For over three decades, the game show Jeopardy! has been played with the same format, regardless of whether it's the daytime syndicated version, the Teen Tournament, the Tournament of Champions, etc. The game has always consisted of two rounds — with three combined Daily Doubles — and then Final Jeopardy! However, when Celebrity Jeopardy! makes its premiere in primetime on September 25, executive producer Michael Davies has announced a huge change to the format with the addition of a Triple Jeopardy! round.
The expansion of the game was enacted to help fill the extra half-hour given to the show in primetime, the EP explained in a video released by Jeopardy!. While similar series including Celebrity Family Feud, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, etc., simply air back-to-back episodes to fill the 60 minutes, Celebrity Jeopardy! was unable to do that because of what Michael Davies said was a late series order, and the number of celebrity schedules they’d need to work around. The change also allowed Davies to make a short-term commitment to a fun change that could be brought back if successful. The EP said on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast:
I think one of the great things about these special episodes or these primetime episodes, or even that we can do in some of our tournament weeks in the daily show, is that we can judiciously try out a few things.
We’ve already seen Michael Davies implement aspects from past tournaments to make big changes to this year's Tournament of Champions that will begin on October 31, so it’s possible that this won’t be the only time viewers see a Triple Jeopardy! segment (assuming Jeopardy! fans don’t bring out their pitchforks).
The addition of a third round also necessitated a change to the value of the clues, so the Jeopardy! round (not “Single Jeopardy!,” as Mayim Bialik has learned) will include questions in value from $100-$500, with Double Jeopardy! questions worth $200-$1,000, and Triple Jeopardy! featuring $300-$1,500 clues. And yes, the third segment will feature three Daily Doubles.
Of course the addition of another round won’t fill the entire 30 bonus minutes, but the executive producer said having a little more breathing room was another reason he didn’t want to simply fill the time with two episodes. Michael Davies explained:
I didn’t want to do two half-hours back to back, because I wanted the shows to breathe a little bit more… and to have a little bit more interaction with Mayim and our celebrity players.
These are celebrities, after all, so obviously we want to see their personalities shine through more than we would in a regular game, right? EW reported last month that among the famous faces who will be squaring off on Celebrity Jeopardy! are Simu Liu, Constance Wu, Iliza Shlesinger, Ray Romano, Aisha Tyler, Patton Oswalt, Michael Cera, B.J. Novak, and Candace Parker. However, there will be others, so we’ll have to tune in to ABC to find out who.
Celebrity Jeopardy! will premiere at 8 p.m. ET Sunday, September 25, with Mayim Bialik claiming hosting duties. Be sure to check out our 2022 TV Schedule to see what other new and returning shows are coming soon.
