Jeopardy! to ride out the WGA strike with old questions and old contestants

Somehow, Jeopardy! has become a lightning rod for issues surrounding TV production during the WGA strike, first with co-host Mayim Bialik refusing to cross the picket line right when the strike started out of respect to the WGA members who write Jeopardy!’s clues (Ken Jennings stayed on to host without her), then with Tournament Of Champions contestants refusing to take part in the show until the strike is resolved, and finally with a representative for producer Sony Pictures Television explaining that the show’s return had been delayed because of the strike (which was supposedly the plan the whole time) and that any new episodes filmed during the strike would exclusively use “the best” of the show’s WGA-written material—in other words, old clues would be repurposed for new episodes.

Today, Jeopardy! showrunner Michael Davies shared a little bit of more information about how that will work on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast (via Variety). Davies confirmed that, yes, the show will be using older clues that have been “re-deployed” from past seasons of the show, combined with “material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database.” But there is another twist beyond that, with Davies declaring that it would “not be fair” to have new Jeopardy! contestants have to answer old questions, so the next season of the show will start with a tournament for players from last season who lost their first game (he frames it as a “second chance tournament”).

So, presumably until the WGA strike ends, Jeopardy! will feature old contestants answering old clues. But wait, because there’s yet another twist… though this one won’t impact the people watching the show very much: Davies also announced that Jeopardy! is increasing the amount of money given to the runners-up by $1,000, so second place gets $3,000 and third place gets $2,000.

This change was apparently done because of what Variety says are “growing criticisms” against the show for making first-time contestants pay for their own travel (Jeopardy! covers the cost of flying winners back out for follow-up appearances), which does seem frustrating. Imagine being the smartest person in Iowa, paying to fly yourself out to California to appear on Jeopardy!, coming in third place, and then having to use your meager $1,000 winnings to fly home. Terrible! Now imagine that happening but you have $2,000 instead. Slightly more tolerable!