I've been thinking about what makes a great quiz show, and why some formats manage to stay relevant for decades while others come and go.

Jeopardy is such an interesting example. The format is relatively simple, but people keep coming back. Is it the legacy it's built on? Can a new quiz show build it's own legacy today?

I'm curious what you think makes it work so well. Is it the competitive element, the satisfaction of knowing the answers, playing along at home, the personalities, or something else entirely?

NATURAL WONDERS

An inscription near the site of this landmark quotes Daniel Webster: God "has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men"

What is the Old Man of the Mountain?

WRONG ANSWER 1: Niagara Falls

WRONG ANSWER 2: Stone Mountain

WRONG ANSWER 3: Mount Rushmore

DD1 - $600 - TOWN - This Indiana town got its name from a "Mad" general who set up a stockade there in 1794

DD2 - $1,200 - LITERARY TITLE CHARACTERS - The title character of the second-published in "The Chronicles of Narnia", he's the rightful heir to the throne

DD3 - $800 - BY THEIR HATS SHALL YE KNOW THEM - His porkpie hat was on a 1948 cover of Physics Today & faithfully reproduced decades later on film

Correct Qs: DD1 - What is Fort Wayne? DD2 - Who is Prince Caspian? DD3 - Who was Oppenheimer?

View Poll

1. I feel like there has been an uptick in “sponsored” questions in terms of tv shows or companies trying to get their name out there. Is this a new trend?

2. Sometimes there is applause when a contestant commits to a “true daily double” and sometimes not. Is this just something that happens naturally? Or is the audience prompted to applaud?

Obviously we all love the game and I myself am perfectly fine with the rules . But I was asking myself , what would I do to maybe make it even more fun and interesting (the hubris, I know ! ) and I came up with one idea: Stealing the Daily Double.
Works like this: When someone gets a daily double and answers it wrong, the moment Ken says "incorrect" , the others are allowed to buzz in. They get it right, they win the amount of money that was bet by the original contestant, and of course lose the same amount if they get it wrong.
I don't know, It feels like it may make things more interesting and involve every one in the daily double process, keep them on their toes...
Any thoughts?
What would you add or change? Or you are saying do not mess with a good thing?

NBC adds an afternoon game to the two evening ones it had last year. That causes a couple more TV markets to get hit, with the potential of significant further preemptions if Celtics at Pistons runs past 4:30 PM Central Time.

Of course, whether or not your local NBC affiliate moves Jeopardy! to a different channel, reschedules its airtime, or doesn't air it at all, next-day streaming on Hulu and Peacock is available.

MOVIE PROMOTIONS

In 2001 20th Century Fox used a Coast Guard helicopter to "rescue" a prop before a homecoming at this company’s Chicago HQ

What is Wilson?

WRONG ANSWER 1: FedEx

WRONG ANSWER 2: Sears

WRONG ANSWER 3: Spalding

Ken was wrong on his final Jeopardy, but both bet low. Of course my favorite part; both of them beaten by a girl 💋

Since Caleb's defeat, there is no 5+ game champion or even a super champion of the current season in the past 30 games. Matthew Riggle and Rian Robertson came close of becoming the next 5+ game champion but fell short. Greg Monson was set to be the next 5+ game champion until he lost in the tiebreaker on his 4th game.

Do you think the long drought will be similar to Season 37's guest host era where there is a 5 month drought between Brian Chang/Zach Newkirk & the late Courtney Shah?

I’m rewatching masters, and I usually just have Jeopardy on always on on my TV lately. So my watching mostly consists of old episodes and whatever they put new.

I’ve been noticing that they allow some answers to be pronounced wrong while others it does matter. Also some answers need to be more specific in their phrasing and some don’t. What confuses me most about this is sometimes Ken(or Alex, if it’s an old episode♥️) will allow the contestant to rephrase or they’ll say “can you be more specific?”. Whereas sometimes they’ll just say “no” and give another contestant a chance to answer, where they say almost the same thing. How do they decide when to just declare them wrong right away vs. giving them a chance to rephrase/re-pronounce? Is it favoritism? (lol) Or are they giving everyone a chance to rephrase and these things are just cut from the show? And how do the writers decide which words need specific pronunciation? I’ve seen some answers where the pronunciation is different but it doesn’t change the word at all. It just seems like there is no firm rule about these things. I’ve seen many times where they declare someone wrong right away, and then the next clue they give a chance to rephrase. It doesn’t seem fair sometimes.

Here’s one example off the top of my head. In Jeopardy GOAT; Brad buzzed in and answered something like “uncharacteristic—-“ and Alex declared him wrong before he said “ly” in “uncharacteristically” (or whatever the word was I can’t remember). Time did not run out he was just thinking and counting letters, the category was 20 letter words. So then Ken buzzed in and said “uncharacteristically” and was right. Alex did apologize, but still, things like that happen that don’t seem fair.

If the set were colored for holidays- what colors could the production staff use?

Assuming I can’t get ABC7, is a paid subscription to Peacock or Hulu the only alternative to watch Jeopardy in the SF Bay Area? TIA

Example: Leader has $20k, 2nd has $10k, 3rd has $2k.

Most approach this thinking 2nd will always wager everything, which of course they should. Therefore the leader can wager any amount between $1 and $9999 and it will show the same winning chances. Seems simple right?

But it's not, because for reasons only known to math teachers across the country, 2nd place doesn't always wager everything. Here are the statistics derived from the archive of this scenario over the years.

53 lock/tie scenarios.

40 times 2nd place wagers everything.

3 times 2nd place wagers all but $1.

10 times 2nd place wagers some other random number.

So while it's hard to believe, almost 25% of the time 2nd place has failed to wager everything over the years. Almost 6% of the time 2nd place has wagered all but $1.

The above paragraph is why wagering $0 shows basically the same winning chances as wagering $1, because 25% of the time wagering $0 guarantees victory where it should not assuming 2nd place wagers rationally.

And because of the propensity of 2nd place to wager all but $1 one reason why any wager greater than $1 shows much less chances to win. The leader can wager $1 and still tie when 2nd place makes the all but $1 wager.

Furthermore, because of the other seemingly random wagers from 2nd, if the leader wanted to wager more than $1 they would have no clue as to how much was a safe wager.

Summary, if 2nd place always wagered rationally, betting $1 from the lead would be the correct play. Because 2nd does not always wager rationally, a $0 wager from the lead shows similar winning chances to $1. And this irrational behavior is also why any wager greater than $1 from the lead lessens winning chances tremendously. I've also skipped all the detailed math because nobody really cares about it. And if you do, it's out there in various places.

5 weeks into the eligibility period for 2028 postseason games, let's see which of these champions have the chance to compete at Champions Wildcard & Tournament of Champions.

Current Champion:  Frank Merchlewitz ( 1 game champion)

The probability chances of 1-2 game champions at the upcoming Champions Wildcard (based on the trends from the 2026 CWC qualification & selection) will change as the regular games continue to air especially with a longer eligibility period.

Here are today's contestants:

• Mariah Stovall, a literary agent and novelist from Newark, New Jersey;
• Frank Merchlewitz, a senior digital producer from Robbinsdale, Minnesota; and
• Eileen Goodwin, a research scientist from Boston, Massachusetts. Eileen is a one-day champ with winnings of $8,401.

Jeopardy!

CLASSIC NOVELS // CARE FOR A BEVERAGE? // FLOWERS & PLANTS // YOU TOTALLY PLAYED YOURSELF! // "NO" // MAN IS AN ISLAND

DD1 - $800 - FLOWERS & PLANTS - Bachelor's buttons are individual blue flowers; this other "B.B." is branches with numerous tiny white florets (Frank added $1,000.)

Scores at first break: Eileen $800, Frank $2,600, Mariah $2,800.

Scores entering DJ: Eileen $2,800, Frank $4,800, Mariah $2,800.

Double Jeopardy!

COMMISSION ACCOMPLISHED // 2-LETTER WORDS // IT'S THE ANCIENT LAW // AS TECH GOES BY // NATIONAL MOTTOS // 2001: A FACE ODYSSEY

DD2 - $1,600 - 2-LETTER WORDS - It's the title of a Kipling poem & begins 13 of the 32 lines (Frank lost $3,000 from his leading score of $10,000.)

DD3 - $1,600 - COMMISSION ACCOMPLISHED - A 1970 report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest discusses rules of engagement for the national guard of this state (Frank regained the lead by adding $3,000 up to $12,000 vs. $9,600 for Mariah.)

Frank found all three DDs and was correct on two of them, entering FJ with $14,400, exactly double of Mariah's total of $7,200, with Eileen in third at $6,800.

Final Jeopardy!

WOMEN AUTHORS - Using Nantucket as a backdrop, Elin Hilderbrand earned the title the "Queen of" this, added to Merriam-Webster in 2024

Only Eileen was correct on FJ. Frank dropped just $50 to win with $14,350.

Final scores: Eileen $7,300, Frank $14,350, Mariah $0.

Correct Qs: DD1 - What is baby's breath? DD2 - What is if? DD3 - What is Ohio? FJ - What is the beach read?

Seems like a warm, friendly, interesting guy; would’ve been nice to see him stick around a while—but he was up against 2 beasts! Props to Kim and her clutch performance

DD1 - $800 - FLOWERS & PLANTS - Bachelor's buttons are individual blue flowers; this other "B.B." is branches with numerous tiny white florets

DD2 - $1,600 - 2-LETTER WORDS - It's the title of a Kipling poem & begins 13 of the 32 lines

DD3 - $1,600 - COMMISSION ACCOMPLISHED - A 1970 report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest discusses rules of engagement for the national guard of this state

Correct Qs: DD1 - What is baby's breath? DD2 - What is if? DD3 - What is Ohio?

View Poll

Does anyone else feel bad for people who have an acheivment worthy of being a Jeopardy clue but then end up as a triple-srumper?

WOMEN AUTHORS

Using Nantucket as a backdrop, Elin Hilderbrand earned the title the "Queen of" this, added to Merriam-Webster in 2024

What is the beach read?

WRONG ANSWER 1: vibe coding

WRONG ANSWER 2: six seven

WRONG ANSWER 3: quiet quitting

For those who have GSN the last 2 episodes filmed before Alex’s passing should be aired Friday afternoon starting at 3 PM Eastern. They recently started playing the final season and the episodes from Tuesday and Wednesday of that week aired yesterday.

RIP Alex

Now I know we haven’t seen a new Jeopardy video game for console in a while, so my question would be: if you were to have a new video game, what’s your idea? I’m thinking more of a decades style similar to Price Is Right, like you play current-day Jeopardy with Ken Jennings and then unlock different sets like the original ’ 84 set grid, then Sushi Bar and Metallic Ces and present day. And maybe it can be on iPad or iPhones and Xbox and PlayStation and maybe pc that’s my idea, but tell me what you think or your opinions on it.