Jeopardy! makes rare celebrity casting move that leaves fans ‘shocked’ as contestant speaks out on controversial shakeup

JEOPARDY! has made a rare celebrity casting move that has left fans surprised, as the contestant broke his silence over the show shakeup.

Jeopardy! released the contestants set to appear for the week of March 31.

Comedian Guy Branum will appear on Jeopardy! for the week of March 31Credit: Jeopardy!

Fans are shocked by the casting decision, as stars usually appear on Celebrity Jeopardy!Credit: Disney
Fans were shocked to see a celebrity appear on the Friday, April 4 episode, as stars typically compete on spinoff Celebrity Jeopardy!.

The U.S. Sun could confirm writer and comedian Guy Branum will compete on the upcoming episode.

Fans turned to social media to express their “surprise” over the casting decision.

“Checking the lineup for this week’s contestants, I was a bit surprised seeing the name ‘Guy Branum’- at first thought maybe it’s a coincidence and there’s two Guy Branums?… but nope,” a viewer posted on Reddit.

A second commented, “I’m thrilled he’s on Civilian Jeopardy!, but I think he could just as easily been asked to be on Celebrity Jeopardy!. Like, he’s not a household name, but a lot of folks on Celeb Jeopardy! aren’t known to everyone, but are still known amongst their niche.

“Retroactive good luck to him!”

A third wrote, “So cool! I momentarily thought this meant he was on Celebrity Jeopardy!”

Another asked, “Real Jeopardy or celeb?”

A fifth praised, “Could not love this more. Am sure you kill it!!!”

Guy broke his silence on the casting, as he captioned a photo at the Jeopardy! podium, “In a life where many magical things have happened, here’s one more: I’m on @jeopardy this Friday.”

Guy has made appearances on After Midnight and is known for his comedy tours.

As for Celebrity Jeopardy!, the show is currently airing its third season with the semifinals airing tonight.

LEGEND MISSING

The shakeup with the show comes after fans became upset over a Jeopardy! fan-favorite skipping out on the Masters tournament.

Jeopardy! released the cast of the Masters Tournament ahead of the premiere on ABC on Wednesday, April 30.

The participants competing for $500,000 include Neilesh Vinjamuri, who is the 2025 Tournament of Champions winner, Victoria Groce, Yogesh Raut, Isaac Hirsch, Adriana Harmeyer, Roger Craig, Juveria Zaheer and 2025 Invitational Tournament champion Matt Amodio.

Also appearing in the tournament is Brad Rutter, who is the show’s biggest winner with $4,938,436 in earnings.

This will be the first time Brad will compete since 2020.

But missing from the tournament is fan-favorite and legend James Holzhauer.

Jeopardy! Contestant Rules

Passing Jeopardy!’s online Anytime Test is hard enough, but there are also many rules players must follow once they make it to the stage:

The returning champion is always at the leftmost podium and keeps playing until they lose.
Contestants don’t have to say “who is” or “what is” in the first round but must do so in Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy.
Contestants can change their responses as long as Ken Jennings or the judges haven’t made a ruling.
The minimum wager for a Daily Double is $5. The minimum wager for Final Jeopardy! is $0.
Written responses in Final Jeopardy! do not have to be spelled correctly, but they must be phonetically correct (the judges decide this).
If there’s a tie after Final Jeopardy, the tied players enter a bonus clue shootout, and whoever buzzes in first correctly wins.
If all three contestants wager everything in Final Jeopardy! and are incorrect, leaving them with $0, there will be no returning champion (it’s happened before—six times).

FAN REACTION

Fans turned to Reddit to express their dismay over James’ absence.

One fan wrote, “I’m sure we’ll find out either from James on Twitter or through the podcast, but I’d have to assume that either James decided to pass on Masters this time or the taping schedule didn’t work for him.

“I can’t imagine the Jeopardy producers would just actively choose to pass him over.”

A second commented, “Yeah no James is really unfortunate especially considering Brad is back.”

A third argued, “Masters are supposed to be legends. I think they overcompensated due to last year’s producer pick issue. Victoria and Yogesh earned their spots as did JIT and TOC winners, glad Brad got his due; sad James isn’t in the lineup, he’s the most established master.”

Another wrote, “No James? That’s surprising, guess they decided Top 2 stays retroactively or am I missing something?”

And another believes it is James’ decision, “I think it’s more likely though that he probably just had something going on around the time they were filming this year’s Masters and thus declined to play (either that or perhaps James is just wanting a break from Jeopardy for a bit- which considering that it’s been a major story of his life for the past 6 years or so, I can’t say I blame him).”

The U.S. Sun reached out to James’ rep for comment on why he is not on Masters.

James is a professional sports gambler and is the third-highest winner on Jeopardy!.

He has won $2,462,216 in 32 games, and Masters in 2023.