Jeopardy! (seasons 20-present)

♥	This article is dedicated to the first two hosts of the show, Art Fleming (May 1, 1924 - April 25, 1995) and Alex Trebek (July 22, 1940 - November 8, 2020), may they rest in peace.

Jeopardy! (seasons 20-present)
This ISN'T Jeopardy!
Genre: Game Show Running Time: 20–22 minutes (per episode) Country: United States Release Date: September 8, 2003—present Network(s): Broadcast syndication Distributed by: CBS Media Ventures Sony Pictures Television Studios Starring: Alex Trebek (Seasons 20-37)

Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show features a quiz competition in which contestants are presented with general knowledge clues in the form of answers and must phrase their responses in the form of questions. The original daytime version debuted on NBC on March 30, 1964, and aired until January 3, 1975. A nighttime syndicated edition aired weekly from September 1974 to September 1975, and a revival, The All-New Jeopardy!, ran on NBC from October 1978 to March 1979 on weekdays. The syndicated show familiar to modern viewers and produced daily (currently by Sony Pictures Television) premiered on September 10, 1984.

Although seasons 1-19 of the syndicated version received positive reviews, seasons 20-present have received mixed-to-negative reviews due to the reasons below.

Bad Qualities

1. The clue writing quality and judging has gone downhill, as longtime clue-writer Steve Dorfman died in 2004. In Season 37, thanks to executive producer Mike Richards, the show also saw an increase in poorly worded and/or misleading clues.
2. Season 20 removed the five-game cap for champions. Some contestants' winning streaks were just way too long, especially Ken Jennings, whose winning streak was no less than 74 games.
3. Mike Richards was chosen to be the show's permanent daytime host, despite his sexual allegations. Fortunately, this decision was reversed on August 20, 2021.
4. Season 37 shows some glaring examples of budget cuts. Much of the show's budget has gone into set changes—specifically, the contestants now stand six feet apart from each other—deemed necessary as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the season started, there have also been substantially fewer video clues presented by the Clue Crew and celebrity guests.
5. In Season 31, the co-champion rule was axed due to Sony's hacking incident. As of March 2018, all ties are now decided with a tie-breaker clue. The winner keeps their bank and plays on while the loser goes home with $2,000. While minor, this seems to be a cheap way to save money in the wake of the Sony hacking incident, considering that the co-champion rule worked well since the original Art Fleming version of Jeopardy!.
6. Sony's decision to continue the show without Alex Trebek after his death on November 5, 2020. While some of the guest hosts brought in for 2021 like Ken Jennings, Buzzy Cohen, David Faber, and Levar Burton from Reading Rainbow have been good, most of them are mediocre at best. And the less said about Dr. Oz, the better.
7. It doesn’t help that the 31st and 37th seasons only sped up the show's decline in quality. Thanks to the co-champion rule being taxed as well as the budget decreasing significantly and Alex Trebek's death. And the answers are being repeated as of 2023 thanks to the writers' strike.
8. Questions are trying to become hip and cool with kids. For example: "Slang like "fanum tax" & "skibidi" baffle many; it's associated with this generation, a name that unfittingly follows Gen Z" was a round played on May 1, 2024. The question itself references Gen Alpha slang such as "skibidi" (referencing Skibidi Toilet), "fanum tax" (an act of food theft) & the skull emoji.

Good Qualities

1. The show still retained its charm from the older seasons until after Alex's last taped episode aired.
2. At least some older shows were occasionally rerun.
3. The remixed theme song used in season 38 is pretty nice.
4. Despite their flaws, Seasons 20-36 are OK. The same cannot be said for Season 37 onwards.
5. The hosting by Alex Trebek was still very good, although he sadly passed away from pancreatic cancer on November 8, 2020.
6. There are still some good clues here and there.

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