‘Jeopardy!’ Season 41 Will Be Different: All the Changes Coming Your Way

Martin Holmes September 9, 2024, 8:01 am

Ken Jennings — 'Jeopardy! Masters' Games 7 and 8 — ABC/Christopher Willard

Jeopardy! returns for its 41st season tonight, Monday, September 9, and things are going to be different for viewers over the next few months.

It’s particularly good news for fans who felt burnt out by the show’s tournament overload last season.

There are a number of changes set for the long-running game show when it returns to TV screens, the first being the decision to push the tournaments to 2025. Usually, a new season begins with tournament play, but the producers have decided to shake things up following complaints of “tournament fatigue” last season.

This means the new season will start with regular episodes featuring brand-new contestants and will continue for the remainder of the year. Regular play will then pause from January 2025 for the tournaments and resume in April 2025 until the season wraps up on July 25, 2025.

There will also be fewer tournaments than last year, with just four, including a shorter edition of Second Chance and Champions Wildcard, the 2025 Tournament of Champions, and a second edition of the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament.

Last year, many fans complained of tournament overload, as the show brought back former contestants for multiple editions of Second Chance and Champions Wildcard tournaments before going straight into the JIT! and the 2024 TOC. This was in large part due to the writers’ strike, meaning the show had to rely on past players and recycled clues.

Ken Jennings will return to helm his first season as the one and only full-time host of Jeopardy! Former host Mayim Bialik was fired in December 2023, and the last trace of her was removed from the official Jeopardy! website over the summer.

Also returning is the reigning champion, Rachel Bradley, an ESL instructor from Greenbelt, Maryland. Bradley won the last game of Season 40 back in July, amassing $23,597. She looks to continue her streak when Season 41 kicks off on September 9.

As for other changes, the Inside Jeopardy! podcast is set to welcome a new co-host. The behind-the-scenes pod is currently co-hosted by producer Sarah Whitcomb Foss and former TOC winner Buzzy Cohen.

Foss previously teased, “We’re gonna have perhaps a new special guest,” with many fans speculating it will be Michael Harris, who serves on the show’s judging panel. Harris, who has guested on the podcast before, has previously served as Jeopardy!’s Senior Researcher and Game Play Analyst.

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Jeopardy! also returns as a brand-new Emmy winner, having picked up the award for Outstanding Game Show at the Creative Arts Emmys on Sunday night (September 8). The show beat out Celebrity Family Feud, Password, The Price Is Right at Night, and Wheel of Fortune.

Jennings was nominated for Outstanding Host for a Game Show but lost to the now-retired legendary Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak. That didn’t stop the Jeopardy! G.O.A.T. from having fun though, as he shared a video on social media fanboying over The Office star Ellie Kemper on the red carpet.

Are you excited for the new season of Jeopardy!? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Jeopardy!, Season 41, Premieres, Monday, September 9, Check local listings