‘Jeopardy!’ Host Ken Jennings Ignores Elephant in Room in Season 40 Premiere

Meredith Jacobs September 11, 2023, 7:05 pm

Ken Jennings in 'Jeopardy!'s Second Chance Tournament — Jeopardy!, Inc.

Jeopardy! returned with a bit of something old (clues and contestants), something new (episodes), something borrowed (clues, in a way), and something blue (the set).

Season 40 kicked off on Monday, September 11 with Ken Jennings hosting (as Mayim Bialik continues to stand in solidarity with the striking writers) and the Second Chance Tournament. The first group returning from Season 37 were accountant Derek Allen, scriptwriter Gabriel Ostler, and operations manager Jill Tucker.

“Welcome back to Season 40 of Jeopardy! We’ll be kicking off this year with a Second Chance competition,” Jennings said as the episode began. “Over the next three weeks, we’ll be inviting back 27 contestants who probably thought they’d never be back here on the Alex Trebek Stage. Their first games may not have ended in victory, but their strong play showed us they are indeed worthy of a second chance.”

He then went on to detail how the competition play works: “Each week, we’ll invite back nine contestants, who will play in three initial games, with the winners advancing to a two-game total point final. The champion there will advance to our first ever Champions Wildcard Tournament, later this fall. Good luck to all three of you.”

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What Jennings didn’t acknowledge was that the episode, as well as all the ones that follow, are using recycled clues and material written before the writers’ strike, and that’s also the reason for the returning players.

“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 as we’ll talk about a combination of non-original material and material that was written pre-strike,” showrunner Michael Davies explained on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast in August. “And 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.”

What do you think? Did you like that Jennings didn’t acknowledge the major changes, or would you rather have had him say something in the premiere and then carry on like usual in the episodes to follow? Let us know in the comments below.

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