POP Culture Jeopardy! is already getting negative buzz from fans and prospective contestants who’ve taken issue with the spinoff being team-based.
Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost is hosting the new edition of the game show on Amazon Prime Video, which is expected this fall.
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Pop Culture Jeopardy! is the first offshoot of Jeopardy! to be exclusively streaming.
It’s also the first edition to focus solely on pop culture, and to be wholly made up of teams of contestants instead of single players.
The format consists of three sets of three-person teams (aka nine players) on stage simultaneously.
With Pop Culture Jeopardy! having just finished taping its inaugural season, a fan started a Reddit thread on Wednesday sharing their grievances.
The fan shared that the team concept – while fun in theory – does not work in practice.
They explained, having passed the auditions, that scheduling issues with their group led them to drop out.
SHOULD BE ‘SINGLE PLAYER’
“Pop Culture Jeopardy hope for future,” they titled the post.
“I hope Pop Culture Jeopardy does well with streaming audiences and that Jeopardy realized a future with that series…and that the future of it will lead to a singles tournament or singles traditional game play.
“The team aspect completely torpedoed my ability to participate (made it through the test, zoom audition, got selected as potential contestants and then my team bailed bc of the background check stuff).
“And even before they bailed it was going to be tricky for them to both be able to get up to two weeks off work to participate.
“We are all middle-aged with jobs and families and pets and as I looked at who could be on my team, getting 3 adults together for that length of time AND ALSO having the knowledge base proved impossible.
“TLDR: I hope Pop Culture Jeopardy transitions to a single-player format.”
Mutliple other people who passed the auditions (which closed last month) shared they had to drop out as scheduling three people to fly to Los Angeles at the same time proved more “difficult” than expected.
Jeopardy! Universe
Jeopardy! first aired in 1964 until 1975. Then the nighttime version began in 1974. Since then, many spinoffs of the game show have emerged. Here they all are:
Jeopardy! – (syndicated) 1974 to present, weekdays on ABC at 7 pm ET.
Tournament of Champions – 1984 to present, features the top champions who have appeared on the show since the last tournament.
Second Chance Tournament – 2022 to present features hand-selected non-winners from the season prior, where the prize is entry into Champions Wildcard.
Champions Wildcard – 2023 to present, features all one, two and three-day champions from the season prior worth entry into the Tournament of Champions.
Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament (syndication) – 2023 to present, features past greats invited by producers to vie for a slot in Masters.
Jeopardy! Masters (primetime) – 2023 to present, features the six highest-ranked Jeopardy! champions competing against each other.
Celebrity Jeopardy! (primetime) – 1992 to present, has celebrities compete against each other to raise money for charity.
Pop Culture Jeopardy (streaming) – 2024 to present, will feature teams of three tasked with pop culture trivia on Amazon Prime, hosted by Colin Jost, airdate TBD
Jeopardy! has done away with specialized tournaments like its College Tournaments, Kids Week, and Professor’s Tournament to gear towards a more sports-like model, with Masters being the top of the Jeopardy pyramid.
Other versions of Jeopardy! have fizzled out throughout the years as well, like Sports Jeopardy!.
“One member of my team flaked before even taking the test, so I’d definitely be a fan of a single player version.
“It really feels to me like they didn’t think through how difficult it would be to gather three people with interest, a high level of knowledge, and the scheduling flexibility to do this. Just do it like normal Jeopardy, except with more specific clues. I guarantee the audience would be the same size either way.”
Other fans agreed the team aspect may have been a bit ambitious while others urged it works having been to a taping.
“I think it will be successful, but the team aspect is central to the format. I doubt it will go to single players, I’m sure they had more than enough teams audition this time that I’m sure they could cast for several seasons just from that pool alone.”
“The team play is what sets it apart from normal Jeopardy, it’s more fun that way,” another fan wrote.
“You haven’t even seen it yet. The team play is a fun change and if they choose to do another season it will probably be the same format. You have time now to make two new friends if you want to play!”
‘IT’S PRETTY INTENSE’
Back in July, producers of Jeopardy! revealed more about the upcoming show and how the material isn’t a “cakewalk.”
On the July 15 episode of Inside Jeopardy! podcast, producers Michael Davies and Sarah Foss shared how difficult the show would be.
“A lot of people when we announced this said, ‘Finally a version of Jeopardy! I can actually play,” Davies said.
“Having said that, this is going to be on brand, Jeopardy! hard. In fact, the percentage of scores over a certain number on the pop culture test is exactly the same percentage we see on the regular test.”
“The competition on the buzzer, the competition deep in the categories, it’s pretty intense with that many people competing.”
Sarah said, “You think pop culture is a specific area but it’s testing knowledge in a new way.”
NEW HOST JOST
The spinoff was announced in May and it left fans who may not be academic enough for the regular show, but very much up on trends, buzzing.
Jeopardy.com describes: “Contestants, playing in teams of three, will need to be experts in categories from Alternative Rock to The Avengers, Broadway to MMA, Gen Z to Zendaya.
“They compete in a tournament-style event for the grand prize and ultimate bragging rights.”
Colin, 42, was named the host on July 31 and shared the statement, “What is: I’m excited.”
The SNL golden boy spent much of the summer covering the olympics for NBC where he injured his toes on a coral reef.
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