The Writing on Jeopardy! is Everything
And it never stops. Even on hiatus.
Last year, the writers and researchers of Jeopardy!, under the leadership of Co-Head Writers Billy Wisse and Michele Loud, wrote and researched more than 25,000 clues across all editions and derivations of America’s Favorite Quiz Show. I like to tell people that it was exactly 25,687. But honestly, only our database truly knows.
The first seven months of this year have hardly seen any let-up in those numbers. But more impressive than the volume is the sheer quality of what all that brain power produces. I would put the writing achievement of Jeopardy! up against any show on television - news, drama, or comedy. I'm thrilled that the Writers Guild finally recognized our writers with an award for their outstanding work on Pop Culture Jeopardy! earlier this year.
We asked Billy and Michele to write something for our brand new Substack - as if they don’t have enough to write - and were overjoyed when they agreed. Below, they share what they’ve been doing this summer, between the last tape dates for Season 41 in May and the first tape dates for Season 42 this week.
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As many of you know, the taping season for syndicated Jeopardy! is very roughly that of a wintertime major league like the NHL or NBA. We start shooting shows in late July or early August and continue until late April or early May. Of course, two major differences are that we don’t have training camp, which might not be a bad idea. And our postseason happens in the middle of the schedule rather than at the end. In any case, that gives us a hiatus from taping of roughly three months. Your head writers thought we would tell you how we spent our summer hiatus.
First, let’s make it clear that it was not an actual 12 weeks of vacation. We continued to work writing and researching material and assembling games. The Jeopardy! writing and research staff work year-round with several days off at Christmastime, plus, of course, important holidays like Martin Luther King Day and The Third of July If It’s A Monday. This is fine with us, especially when we remember that the huge majority of TV shows do not have the luxury of year-round work. Even in the first couple of seasons of our show, people were furloughed without pay for the summer and brought back when it was time to get ready for production. We have grown very comfortable with the year-round schedule that 230 original shows require, with all of its rhythms, including the season of hiatus from taping.
During the “on season,” we generally tape 2 days a week, 2 weeks out of 3. So it often feels like it’s either tape day; or the prep day before a tape day; or at least the week to start getting ready for the following week’s taping. Without that sense, hiatus becomes the time to work on longer-term projects. Of course we use the extra time to write and research more prolifically, stockpiling material for the upcoming season. Your head writers have been busy bees, assembling about one-third of the games for the upcoming season this hiatus.
But it’s also when we tend to do technical upgrades to our database and rearrange our physical spaces, which is true of this summer. Our database has already been streamlined to become faster. We’ve had artifacts from the show’s history framed and hung in our Jeopardy! library, which got a new paint job and new carpet during our previous summer hiatus.
This is also the time when we make more overarching adjustments to the style and tone of the show. If you’ve noticed some types of categories becoming a bit more frequent while others fade away, that was probably something decided on during hiatus. Hopefully, you have not noticed, and the changes made the show quietly better!
Some hiatus traditions have fallen away over time. Today our library of several thousand books, some dating back to the original NBC version of the show, is browsed by our writers researching a given topic, but rarely by our researchers. Pre-Internet, books were everyone’s mainstay, and buying new ones was a way to maintain an essential resource. Hiatus would often include a group trip to Acres of Books in Long Beach, a now sadly defunct trove of used tomes, or to the American Booksellers Association convention. There were also group outings of a more social nature in a time that felt less businesslike than this one. Bowling at Hollywood Star Lanes (Gone the way of Acres of Books!) and Frisbee in Bronson Canyon feel far away as mid-office-day outings. One tradition that we have let slip but should consider reviving is a group writers-and-researchers lunch, where we can relax, discuss topics beyond work, and get to know each other better. Though the thing learned that stands out most vividly is discovering one researcher’s previously unknown passion for sand dabs with plenty of butter and garlic.
The group outings could be hard to schedule, though, because one thing a hiatus always provides is time for a vacation. You will be happy to know that your head writers took time to recharge with a bit of travel. Billy spent a week in the Adirondack Mountains among very non-L.A. coniferous foliage and bodies of fresh water (Go on in, it’s great once you get used to it). It was very relaxing, but also, wherever one goes in the world, there are opportunities for clues, certainly true of the historic sanatorium town of Saranac Lake, NY, and of nearby Onchiota, home of the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center. Michele spent a week in Chicago, walking the Magnificent Mile, taking in the stunning architecture, visiting museums, and learning why deep-dish pizza is so beloved.
As we prepare this piece, the first tape day of season 42 is later this week and while we will miss the at least somewhat lazier days of hiatus, we can’t wait to get back into the studio and see how the games play. Learning new facts, figuring out new ways to present old ones, and sometimes cracking each other up is fun, but there is only one test of how we’ve spent our vacation – what happens on the Alex Trebek Stage starting Wednesday!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this snapshot (with snapshots!) of the last few months at Jeopardy! and that you enjoy the season of shows that comes out of it. See you down the road for a midseason report.
Best to all,
Michele Loud & Billy Wisse,
Co-Head Writers
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I hereby move to reinstate the writers and researchers lunch and will pay the tab whether or not I am invited!
Stay in charge,
Michael Davies
Ken Jennings wrote a guest column for the New York Times (a couple actually) where he reflects on how, in a time when even basic facts are hotly contested, Jeopardy! stands out as a rare space where truth still holds. Much of that credit belongs to the writers who carefully craft questions rooted in shared, verifiable knowledge.
I love the writing on Jeopardy! and often think it would be the best job in the world. Thank you, writers, for the great work that teaches us, feeds our curiosity, amuses us, and makes the show the best thing on TV. Congratulations on your well-deserved award!