As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take its toll across the world, various industries continue to adapt to a world that looks very different than it did a few months ago. One of the admittedly small impacts in the grand scheme of things is what will air on TV as various productions remain shut down amid the coronavirus epidemic.
One example of this is the syndicated game show Jeopardy!, which ordinarily has weeks worth of episodes in the can as it airs “new” shows over the course of a year. That delay was valuable for a variety of reasons, and as production shut down in Hollywood it meant new episodes would still air.
But we now know that Jeopardy! has officially run out of new episodes to air until the pandemic is over. TVLine reported Friday that the show has a week of new episodes left before it officially went on the shelf amid the coronavirus pandemic.
TVLine has learned that the iconic Alex Trebek-hosted game show — which halted production roughy three months ago due to the coronavirus pandemic — will air its last original episode on Friday, June 12. Reruns begin airing on Monday, June 15 and will continue until the show deems it safe to resume production.
Jeopardy! actually delayed a switch to all-reruns by two weeks when it rebroadcasted its primetime Greatest Of All Time tournament between Brad Rutter, Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer in early May. It also ran the first and last episodes of Jennings 74-game run where he won more than $2.4 million. On Friday, the show’s two-week Teachers Tournament also wrapped up, which means there are just a handful of new episodes left before the syndicated run goes back to old episodes. It’s not clear if they will run more GOAT-related content, which is certainly an option, or whether they will just re-air episodes from previous seasons in order.
Trebek has been careful as he battles Stave IV pancreatic cancer, for which he was diagnosed last year. That includes Jeopardy! closing its set to a studio audience as pandemic concerns grew and altogether halting the show as the country started its abrupt lockdown. With production still halted amid the ongoing pandemic, it’s unclear when it will come back with new opportunities for Trebek to host. Until then, the Jeopardy! question archive will remain the same size and new players won’t get the chance to be the next James Holzhauer.