner Amy Schneider took to Twitter on Tuesday (July 25) night to share her thoughts on the show’s plans to continue with previously written material.
“Disappointed to hear that Jeopardy is considering this course of action,” she wrote. “For what it’s worth, I, too, will not be participating in any Jeopardy productions that don’t use new clues written by their amazing, unionized writers under a fair, collectively bargained contract.”
Disappointed to hear that Jeopardy is considering this course of action. For what it’s worth, I, too, will not be participating in any Jeopardy productions that don’t use new clues written by their amazing, unionized writers under a fair, collectively bargained contract https://t.co/yBiqd1k1oa
— Amy Schneider (@Jeopardamy) July 25, 2023
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Conversation32 Comments
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Comments are closed on this story.
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K
A suggestion--if the WGA strike is still on-going when taping is supposed to resume, put on reruns...or "Classic Jeopardy!" if you will. Start with season one and we can all watch Alex...and that mustache...and those curls!
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I think that is a fantastic idea! I was even thinking I would love to see Ken’s run again. I remember how much I enjoyed it and yes, it would give a solid chance to see Alex again.
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Season one you’d see Art Linkletter.
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K
I was thinking season one of this version, which would be 1984. I'd love to see the original show from the sixties with Art Fleming, but I think those have gone the way of the first ten years of the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (as in "Nobody's gonna watch old reruns of this--just tape over it").
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Art Fleming
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I’ve been a faithful viewer of Jeopardy since I was a kid but I will easily survive any hiatus til this has all been settled lawfully. This weaseling attempt by the producers to have it all is not a good look. The fans will be back. Just sit on your billions and wait like the financially-blessed workers are doing.
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Cut the TV off and read a book
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Answer: Michael Davies. Question: What is the worst thing to happen to Jeopardy?
I'm beggin' ya, MD. Stop trying to fix what ain't broke.
As to the reuse of questions, is the show going to pay the writers again for their work, seeing as the show is getting second episodes out of it? Something tells me no.
Glad to see so many of the former champions know the right way to honor the guilds and what they're fighting for.
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L
The Jeopardy! show remains in jeopardy (pun intended) mostly because of the short-sighted decisions - the most egregious of which was the decision to have TWO hosts -made/allowed by Michael Davies, who seems to be determined to ignore the feedback of the masses, and/or to own and correct the bad decisions he's made this far. Sadly, it seems the fallout will keep escalating, without any executive checks and balances in place for the decision-making. IMO, the two-host format needs to stop...Ken only...and the need to reinvent the show should be laid to rest.🙏🏽
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Even as you seem to think every viewer thinks exactly like you, there are plenty of us who prefer any kind of host set-up to "Ken all the time". He's one of the most boring people in the universe and the reason I stopped watching the show after decades of faithful viewing.
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How can you say "faithful" and "stopped" in the same sentence?🤷♀️ And, I don't think everyone thinks as I do...nor as you do, yet I will remain a faithful viewer, if only for the contestants...
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G
Hi, as someone who watched Jeopardy from the beginning, I’d like to point out that the coming season is really season 57. The original host of Jeopardy was Art Fleming and he did the show from 1964-1979, 16 years inclusive. He was really a great host, jovial but someone you knew, or felt, knew the material, just like Alex. The announcer was Don Pardo, who also played a role in early Saturday night live.
The show’s history, as I have it is 1964-1979 Art Fleming
1984-2021 Alex Trebek
2021-present Mike Richards, Ken Jennings and Bialik.
The show as been really lucky to have two superb hosts in Art Fleming and Alex Trebek - I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have lasted so long od had the mystique it does without those two!
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I've been watching Jeopardy since it's first show and I was sure Merv Griffin, who created it, was the first host. It wasn't a long run so he might have been doing it until he found a good host.
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I was lucky enough to appear on Jeopardy while in New York in 1974. It was such a wonderful experience that I recreate every evening as I watch the current .show. Art Fleming was a great host to be followed by the equally great Alex. I was in high school when the show premiered, watched with an . equally enthusiastic group daily in collage and most days since. I hope the controversy gets resolved harmoniously for all. I will always remain a fan! Debbie
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How cool Debbie that you got to appear on Jeopardy with Art Fleming! You’re in a special club of people that were able to qualify for and appear on the show! It’s always been a fun experience to watch Jeopardy, though I have a very low batting average on Final Jeopardy answers!
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M
I confess I can't figure out what the powers that be are thinking with this move. Once again they are shooting themselves in the foot with the fans by their shenanigans. Are they that terrified of being shut down? Last I heard they were the highest rated syndicated game show in the country.
As far as using old clues, besides having to pay the writers, aren't there some potential legal issues going back to when there was game show fraud? I realize that is several decades ago, but still.
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Mike Davies hasn't made a worthy decision since he came on board. JMO
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Who cares what Amy Schneider thinks!
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I do. Just is just.
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The WGA just another group of entitled people wanting more when Hollywood and its Writers haven't come up with an original idea in years, just constantly remakes of movies and TV shows. Hollywood is a disgrace.
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Not that good.
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It's the producers, the ones the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are striking against, that don't want creative ideas. They just want what's already proven bankable at the box office, i.e. superhero movies, so they don't have to risk their money on something new. Maybe they'll finally get a clue from Barbenheimer. If you give the audience something new or creative or adult, you might just get an audience.
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This is stupid. Jeopardy has reused clues over and over since the show started. Someone with a good memory pointed out there's been at least 6 episodes that have clues to which "Who is Alexander the Great?" is the response. I counted and there has to have been thousands and thousands of clues by now. They always reuse clues. It's stupid that this is remotely an issue.
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True to form, Shamy is a buzzkill...
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Writers are Actors make millions of dollars a year they don't need more money take your butts back to work and shut up
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Most actors and writers don't. What these strikes are about would benefit them the most, deservedly.
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Who cares if Schneider comes back or not ?...
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And what does that have to do with anything? We don't want ignorant people like you commenting on our show.
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Who needs the writers? You can always watch reruns of Jeopardy on Roku.
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Totally Agree
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I never support strikers. Ultimately they cost me more for their “product” and I already pay enough.
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I am now retired, but in my working life, at separate times, I worked for 2 companies whose union went on strike. I was clerical, so not a member of the union. However, I was punished for crossing their picket line. I had no choice - I needed to work to live. In one case, they shot my cat out of a tree (he survived) and in another, scattered tacks across the entrance driveway to the building, causing flat tires which cost me money I could ill afford.
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