Soon after the 2024 TV schedule started up, I felt fairly confident that Fox’s Rob Lowe-hosted The Floor would go on to become not just a great new show, but my favorite new game show of the year. That assumption held pretty strong for many months, even topping Patton Oswalt’s brilliant The 1% Club, but fell apart once the Colin Jost-fronted Pop Culture Jeopardy! became available to stream with an Amazon Prime subscription. It’s pretty much game show ecstasy.
But for all that I absolutely adore having all the categories fully fixated on cinema, television, books, music and celebrities, the episodes available so far wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable without Jost’s low-key comedy as the spinoff’s other most distinct difference from the flagship favorite. Sure, three-member teams are also different, but not in a way that truly changes my viewing experience. I definitely think Ken Jennings is in his groove on the main show, and that those replacement rumors are garbage, but am still loving
Each episode I watch makes me wish Jost hosted and starred in tons of other projects, which inevitably sparks the inspiration to sit back and watch “Weekend Update” segments on repeat. Now to expand on what’s so enjoyable…
Colin Jost's Laid-Back Approach Perfectly Complements The Less Intense Format
Alex Trebek earned the love and respect of Jeopardy! fans for being a stoic and hard-to-shake pillar of a game show host, though he was certainly a bit looser in his younger days. In contrast, Ken Jennings is more conversational and quippy with contestants, but with jokes and comments usually still in line with Jeopardy! norms. (Save for rare occasions where he reflects on arguably problematic clues, for instance.)
But Colin Jost is on a different level still, though he obviously veers closer to Jennings than Trebek, in that he doesn't appear to hold back anything by way of remarking on and responding to contestants' correct answers, their wrong answers, or even just his own specific take on the topic at hand. A tiny percentage of it feels semi-forced in the way that scripted hosting can be, but Jost manages to make nearly everything feel spontaneous, even if he maintains his signature laidback vibes throughout.
He Gets To Make Dumb, Weird, And Slightly Risqué Jokes
To be sure, I'd fully enjoy Colin Jost's hosting even if he didn't have any comedic genius within him, but his wry approach and gameness to try out seemingly any kind of joke on Jeopardy! viewers is pure joy to me. To be sure, I can easily see how his random asides and general silliness could rub some viewers the wrong way, especially when it comes to the U.S.' most prestigious quiz game.
But I think Pop Culture Jeopardy! makes it clear it even though the stakes involved are just as high as they are on the mothership show, everyone involved can have a little more fun making it all happen. Part of that is due to a lack of super-strict time restraints that limits the broadcast TV runtimes, which makes it more obvious where editors have clipped moments out. Despite now running ads with most programming, Prime Video doesn't adhere to 30-minute time slots, so Jost is far freer to be as weird and PG-13 as he wants.
Speaking of the humor, another big specific plus of having Colin Jost as the host is that every few episodes, the show's writers manage to work in Scarlett Johannson-related clues that both surprise and amuse him while reading. It goes slightly smoother on the game show than it does when jokes about his superstar wife make their way into his "Weekend Update" reads.
Every Episode Makes Me Want To Rewatch 'Weekend Update' Segments Online
Watching new Pop Culture Jeopardy! episodes when they drop makes me wish that Colin Jost was just available on demand as himself, but since that would be intrusive and more than a little disturbing, there's only one other mainstream option to rely on for a weekly dose of offbeat hilarity. And that's of course Saturday Night Live''s much-beloved "Weekend Update" segments, which he co-anchors with Michael Che, whom Jost credits in a roundabout way with giving him the confidence to host the streaming game show.
So i'll definitely be waiting for the day when Che shows up either on the set or as a guest celeb in video clues, but until then will make do with streaming past "Weekend Update" videos with a Peacock subscription. Though I honestly don't know if any future installments will top this year's pre-Christmas Joke Swap, in which Michael Che set his co-anchor up with some hilariously harsh jokes about ScarJo, while Che himself had to voice some gross comments about Diddy and others.
Given it's a streaming show, there's no telling how well Pop Culture Jeopardy! is doing with audiences, how many people are watching, or what it's chances are of making it to Season 2. But I don't even need to see how the rest of the tournament goes to know I'd welcome Colin Jost back as host every week until they ran out of trivia questions.
Pop Culture Jeopardy! will continue its reign over my attention span during the 2025 premiere schedule, with three new episodes dropping every Wednesday.
