# Jeopardy! Season 42. It is what it is **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** reality-or-game-show\ **Created:** [August 10, 2025, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905 "2025-08-10T14:25:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/21 "2025-08-11T14:35:19Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Well, there’s one picture of the set lit up with red lights (although I doubt that means the set will be red all the time). Perhaps they’re bringing back the “switch to red lighting for Double Jeopardy! only” color scheme from the 90s? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/22 "2025-09-09T15:21:22Z")
S42 Ep 1 was last night. New credits, but I didn’t notice any set changes. Or set pieces. But they did have A PLATONIC CATEGORY Seth: I’m Seth Rogen. My castmates and I will have clues about things that are truly platonic, like our series on Apple TV+, and you can’t get much more platonic than this guy right here. (holds up bust of Plato) Which was pretty useless. We’d never heard of the show, but my wife noted “of course they have a skinny chick with a British accent”. There was also a category called “Streaming TV”, which had a clue about…Seth Rogan. Despite never streaming shows, I got two of five. One had a picture of the show’s cast, and a current show with TOS Star Trek uniforms was kind of obvious. (I have it on Blu Ray) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/23 "2025-09-09T17:58:06Z")
Yes, but did you know the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/24 "2025-09-09T18:16:55Z")
I did not. It’s all Greek to me. Apropos of that, I thought on an older game I watched that it was mildly wrong to give a category on medical terminology (like obscure bone names) to a set of contestants where one is an actual doctor. Who else is going to memorize those? That’s one of those things med school is know for. You can think vaccines are fake, that horse dewormer is good for virus infection, and they’ll still call you “doctor”, but if you don’t know your medial cuneiform from your navicular and your cuboid, well, maybe you should consider a job as a receptionist. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/25 "2025-09-09T20:03:07Z")
The clues and responses for each show (“the material,” as they call it) are randomly selected from several sets just before they start taping to avoid any possibility of cheating. It would be just as wrong to pull a medical category just because one of the players was a doctor, as it would be to insert one. This is all established by Federal laws enacted after the game show scandals of the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/26 "2025-09-09T20:22:49Z")
To circle back to the red lighting, it looks like the background lights turned red during the “Think Music” section of Final Jeopardy. Otherwise there were no changes to the set that I noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/27 "2025-09-09T20:29:00Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > it looks like the background lights turned red during the “Think Music” section of Final Jeopardy. I missed that. I’ll check tonight’s episode to see if I can see it. Last night’s had 12 triple stumpers. I wouldn’t know if that’s a record, but it was pretty obvious a lot were going unanswered. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/28 "2025-09-09T23:12:37Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > British accent Rose Byrne was born in and grew up in Australia. She’s lived in Brooklyn since around 2012. She lives with her American boyfriend Bobby Cannavale and their two children. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/29 "2025-09-09T23:45:56Z")
The next idea will be that watchers can bet on the outcomes. Seems like gambling is being pushed on many fronts. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/30 "2025-09-10T01:37:29Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Apropos of that, I thought on an older game I watched that it was mildly wrong to give a category on medical terminology (like obscure bone names) to a set of contestants where one is an actual doctor. I rather like the suggestion to give Latin names to the toes. _porcellus fori_ _porcellus domi_ _porcellus carnivorus_ _porcellus non voratus_ _porcellus plorans domum_ ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/31 "2025-09-10T05:56:27Z")
Aside from the extremely red lighting during the Think Music, the only change I noticed is the Final Jeopardy monitor mounted on a single post instead of two. As we begin year three of Ken as THE host of Jeopardy, period. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/32 "2025-09-10T13:12:00Z")
I love Ken. I hope he’s in for the long haul. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/33 "2025-09-10T13:47:29Z")
I’m concerned that Sony Pictures Television is trying to push the tone of the show to (what they perceive as) younger, hipper, pop culture-ish. We have already seen that as Celebrity Jeopardy!, celebrity hosts, gimmicky categories, and a 21st century bias on clues such as in music categories. I believe they don’t really see Jennings as a good fit for the pop version of Jeopardy! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/34 "2025-09-10T14:04:45Z")
Given how Jeopardy!'s audience is aging, they have to do _something_ to appeal to younger people. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/35 "2025-09-10T14:09:38Z")
I didn’t really notice _any_ differences between the new season this week and the repeats from last week. The original posts in this thread had me worried but seems whatever changes they added were really subtle. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/36 "2025-09-10T14:15:33Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Given how Jeopardy!'s audience is aging, they have to do _something_ to appeal to younger people. [Well, they need to revise their logo, make it appeal to younger people.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-changes-logo-and-stock-declines/1022371) And take out some of their “old people like this” decor. What could go wrong? > [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > The original posts in this thread had me worried but seems whatever changes they added were really subtle. I was worried, too. Either the reports were exaggerated, or…we haven’t seen the worst of it yet. I suspect the former. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/37 "2025-09-10T14:41:32Z")
Maybe I am getting smarter. Or the questions are getting easier. 😉 But, it is only an impression. I remember Jeopardy using science and geography questions. Biology has a lot of material for game shows. What is… a Zygot, Photorespiration and photosynthesis in plants. etc. Today they ask more pop culture questions. That puts older contestants at a disadvantage. I could memorize the Boy Band members and Rap artists. Read plots of recent movies. But, I don’t want to win that badly. 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/38 "2025-09-10T15:36:06Z")
Sometimes when they have clues about 21st century music, I’m like “they’re just making up names, aren’t they?” Then I go put on my Strawberry Alarm Clock records and cry… ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/39 "2025-09-14T02:16:55Z")
Last night (or the night before) Ken delivered two zingers. First was reading the categories, one of which was “Big Piles” which Ken read than added “No comment”; the second was when nobody answered a clue correctly and Ken quipped “_Finally_ I get to say it! What is a rake?” Almost fell out of my chair. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905/40 "2025-09-14T12:56:56Z")
😄 We see what you did there, Ken! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-season-42-it-is-what-it-is/1021905.md?page=3)