Jeopardy! season 40 premiere: What happened amidst WGA strike
Take, for starters, the sole presence of Ken Jennings as host. This is something that had been rather unclear for a while, but he was at the famous lectern today. The show and its star have come under criticism for continuing forward amidst the WGA strike, especially with fellow host Mayim Bialik not appearing out of solidarity. To date, Jennings’ most notable response to this is that Alex Trebek continued to host the show during the previous WGA strike in 2007-08, using recycled material from the past. That is the same thing that the series is doing at the start of season 40, with them also bringing back contestants from season 37 as opposed to new players.
Here is how the show itself describes the next few weeks in a press release:
Season 37 Second Chance consists of three week-long mini-tournaments airing the weeks of September 11, September 18, and September 25. The winner of each week will take home $35,000 and punch their ticket to the Season 37/38 JEOPARDY! Champions Wildcard competition.
It continues to be rather difficult to anticipate when or if any of this is going to change, mostly due to the WGA strike still continuing to have a firm end date. While it appeared as though there was some progress made on the front before the Labor Day weekend, things have been quiet since then. If there are any negotiations happening at the moment, they are being done rather quietly behind the scenes and are not generating a whole lot of extra attention.
It goes without saying, but our hope is that the members of the WGA do receive a fair deal soon, one that allows them to receive proper compensation for what is extremely valuable work.
What do you think about the way in which Jeopardy! is continuing to move forward amidst the strike?
Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, remember to come back to get some other updates.
(Photo: CBS Media Ventures.)