“Jeopardy!” might soon be upping the ante even further.
Executive producer Michael Davies recently revealed in an interview with The New York Times that he’d like to add a separate masters league to the already intense Tournament of Champions, which brings together 15 contestants who have won at least five games in a row to compete against each other.
This masters league would bring back the best of the best — who Davies said he considers essentially professional athletes, often competing at a level that is below their talent.
“What we really need to develop is the pro-level version of the game. It seemed ridiculous to me that we have this sport where every single year we take all of our best players — we take our LeBrons and our Dwyanes — and we switch them all out,” he said.
Davies said his dream would be to air the masters league episodes live, though he admitted the idea “makes a lot of my staff nervous.”
Davies has already announced a slew of new programming since Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings officially signed on to co-host the franchise, including the inaugural Second Chance competition, which gives promising contestants an opportunity to return for another shot at victory.
“Celebrity Jeopardy!” is another new program, which aims to bring some star-studded lineups into the franchise. It has also begun publishing some in-depth statistics about contestants and even created a Hall of Fame.
