Ken Jennings kicks off Jeopardy! Season 40 with odd side comment before player Jill Tuckers 'misg

KEN Jennings has made a side comment that some fans ruled unnecessary during Jeopardy!'s Season 40 premiere. Jill Tucker then won the buzzworthy episode with a monster Final Jeopardy bet despite having a wide enough lead to play it safe.

KEN Jennings has made a side comment that some fans ruled unnecessary during Jeopardy!'s Season 40 premiere.

Jill Tucker then won the buzzworthy episode with a monster Final Jeopardy bet despite having a wide enough lead to play it safe.

After a summer of reruns and retooling, Jeopardy! is back and buzzing.

Ken, 49, is hosting the entire season solo, and Mayim Bialik will not be involved as it stands.

That's far from the only big change as the curtain rose on the new season on Monday.

Instead of returning champion Lucas Partridge, three contestants from Season 37 took the stage for a three-week Second Chance tournament.

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Each week, the three winners will face off on Thursday and Friday for a spot in the finals, and the winner of that will enter a subsequent Champions Wild Card Tournament.

First up was Derek Allen, an accountant originally from Cassopolis, Michigan, Gabriel Ostler, a scriptwriter from Orinda, California, and Jill, an operations manager from Mulino, Oregon.

'ACTUALLY...'

All three players had their game faces on- especially Jill- who revealed she missed The Call to return "five times."

Scores going into Final Jeopardy saw Jill at $16,200, Derek at $8,600 and Gabriel at $4,800.

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Ken admitted: "Jill's got a big but not insurmountable lead, Final Jeopardy! is important today."

Final Jeopardy read: "The most recent British monarch not to succeed a parent or a sibling was this ruler who succeeded an uncle."

Gabriel was incorrect with "Victoria II" and wagered his entire $4,800, giving him $0.

Derek was correct with "Who is Queen Victoria" and wagered $7,601, giving him a $1 lead- at least for now.

Ken then stopped to explain: “Yes, and she was actually Queen Victoria the first, I’m afraid, Gabriel.

"That was correct," Ken added referring back to Derek.

Derek looked confused as to why Ken explained the monarchy to his challenger and side-eyed the camera.

Ken then turned to Jill, who was also correct with "Who is Queen Victoria."

Ken then asked: "Her wager? Wow, wagered it all!" as Jill clutched her chest and revealed she bet her entire $16,200 giving her $32,400.

"Took a big chance and it paid off!" he added.

'WTF WAS WITH THAT WAGER?'

Jill secured a spot in the finals at the end of the week, but fans were less than secure on Jill's gigantic bet since she had such a wide lead and contestants don't keep their earnings in the tournament.

One fan wrote on Reddit: "[What the f**k] was up with that wagering? Had Final Jeopardy! been a Triple-Stumper, Jill would've pulled a real-life Cliff Clavin," referencing Cheers.

"Since this is a tournament, winners don't get to keep their winnings. No upside for going all-in."

Another was bothered by Ken's remark and wrote: "Was Ken being cute telling Gabriel the correct response was 'actually Victoria I?'

"Surely he knows monarchs aren't designated with an ordinal number until they share the name with a descendant."

Others went wild over Jill's all-or-nothing move, as a third wrote: "She bet everything, holy s**t!"

"Congratulations, Jill! I can't believe she bet everything in final," wrote a fourth.

Another contestant from later this week wrote: “Can't wait to see how y'all experience this. We were screaming in the green room.”

One sign Jill was going to do well was that her original game was in January 2021- and she faced 7-time champion Brian Chang and eventual 6-time champion Zach Newkirk, who won the match.

TAKING SECOND CHANCES

Ken walked out to a huge round of applause to clue fans in on how the new season will work.

Ken did not mention the Hollywood strikes or his decision to continue hosting through them in his intro.

He kicked off: “Welcome back to Season 40 of Jeopardy!. We’ll be kicking off this season with a Second Chance competition.

“Over the next three weeks, we’ll be inviting back 27 contestants who probably never thought they’d be back here on the Alex Trebek stage.”

The contestants lost their initial games in 2020 and 2021; Ken continued: “Their first games may not have ended in victory, but their strong play showed us that they are indeed worthy of a second chance.

"The champion there will advance to a Champions Wild Card tournament later this fall.”

The winner of that subsequent eight-week tournament will punch their ticket to the next Tournament of Champions.

THIS IS SEASON 40

Jeopardy!'s monumental Season 40 will run until July 26, 2024.

Because of the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes with actors and writers unable to settle fair pay negotiations, co-host Mayim is officially off the board.

It was announced on Monday that she is going to remain uninvolved until the strikes end and only Ken will host.

She bowed out in solidarity with the strikers, a big shakeup since she and Ken were tapped to split hosting after Alex's death in 2020.

A source earlier told The Messenger that Mayim will likely not be back until the new year, if not longer.

“She wasn’t fired," the insider shared.

"She’s choosing to stand with her union, and because of that, she was told it is unlikely she will return for the rest of the year, even if the strike is resolved before then.”

Mayim is a member of the striking actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA.

If the strikes don't end by 2024 - and since episodes tape two months in advance - Mayim will not return until at least the new year if not next season (or next fall).

Ken being the only host isn't the only huge change this season.

Aside from not having new contestants and no Mayim, the other major change is the clues.

The game show is re-using questions from past seasons while without its writers, but most of the questions did not appear to have previously aired.

One fan remarked: "I haven't found any repeats. Some of the questions have been asked in the past in differently phrased ways, but that is like 50 questions per game under normal circumstances."

That being said, according to the J! Archive, Final Jeopardy was nearly identical to one that was presented during a tournament in 2006.

And as Ken mentioned, the new season will also use past contestants.

The Second Chance Tournament will run for three weeks followed by a brand new tournament, the Champions Wild Card, which will pit the winners from that series against brief Season 37 and 38 champions.

The tournaments will take fans into December, but given the strikes, what will air after that is unannounced.

Showrunner Michael Davies explained on the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast that it “wouldn’t be fair to have new contestants making their first appearance” on the show with material that isn’t original or that was written pre-strike.

"The material that we’re gonna be using is a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database and material that is being redeployed from multiple, multiple seasons of the show.”

In addition, a 2023 Tournament of Champions is happening, but not until the strikes are over.

Several Season 39 champs, including Ray LaLonde, Cris, Hannah Wilson, and Ben Chan, said they would not participate in the TOC until the strikes are concluded.

Fans are hoping the strikes are resolved soon so they can enjoy the new TOC and hallmark 40th season, which was meant to be a buzzworthy moment for the beloved show.

Meanwhile, Ken has faced backlash from some fans and former players for his decision to cross the picket line.

Ken has kept relatively quiet on the subject besides resharing a statement from the show’s executive producer referencing how the late Alex continued hosting during the 2007 to 2008 writers’ strike.

Davies also announced a bump in consolation prizes for the upcoming season (when regular episodes resume) and said that he admires and misses the show’s beloved writers.

The news caused a scathing response from Masters winner James Holzhauer, who took to the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to call out the show.

“If you don’t have time to listen, here’s the executive summary of today’s announcement,” James, 39, wrote, sharing a link to the podcast episode.

“1:00-2:00: Jeopardy’s writers are invaluable and we couldn’t produce the show without them,” he continued.

“2:00-15:00: Here is how we will produce the upcoming season without them.”

Mayim is also being replaced by Ken on Celebrity Jeopardy! which airs on ABC for the entire next season.

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Season 2 of Celebrity Jeopardy! is set to air on September 27.

Her exit marks Ken's first time hosting all programming for Jeopardy!

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