Jeopardy! UK - the Stephen Fry Edition

[Adam Bowie]

ITV has been airing their new Stephen Fry-hosted episodes of Jeopardy! They only placed an initial order of 20 episodes which are airing at 4pm weekdays just ahead of The Chase. But the first episode did get a slightly later airing on New Year's Day. But that timeslot is probably going to limit their audience a bit. However, ITV's afternoons from 3-6pm are all hour-long quizshow formats.

I've not seen enough of the original Jeopardy! to know how it's very different. To my eyes, the sets, graphics, and music are all the same. But ITV has stretched episodes out to an hour. And you need to remember that UK broadcasting rules prohibit stuffing as many minutes of commercial airtime in our shows as the US allows. In other words, one UK commercial hour needs more content than two US commercial half hours - or two episodes of Jeopardy!

All of this means that Fry can be a bit more relaxed, and add a few interjections of his own - clarifying answers, adding details and so on. And we get longish chats with contestants, which most of the 45-60 min quizshows tend to include. He also has to be a tiny bit lenient about contestants getting the answer format 100% right, since it's not built into UK viewers DNA just yet.

The hour runtime also means we get *two* rounds of Jeopardy! before we get to Double Jeopardy! and then Final Jeopardy! as usual. A Radio Times puff piece included this:

"As Fry mentioned, participants are able to play an extra round in comparison to the original format. This has been done to increase the stakes for the players."

But it's pretty clear that ITV wanted an hour long show, and that's the sole reason for the extra round.

Overall, while I like Fry, and the level of questions is high, I'm not sure how well this will do. I think it needs a longer run. I can't say I'll be going out of my way to watch it. Fry has also recorded six primetime episodes for Australian TV, on the same UK set, but with Australian contestants. 

Adam

[Jim Ellwanger]

Three rounds of "Jeopardy!" in a one-hour slot is not unknown to Americans - that's the format of the prime-time "Celebrity Jeopardy!" series. (In that case, dollar amounts are 1x/2x/3x, although the first round values are $100 to $500 - on regular "Jeopardy!", the first round values have been $200 to $1,000 since 2001.)

I saw the first UK episode, and to me, the very weirdest thing is that there's no commercial break in the middle of the first two rounds, but there IS a commercial break in the middle of the Double Jeopardy! round - seems like you'd want to play the most high-stakes round all the way through with no break in order to maximize tension. (And then there's no commercial break between that round and Final Jeopardy!, although it was pretty clear that there was an edit while the contestants formulated their wagers.)

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[Adam Bowie]

The allowable break structure for UK commercials is a whole can of worms. Ofcom, the UK regulator, has strict rules about the number of breaks, the duration of ads, and the distribution of the break structures. Ordinarily a show between 45 and 59 minutes (which Jeopardy! UK would count as), would only be allowed two commercial breaks. Oh, and you can't place an ad-break right near the end of a show because there would be too little time between breaks. That's why they've gone for the middle of Double Jeopardy! rather than before Final Jeopardy!

In the shows I've seen, there are three breaks - at the ends of rounds one and two, and also in the middle of Double Jeopardy! That would seem to be against the rules. Except the third break in the UK doesn't actually contain any commercial messaging - just trailers for other ITV shows. And that's allowed. I think the show has been built with that structure to allow it to air elsewhere (e.g. Australian TV is also taking the Stephen Fry UK episodes).

It's a weird workaround, and you can read our rules in detail here if you want to:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/16328/rules.pdf

The more obnoxious thing commercial broadcasters do to get around rules is commonly used on some channels in movies. Because there are limits in how many breaks you can place in a movie, the workaround for broadcasters is to essentially place an intermission where a rubbish five minute "entertainment" show is added. This means the film is in two separate parts. And it basically allows an extra break to be inserted. It makes a mockery of watching the film and having to endure mind numbing rubbish in the middle, with extra ads. Obviously I would never watch a film on a channel that does this.

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[Dave Sikula]

This tracks with the "real" version, as it's the only section that's not taped in real time. Producers have to verify that the amount the contestant has written is the amount they intended to wager (if only to prevent someone from saying "Yes, I wrote down $1,000, but I meant to write $10,000"). In my second game, one of my opponents actually made a math mistake that had to be verified and corrected.

--Dave Sikula