Jeopardy!, one of America’s longest-running television institutions, kicked off its 43rd season on Monday, September 14, with Ken Jennings back behind the podium and a refreshed set. The premiere caps a run of aggressive experimentation for the show. This includes Jeopardy! YouTube Edition, which EntertainmentNow covered back in March. The first episode of the season brought back Matthew Riggle, a college math instructor from Alabama, who closed out Season 42 with back-to-back wins. Therefore, his return brings him to a two-day total of $64,400.
Sony Pictures Television, producer of Jeopardy!, renewed the show through the 2027–2028 broadcast season. This is part of a multi-season pickup announced at the Disney Upfronts, alongside a renewal for Celebrity Jeopardy!.
Season 43’s premiere also marks a new beginning for the show: the upcoming postseason tournament calendar. Historically staged across the spring, the Tournament of Champions and its companion events will now run “just after the holidays,” according to executive producer Michael Davies. This decision is in hopes of catching audiences while they’re home and paying attention.
How did we get here?
Since taking over as executive producer in 2021, Michael Davies has pushed the show to court younger viewers with higher-stakes tournaments and social-native spinoffs. This is a strategy EntertainmentNow covered in March when Jeopardy! debuted its YouTube Edition. The edition was a one-off special pairing the show’s format with YouTube creators like Brennan Lee Mulligan, Monét X Change, and Rebecca Black.
The special drew 8.5 million views with a retention rate above 50 percent on a 20-minute episode. Moreover, by the production team’s own count, roughly 72 percent of viewers were watching Jeopardy! for the first time.
Davies first previewed this strategy back in 2021, in a blog post to jeopardy.com describing what he called “JFT,” or Jeopardy Future Time. He framed the challenge as figuring out how to modernize the show and widen its reach. In a separate post a year later, he argued the brand had room to grow by meeting audiences on the platforms where they already spend their time.
Since then, Davies has launched 6 new sub-formats: the Second Chance Tournament, Champions Wildcard, the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, the Jeopardy! National College Championship, Pop Culture Jeopardy!, and ESPN Jeopardy!.
Last season also marked the debut of next-day streaming, a first in the show’s history. “Having new episodes of Jeopardy! available on streaming for the first time is a huge milestone,” said Suzanne Prete, president of game shows for Sony Pictures Television.
What’s new about Season 43?
Producers are calling this season’s theme “Knowledge Wins,” and the biggest structural change backing it up is that scheduling shift for the postseason. Per Sony Pictures Television’s press materials, five super-champions from Season 42 are set to return to the Alex Trebek Stage for the Tournament of Champions. The field includes 31-game champion Jamie Ding, along with Harrison Whitaker, Caleb Groen, Adam Remsen, and Tristan Williams. The show is billing this as one of its most competitive fields yet, alongside winners from this year’s Masters, Invitational, and Second Chance tournaments.
Davies laid out the reasoning behind the new timing in the same release: “We are moving our annual postseason tournaments, the biggest events of the season, to just after the holidays, when audiences are home and ready to tune in,” he said. “With an extraordinary field that includes a nearly unprecedented number of super-champions competing at the highest level, we want to give our best players the biggest spotlight possible.” The Tournament of Champions is expected to air in January and February 2027. Jennings will host.
The move follows the annual tradition of tournament reruns and one-off programming during the summer: Champions Wildcard, the Tournament of Champions, and the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament reruns filled the gap between Season 42 and 43. Meanwhile, new programming included ESPN Jeopardy! and the 2026 Jeopardy! Masters tournament, where Yogesh Raut became the first repeat Masters champion in the show’s history, taking home $500,000. Andrew He won this year’s Invitational Tournament. In addition, Paolo Pasco took the 2026 Tournament of Champions.
Fans reacted to the September 2 premiere trailer with excitement over the incoming contestant pool and the production value of the promo itself, judging by comments on the show’s social channels.
Some additional changes include relatively minor stylistic revisions to the show’s opening titles and set.
What’s to come?
Davies has also revealed that revivals of the Teen, College, and Kids tournaments are in the works. However, no firm timeline exists yet, in an interview to Slate. The College Championship last aired in 2022, while the Teen Tournament (introduced by longtime host Alex Trebek in 1987) paused after his death in 2020. Davies has said networks and streamers have shown real interest in bringing the youth tournaments back. Even so, the show has prioritized building out its postseason lineup first and wants to avoid tournament fatigue among regular viewers. He’s floated the idea of the Teen Tournament returning as an annual May event. Additionally, the College Championship could air every other year, and Kids Week (last seen in 2014) could come back as well. This pushes back on past concerns that competition was too emotionally taxing for young contestants.
Jeopardy! can be streamed online next-day on Peacock, Hulu, and Hulu on Disney+ in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada; check local listings for TV showings near you.
