‘Jeopardy!’ Contestants Have This Complaint About Being on Show

Jeopardy! contestants have complained about the same thing after a fan asked what one aspect of the game show was like. A Reddit user wondered if the clues were hard to see in the studio or if were they displayed on a big screen.

“Is it hard to read the clues?” the Reddit user posted. “For those who have been on Jeopardy!, is it hard to read the clues on the little TV screen across the studio? Or is it displayed large across the whole board?”

Alison Betts, Season 40 five-time champion and 2025 Tournament of Champions participant, answered the platform user’s question. “When I taped in March of 2024 it was still in the small monitor, and yes, it could be hard to read the clue,” she said. However, Betts shared that for ToC, it was a new board. The clues didn’t take up the whole board, but they were enlarged to take up the center of it, on 3×4 clue squares. They were easy enough to read from the podium.

When the poster asked if they had to rely on host Ken Jennings reading them, Betts replied, “I could read them, but I had to concentrate to read them.”

Jesse Chin, Champion Wildcard participant, said that he had to get glasses after his first taping to prepare for the next one.

Jean Westcott, a 2021 player, said that she was told to ignore the host and read the monitor because it was during the guest host era. “It wasn’t hard for me to see even with being in my mid-50s and wearing progressive lenses,” she said.

Will Yancey, Champions Wildcard and Second Chance participant, said that his eyesight sucks and he had a hard time reading the clues. “When I came back for Second Chance they had changed to the new system Alison already described and it was much easier for me,” he wrote.

A fan who attended a recent taping shared, “Only been to a taping in the recent single screen board era, but the clue takes up several ‘monitor’ spots in the center now. Watch a Pop Culture Jeopardy‘s FJ round to get an idea of how much space it uses when it shows the category. Before that, yes, it would be shown in its square (but there are other monitors on set).”

Greg Munda, who appeared on the show in 2013, said, “I remember being concerned about this, too, back in 2013. But back then, the clue only remained displayed in that one specific monitor on the game board, yet I had no problem reading it (everything on TV is ‘smaller’ in real life than it is on the screen, and the same IMO can be said about the Jeopardy! set—things are actually closer up than they seem). These days, with the game board being one huge monitor (like it was with Wheel [of Fortune] starting a couple of seasons ago), it doesn’t surprise me that they actually “magnify” the clues up a bit, since they don’t have to bother with bezels and the like.”

Jeopardy! bosses announced the change in October 2024. Instead of individual monitors, one electronic screen was put in. The announcement was made on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast co-hosted by longtime producer Sarah Whitcomb Foss and (now-retired) contestant Sam Buttrey. Buttrey explained that since the board was being revamped for PCJ, which premiered in December, they decided to keep it for the syndicated game show.

“I don’t know if folks know, one of the exciting things about the Pop Culture set is the debut of the electronic board,” Sam shared.

“Yes, this was where you first got to get a look at that game board,” Foss confirmed. “No longer 36 monitors; a single, giant game board.”

Do you think it’s hard to see the clue board? Let us know in the comments below.