‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Debate Change to Categories Rule
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Some Jeopardy! category names can get to be quite long, so it’s not uncommon for the contestants to sometimes shorten them as a round goes on. However, that hasn’t been the case lately.
On October 3, a Reddit user noted that contestants were saying the category names in their entirety. Contestant Daniel Nguyen (who played in the October 6 game) wrote, “Good catch. We were asked to say categories in their entirety. I think it’s to help remind the audience the category of each clue.” He then returned to edit his response with the clarification that this was true for the current season, while in February 2022, they were told to shorten the category names. Added David Maybury, who played in the games on September 12, 14, and 15, “We were told this was a new rule. I was gently chided a couple times when I shortened categories.”
However, with the October 9 episode, a fan wondered on Reddit, “Players were shortening the category names more this game, which is good because those were some long winded multi syllable categories in the first round. Did they change rule again and stop making the players state them completely?”
There were a few categories with long names, particularly in the Jeopardy! round (Thomas Aquinas, Advice Columnist; 3rd Graders Know This Stuff; The Heavyweight Champion of the World). “Thomas Aquinas, Advice Columnist” was shortened to “Thomas Aquinas, Advice” once and “Thomas Aquinas” three times. “3rd Graders Know This Stuff” was abbreviated twice to “3rd Graders.” And “The Heavyweight Champion of the World” was shortened three times, including once by host Ken Jennings to finish out the round, to “Heavyweight Champion.” In the Double Jeopardy! round, only once was a category shortened (“Elton John” for “Elton John Songs”), even with “I’d Like to Solve the Puzzle” on the board.
Fans seemed divided on the matter on Reddit. One person explained that they “like the change” because “it allows me to remember what category is being played” and thinks it “should stay a requirement as long as all the clues are being seen — which they are.”
Others, however, disagree, hoping that either that requirement is no longer part of the game or sharing they’d be fine only if category names were shortened. “I find hearing 4-5 word categories repeated five times to disrupt the flow of the game,” one explained, with another viewer calling the lengths of some categories “so awkwardly long.”
One person proposed another change: “Problem solved if they would just put the category title on the screen with the clue.”
What do you think? Do you think contestants should have to say the entire category, or are you OK with abbreviations?
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