‘Jeopardy! Masters’ Suffers Huge Ratings Decline – Fans Debate the Reasons

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Jeopardy! Masters returned for its third season on Wednesday night (April 30), but many viewers didn’t come back with it, with the season premiere down significantly from last year’s opener.

According to TVSeriesFinale.com, citing Nielsen ratings, the Jeopardy! Masters Season 3 premiere, which aired at 9 pm on ABC, scored 3.12 million total viewers and 0.28 in the coveted 18-49 demo. This was down nearly 35% from last season’s premiere of 0.43 in the demo and around 25% in total viewers (4.27 million).

In comparison, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, which aired at 8 pm, was up on last season’s premiere in total viewers, with 3.04 million compared to 2.885. The demo dropped slightly, from 0.40 last season to 0.33 this season. This is Pat Sajak‘s final season as Wheel host.

It should be noted that Celebrity Wheel aired at 9 pm last season and has been moved to 8 pm this year. Meanwhile, Jeopardy! Masters has moved from 8 pm to 9 pm. The Jeopardy! Fan‘s Andy Saunders has cited this time change as the main reason for the significant ratings drop for Masters.

“I believe the #1 cause of the drop in ratings for the primetime offerings this season is the fact that ABC moved the time slot from 8:00 to 9:00. It is my belief that 9:00 is simply too late of a time for the average Jeopardy! viewer to have the brainpower to feel like they can play along at home,” Saunders wrote.

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He added, “Even my own parents save the episode until the next morning to watch. For primetime Jeopardy! to be successful, it needs to air as early in the night as possible—and 9:00 is not conducive to that. It has absolutely nothing to do with overexposure of the format—and I’m sure some on Reddit will make that case over the next week—and everything to do with the fact that it is airing too late at night for the average viewer to productively watch.”

As Saunders predicted, many fans on the Jeopardy! Reddit forum did blame the ratings crash on the oversaturation of Jeopardy. In addition to regular syndicated Jeopardy!, the series now airs Pop Culture Jeopardy! on Prime Video, has just finished airing Celebrity Jeopardy!, and frequently holds tournaments (including the Tournament of Champions, Second Chance, the Jeopardy! Invitational, Champions Wildcard, etc).

“Jeopardy overload perhaps? Normal, celebrity, pop culture, masters…..” wrote one Reddit user.

“I agree that pushing the airtime back an hour later hurt Celebrity and Masters, and I also think the oversaturation of Jeopardy spin-offs contributed. Regarding Andy’s words, it can be both reasons,” said another.

Another added, “It is absolutely oversaturation. My family loves Jeopardy, but no one is able to watch multiple streams throughout the day or week. We never miss an episode of the regular or TOC, but celebrity/college/masters is too much.”

“They’ve taken a can’t-miss show and turned it into a show even the most dedicated fan would be challenged to watch every episode,” wrote one commenter.

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Another countered this, saying, “Is the expectation that dedicated fans will watch every episode? I’ve interpreted it far more as “we have a flavor of Jeopardy for everyone” and less that “you won’t be able to follow if you don’t watch every episode”. The show has said that’s their intention too.”

“This is why Jeopardy Masters needs to be a like every 5 year event or something. The burnout is real and the competition isn’t even as exciting as the past,” said one user.

Another commenter put the blame on the type of questions, writing, “A huge part of the fun of Jeopardy is playing along at home. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but Jeopardy Masters is so challenging that I feel like an idiot watching it. I might get four or five correct responses across the whole game.”

Others said Masters isn’t as appealing this year as it’s missing fan favorites such as Amy Schneider, Sam Buttrey, and James Holzhauer.

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“Without players like James and Sam, I was bored to tears last night watching, I only knew it was on because J! sent a newsletter saying it was on. And I watch all editions of J! except Celebrity,” wrote one user.

“Wonder how much of this is James not attending and how much of an effect tournament fatigue really had on this,” added another.

“No interest watching without James,” another wrote.

Another disagreed, though, replying, “Juveria and Victoria are just as charming and as skilled as James and Sam, perhaps you just have to spend some more time with them.”

One fan said the ratings drop is likely due to a multitude of reasons, citing “Tournament burnout, lack of advertising by ABC compared to the past seasons, the fact that James isn’t there, etc.”

Did you watch Jeopardy! Masters? If not, why? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Jeopardy! Masters, Wednesdays, 9 pm, ABC, next day on Hulu