Andy’s Weekly Thoughts (7/6): Yes, The Show Is Changing—And It’s A Feature, Not A Bug

Current Champion

Nikolas Polsinelli, career statistics:
44 correct, 6 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
35.96% in first on buzzer (41/114)
4/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,600)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,500

To win:
3 games: 64.111%
4: 41.102%
5: 26.351%
6: 16.894%
7: 10.831%
Avg. streak: 3.786 games.
(Click Here for Methodology)

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October 3-4: S42 E175 (May 8, 2026)
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All Time Winnings

All Time Jeopardy! Winnings, Regular Play Only:

1. Ken Jennings $2,520,700
2. James Holzhauer $2,462,216
3. Matt Amodio $1,518,601
4. Amy Schneider $1,382,800
5. Jamie Ding $882,605
6. Cris Pannullo $748,286
7. Mattea Roach $560,983
8. Jason Zuffranieri $532,496
9. Scott Riccardi $455,000
10. David Madden $430,400
11. Julia Collins $428,100
12. Matt Jackson $411,612
13. Austin Rogers $411,000
14. Ray Lalonde $386,400
15. Harrison Whitaker $373,999
16. Adriana Harmeyer $349,600
17. Caleb Groen $346,968
18. Adam Remsen $306,415
19. Ryan Long $299,400
20. Arthur Chu $297,200

All Time Jeopardy! Winnings, Including Tournaments (and Consolation Prizes):

1. Brad Rutter $4,968,436
2. Ken Jennings $4,372,700
3. James Holzhauer $3,614,216
4. Matt Amodio $1,964,601
5. Amy Schneider $1,864,800
6. Yogesh Raut $1,598,403
7. Victoria Groce $1,023,801
8. Mattea Roach $897,983
9. Jamie Ding $885,605
10. David Madden $785,733
11. Cris Pannullo $754,286
12. Roger Craig $706,200
13. Andrew He $684,365
14. Larissa Kelly $671,930
15. Matt Jackson $623,612
16. Jason Zuffranieri $549,496
17. Paolo Pasco $548,717
18. Scott Riccardi $533,000
19. Jerome Vered $499,102
20. Julia Collins $495,767
21. Austin Rogers $493,000
22. Juveria Zaheer $491,000
23. Ben Ingram $449,201
24. Adriana Harmeyer $446,600
25. Buzzy Cohen $441,603

Today’s editorial is going to be focusing on just a single topic.

A number of Jeopardy! fans over the past week have been noticing that there’s been a slight shift recently in some of the question writing, with some users on Reddit certainly feeling that three of the four major clues in Thursday’s game hinged on wordplay.

As the title of this editorial says: Yes, the show is changing. And, yes, this is a deliberate change.

Michael Davies has gone on record in the past (on Inside Jeopardy) to say that he would prefer more clues that rely less on rote memorization from J! Archive, and presumably more on synthesizing information (a skill that wordplay clues tend to test). Certainly, for me as a home viewer and fan myself, I enjoy these clues more—Lyndsey Hamen, the lovely pub quiz host from The Ship Pub & Kitchen here in St. John’s, Newfoundland, often refers to these questions as “critical thinking” questions, and she loves to include those sorts of rounds in her own game—and while it’s great to have the underlying knowledge, which can be learned from J! Archive, being able to apply what you’ve learned—using “critical thinking” as Lyndsey puts it—is a much more useful skill in the world. The show has definitely moved on from the era where one basically needed to know 25 authors, 15 composers, 20 scientists, 100 great historical figures, the key members of U.S government (past and present), and surface-level information about countries, TV, movies, sports, and music in order to be successful on the show.

I should also note that it’s probably a good idea to see the potential biases of some of the loudest commenters on this issue. Many diehard fans who have been trying to get on the show are more likely to have spent significant time trying to rote-memorize J! Archive and are probably watching their study time bear less fruit with this shift in content, and are potentially trying to push the canon back to a place where they think they have the best chance of winning multiple games on the show.

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I also mentioned in my recap on Friday that I’d have more to say about Friday’s Final Jeopardy as well, and although it didn’t end up affecting things on Friday, I think the skill of “how long is 30 seconds, and how to best manage that 30 seconds” is also a valid skill for the show to test; I was very worried that a player was going to leave themselves too little time to complete their response, but that would have been on the player, in my opinion, and not the show.

In closing, I absolutely believe that the show is best to move away from simply testing the rote memorization of facts from J! Archive, as I firmly believe that a better test of actual intelligence is by testing the ability to quickly synthesize things from what already knows.

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