Credit: ABCThe Jeopardy! franchise will soon gain a new host as British TV legend Stephen Fry takes to the stage on New Year’s Day. Fry will lead proceedings for the U.K. reboot of Jeopardy!, which officially commences on January 1, 2024.
Jeopardy! United Kingdom Commences Soon
The reboot of Jeopardy! in the United Kingdom was first announced almost a year ago, in February 2023. The popular American quiz show will officially return to the U.K. screens after almost 30 years.
Jeopardy! debuted in the U.K. back in 1983, with its original run on Channel 4 lasting through July 1984. It was revived for the ITV network in 1990 and then later on Sky One in 1995. Next week, in his role as Jeopardy! host, Fry will join the likes of Derek Hobson, Chris Donat, Steve Jones, and Paul Ross, who have all presented earlier iterations of the U.K. version.
“It’s such a different kind of a gig, really. After 13 seasons of QI, I wanted to leave halfway before I felt too repetitive. Jeopardy! is a whole other kind of a show,” Fry explained (via Yahoo! Entertainment). “Great and enthusiastic quizzers from around Britain who aren’t comics and for whom big money is almost as great a prize as the kudos that comes with being a great Jeopardy! champion.”
“The only real difference is that the U.K. version is a little longer with an extra round,” said Fry. “The signature Jeopardy! oddity of the questions being answers and the responses having to be given in the form of questions remains the same.”
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Jeopardy! U.K. will officially begin on January 1, 2024, on the ITV and ITVX network, meaning Fry’s time in the Jeopardy! spotlight is imminent. The game show will run for 20 installments.
Upon the news of Fry’s role as Jeopardy! host being made known, the QI star previously gushed at how much he loved the classic U.S. version of the game show. The U.S. Jeopardy! show has been running since 1964, with the more well-known syndicated version entertaining audiences since 1984, hosted by the late Alex Trebek up until his death in 2020.
Jeopardy! Officially Loses Mayim Bialik After Extended Absence
The arrival of Jeopardy! in the UK comes after a series of immense turbulence for its US counterpart. Most recently, Jeopardy! and Celebrity Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory) revealed that her time with the game show was over. Writing on X (formerly Twitter), the Amy Farrah Fowler actress said, “Sony has informed me that I will no longer be hosting the syndicated version of Jeopardy!”
Bialik, who has been nominated for an Emmy for her work as the host of America’s Favorite Quiz show, went on to thank fans of Jeopardy!, plus the crew and writing team. Presently, Ken Jennings, former Jeopardy! champion and co-host of Jeopardy! is leading things over on the Alex Trebek Stage.
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After Bialik stepped away in May in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strikes and the subsequent Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes, Jennings has been hosting Jeopardy! and, most recently, the new season of Celebrity Jeopardy! on primetime. His work on the show during the strikes drew controversy, even if–as Jennings pointed out–Alex Trebek did the same over a decade ago.
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