Jeopardy’s Isaac Hirsch dishes producers’ ‘explicit’ rules as fans think players told to ‘avoid adding flair to answers’

CURRENT Jeopardy! champion Isaac Hirsch has opened up about some of the show’s rules after some fans questioned players’ tactics.

Isaac, who is currently on a five-game winning streak, chimed in on a recent Jeopardy! discussion centered around possible rules the players have to follow.

Current Jeopardy! champion Isaac Hirsch during his successful run on the game showCredit: Jeopardy

Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings smiles while reading a clue to contestantsCredit: Jeopardy

Contestants Isaac Hirsch, Anna Paone, and Kathy Davis on Tuesday night’s new episode of Jeopardy!Credit: Jeopardy!
“Are Jeopardy! contestants specifically told to avoid adding “flair” to their answers?” one person asked in an online thread.

The post maker noted that recent contestants appeared to be answering without much enthusiasm and broke it down into a few options.

They said that either the players were nervous, scared of being “embarrassing” or “cringy,” or instructed by producers to give simple answers without “added pizzazz.”

“I’ve always wondered if it was option C. Since there are a lot of former contestants who post here, I was hoping someone might give me a definitive answer,” the creator added.

CLEARING THE AIR

Isaac joined the thread to clear the air, debunking the theory that the players are told ahead of time not to answer with any charisma.

Instead, he clarified that contestants aren’t allowed to sing their responses on the game show due to copyright infringement.

“We’re not instructed to give answers without pizzazz— I think a, that contestants are just too focused on saying the right thing, is the biggest reason,” Isaac wrote.

“The one exception is that with your Kung fu fighting example, we are explicitly told not to sing answers, because music is copyrighted and it costs Jeopardy money to clear it.”

EXPLAINING IT ALL

Last month, a former contestant, Mike Flanagan, jumped into a Jeopardy! thread to explain a similar situation.

The episode’s Daily Double clue read, “Also a CCR song, the title of this memoir by Vietnam vet Lewis Puller Jr. refers to having a legendary general as a dad.”

Ken Jennings gushes over Jeopardy! champ Isaac Hirsch with mid-game ‘confidence booster’ before big 4th win
Mike was seen closing his eyes and bopping his head up and down, seemingly to a beat, as host Ken Jennings, 50, read the clue aloud.

“What is Favorite Son?” Mike answered, which was just slightly off from the correct answer of “Fortunate Son.”

After fans slammed Mike for not knowing the song, he chimed in on the thread to clarify that he wasn’t able to sing the song aloud and “choked.”

“All I can say is that I prepped really hard for many things, but I did not (could not?) prepare for the moment where everything stops and all eyes are on you and you have to do math and then get the clue,” Mike wrote.

Jeopardy! Universe

Jeopardy! first aired in 1964 until 1975. Then the nighttime version began in 1974. Since then, many spinoffs of the game show have emerged. Here they all are:

Jeopardy! – (syndicated) 1974 to present, weekdays on ABC at 7 pm ET.

Tournament of Champions – 1984 to present, features the top champions who have appeared on the show since the last tournament.

Second Chance Tournament – 2022 to present features hand-selected non-winners from the season prior, where the prize is entry into Champions Wildcard.

Champions Wildcard – 2023 to present, features all one, two and three-day champions from the season prior worth entry into the Tournament of Champions.

Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament (syndication) – 2023 to present, features past greats invited by producers to vie for a slot in Masters.

Jeopardy! Masters (primetime) – 2023 to present, features the six highest-ranked Jeopardy! champions competing against each other.

Celebrity Jeopardy! (primetime) – 1992 to present, has celebrities compete against each other to raise money for charity.

Pop Culture Jeopardy (streaming) – 2024 to present, will feature teams of three tasked with pop culture trivia on Amazon Prime, host and airdate TBD

Jeopardy! has done away with specialized tournaments like its College Tournaments, Kids Week, and Professor’s Tournament to gear towards a more sports-like model, with Masters being the top of the Jeopardy pyramid.

Other versions of Jeopardy! have fizzled out throughout the years as well, like Sports Jeopardy!.

“If you rewatch (I don’t recommend it, but it you were inclined) you’ll see me nodding. That’s me singing the song—’It ain’t me, It ain’t me. . .’ but also knowing I can’t sing it out loud because of copyright.”

He added that the players were told not to sing anything out loud before shooting the episode.

ISAAC’S RUN

Isaac first arrived at the show last Wednesday and has been on a winning spree, cementing his place in the next Tournament of Champions.

Other 2025 Tournament of Champions qualifiers include Drew Basile, Adriana Harmeyer, Alison Betts, Dr. Amy Hummel, and Celebrity Jeopardy!’s Lisa Ann Walter.

On Tuesday night, viewers saw Isaac secure a milestone fifth victory as he took on Kathy Davis from North Manchester, Indiana, and Anna Paone from Sunnyside, New York.

After a few mix-ups on scores, Isaac entered Final Jeopardy with $19,400, a huge lead above Anna with $9,800 and Kathy with $3,800.

He was then the only player to get the last answer correct, bringing his total five-day earnings up to $120,186.

The Burbank, California native is no stranger to game shows, as he won $140,000 on the ABC game show The Chase in 2023 and appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2017.