Fans of Jeopardy! were left without answers on Thursday (July 18) when the program failed to air at its regularly scheduled time, due to another program stealing the time slot.
The Republican National Convention concluded last night, ending with Republican nominee Donald Trump‘s long-awaited speech. The convention took place from Monday (July 15) through Thursday, and disrupted regularly scheduled programming as networks fought over covering the massive event.
Jeopardy!, which typically airs every weekday at 7/6c on ABC, started hours late for some and was not on at all for others.
What frustrated fans was not the live coverage of the RNC, but the lack of warning regarding changes to regularly scheduled programming — changes that the networks seemingly knew about in advance.
Many fans took to X to make their dissatisfaction known.
“@Jeopardy I am sick & tired of Jeopardy getting interrupted. It’s total BS especially when it’s interrupted by coverage of the RNC. Who is making these decision to unnecessarily interrupt Jeopardy?? #Jeopardy #Irksome #SickAndTired,” one annoyed fan wrote.
Earlier in the week, there was a similar occurrence when ABC7 Chicago cut the final minutes of Jeopardy! for RNC coverage.
“@ABC7Chicago not happy that the final minutes of Jeopardy was interrupted by a special news report from RNC. The VP had previously been announced in an earlier notice. I.e. it was NOT news,” another irritated viewer said on X.
“The RNC convention? They interrupted Jeopardy! for this?!” posted a third.
Fans also took to Reddit to try to inform others about when the show would air, and if it was going to, in their area.
“If there are any Arizona Jeopardy fans out there, it was postponed by the RNC tonight (7/18),” one user wrote. “I contacted KTVK Channel 3 and asked about our show. Per the email I received, Jeopardy will air at 11:30 p.m. tonight.”
“Wondering if KGO in San Francisco will ever air it tonight,” someone else posted on the thread. “[It] was supposed to be on after the prime time shows but they just went straight from prime time shows to the news… and they seem to be having computer problems at the station also. Weird night all around.”
Jeopardy! did not address the incident on their social media accounts.
As the RNC concluded last night, fans can expect a return to their regularly scheduled programming tonight.
Lesson learned: don’t mess with Jeopardy! fans!