Joe Buck Details Changes in ‘ESPN Jeopardy!’ & Why He’s Excited To Host

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Get ready sports and trivia fans! ESPN Jeopardy! is coming very soon. Host Joe Buck shared why he is excited to dive back into the world of Jeopardy! and what is different on the spinoff.

Buck hosted Jeopardy! for one week in 2021 after Alex Trebek died, so he is no stranger to the world. Former producer Mike Richards told People in 2024 that Buck learned the role quicker than any of the other guest hosts.

Buck told Awful Announcing that he is excited to get back into the role. “When Alex passed away, and they went through one guest host after another, probably the most famous of which was Aaron Rodgers doing a week — I think he might’ve done two — I was in that mix. Now, I showed up there, it’s like when I’ve done GMA,” Buck said.

“I just did it as a host a few times, and there’s a very freeing way to go about something like that when you don’t want the job. I didn’t want the full-time job, but I wanted to say A, that I had done Jeopardy! and B, I wanted to see if I could do it well.”

Filming begins the second week of May. Even though ESPN Jeopardy! will feature predominately ESPN personalities as contestants, the questions won’t just be focused on the four main sports — baseball, football, basketball, and soccer.

Buck shared the differences this spinoff will have compared to the syndicated version. It will be one hour long instead of the typical 30 minutes. There will be Triple Jeopardy, similar to Celebrity Jeopardy!. Another difference is that it will only be on streaming, like Pop Culture Jeopardy!.

This version will focus on getting to know the contestants more, rather than the 30-second anecdote they get on the weeknight version. “You’re going to get to know the contestants instead of just the ‘Hey, well, it says here that you ate a donut once while riding a unicycle. Tell us about that,’ and then they go back to the game. It’s going to be — I think — some moments for light kind of moments in the show,” the Monday Night Football announcer shared.

“It will be an hour long, so it won’t be hurried,” he said. Despite the changes, he hopes to keep some aspects that fans love, such as the way Trebek talked, walked onto the stage, and thanked announcer Johnny Gilbert.

“What you realize when you do Jeopardy! is, it is so special to people who are lifers with that show that if you take it in any different direction or you don’t use the exact words that Alex used, you’re going to fail. It’s not a bet, it’s a wager,” Buck said.

A premiere date has not been announced, but the spinoff is set to air this summer on Hulu and Disney+.

ESPN Jeopardy!, summer 2026, Hulu and Disney+