‘Jeopardy!’ Kicks Off Champions Wildcard With a First for Ken Jennings

Meredith Jacobs October 2, 2023, 7:30 pm

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Ken Jennings may have been the first to do some things on Jeopardy! as part of its game play, but on Monday, October 2, as the Champions Wildcard competition got underway, it was time for something new for the host that had nothing to do with trivia.

Jeopardy! has brought back champions of one, two, and three games from its 37th and 38th seasons for this competition. “These are all impressive players, they all know what it’s like to be named champion here on Jeopardy!, but they all had runs that didn’t quite last long enough to qualify them for the Tournament of Champions,” Jennings explained to kick off the episode. (A spot in the next Tournament of Champions is up for grabs.)

When it came time for Emily Seaman Hoy, an attorney from Houston, Texas, who previously appeared in two episodes in 2021 (March 31 and April 1) to share a bit about herself during the interview in the middle of the Jeopardy! round, it led to a fun bit at the end of the show.

After Jennings asked Emily about her travel traditions, she shared, “Every time we go someplace iconic, my brother, my husband, and I like to make a pyramid in front of the most iconic view of that thing, so we have pyramid pictures in front of the Great Pyramids of Egypt, in front of the pyramids outside Mexico City, under the Northern Lights. And our next big goal is to get a pyramid on the Jeopardy! stage with the host of Jeopardy!.”

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Jennings told her, “We have never done a human pyramid here, and I don’t think I’ve ever been in one, so we’ll talk after the show.” And at the end of the show, over the credits, Jennings did do a pyramid with Emily and her family. “Let me hop in for somebody,” Jennings said after agreeing to join in. “Thank you so much,” Emily said after, shaking his hand.

As one Reddit user noted, after figuring out that nine of the 12 categories from the episode were recycled ones, “One thing they can’t reuse though is that human pyramid Ken helped make at the end of the show. Glad to see that interview had a payoff.”

Jeopardy!, Weekdays, check local listings