“Jeopardy!” New Episodes – New Season – Premieres Monday, September 11, 2023

The 40th Season Will Deliver Something Old and Something New.

As a result of the WGA strike, the new season of Jeopardy! will begin with a Second Chance tournament in place of new contestants. Ken Jennings will host the 40th season of Jeopardy!. Mayim Bialik walked away from the series temporarily in solidarity with the writers’ strike at the end of Season 39, but will likely be back for primetime tournament matches once the strikes end.

The Jeopardy! clues are penned by writers, and the strike means that writers haven’t penned enough new clues to get through the entire new Jeopardy! season. As a result, the show will reuse clues from its 39 prior seasons that were written and completed prior to the strike.

“We have always been careful to honor our WGA agreements and we would never air game material not created by WGA writers,” a rep for Jeopardy! previously announced. “However, just as we did, led by Alex Trebek, during the 2007-2008 strike, we will deliver first-run episodes again this fall … featuring the best of our WGA written material.”

“I believe, principally that it would not be fair to have new contestants making their first appearance on the Alex Trebek stage, doing it with non-original material or … a combination of non-original material and material that was written pre-strike,” Davies explained on Inside Jeopardy!. “And so we decided that really we needed to invite back and give a second chance in general to players who probably thought that their chance to come back and play on the Alex Trebek stage had gone forever. So we’re gonna open the season with a second chance tournament for players from Season 37 who lost their initial game, and winners from that will advance to a Season 37 and Season 38 Champions Wild Card.”

For one, the runner-ups will earn a bit more cash than they did before. Beginning with the upcoming season, contestants in third place will get $2,000, and contestants in second place will go home with $3,000, up $1,000 from the Season 39 prizes.

“This is something that we’ve been working on ever since I really took the reins of the show,” Jeopardy! showrunner Michael Davies revealed on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast. “It’s something that obviously is discussed widely within our social communities and with the community of our contestants. We understand that post-COVID, travel costs have increased. We understand how complicated sort of funding a trip to Jeopardy! is for many contestants within our community.”

The Jeopardy! season usually begins with the annual Tournament of Champions, however the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions has been delayed indefinitely. Typically recorded throughout August and September, but now, it is not expected to tape until after the writer’s strike comes to an end.

The Jeopardy! Season 40 finale will be July 26, 2024.