In a move some might say is unAustralian, a local version of the international TV quiz show, Jeopardy, is making a comeback to our small screens some time soon.
Jeopardy! Australia will be hosted by British comedian, actor and writer Stephen Fry, filmed in a regional production hub in Manchester and will feature Australian contestants – expats living in the UK.
Ticks boxes
Steven Molk, TV expert from TVBlackbox.com.au, tells The New Daily it’s all about saving money.
“It’s a huge cost-saving mechanism to make content that meets ‘local’ quotas (such as they are now),” he said.
Fry, 65, has had a successful career spanning more than four decades, and even won the Rose d’Or award for best game show host in 2006 for hosting BBC television quiz show QI, with his tenure lasting from 2003 to 2016.
Not only will the Blackadder star host the Australian version of Jeopardy! in the Whisper TV production for Nine, but the network will also broadcast ITV’s new series of Jeopardy! UK, which Fry will also host.
Production is set to begin in May for the six prime-time specials and, according to TVBlackbox, filming in Manchester will coincide with the 20-part UK version.
Fry is also on board as the executive producer of the Australian version alongside Kerri Reid and Tom McLennan.
“They could have flown Fry out, though the added benefit of Fry is the host of the UK version and the sets exist [and that] means Nine don’t have to recreate or build them … or fit into Fry’s schedule to fly him out,” Mr Molk said.
Makes sense. And the catch?
Potential contestants have until May 12 to apply, they must be Australian, over the age of 18 and currently reside in the UK, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
Mr Molk says there’s another Australian reality TV show being made and broadcast offshore this month.
“An Australian show, made overseas, but featuring Australian contestants … it’s almost like we’ve an example on Ten right now,” he says, referring to I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! being filmed in the African jungle.
At least the hosts are fair dinkum with Dr Chris Brown and Julia Morris, and the celebrity contestants have been flown in from Australia, the UK and New Zealand to the central jungle camp.
The legendary Fry
Jeopardy! was created by Merv Griffin in 1964, and it’s a game show where contestants choose from subject categories on the Jeopardy board and provide answers in the form of a question.
It is in its 39th season and remains one of the longest-running game shows of all time, with various adaptations in play around the world.
In Australia, the original version of Jeopardy! ran from 1964 to 1975 and aired on Saturdays at 5.30pm on the Seven Network, according to an Australian game show wiki page.
“It was hosted at first by Bob Sanders and later by Graham Webb, Mal Walden and Andrew Harwood involving students from various Australian schools and colleges as contestants, similar to the original American version’s National College Scholarship Test,” it wrote.
Tony Barber recruited
The 1993 Australian version of Jeopardy! followed the same format as the US show, and Tony Barber, who hosted one of Australia’s most successful game shows with Sale of the Century, was recruited.
For example, a contestant would say, “prime ministers for $200,” and the resulting clue would be: “In 1901, this man became the first Australian Prime Minister.”
The contestant would respond, ‘Who was Edmund Barton?’, the game page explained, and add to their accumulating prize pool.
The show didn’t achieve the same success and only ran for one season, according to the National Film and Sound Archive.
“Jeopardy! has a format that – strikingly unusual as it seems at first – just gets under the skin of an audience, and reveals more and more depths of delight,” Fry said in a Nine statement.
“Not to mention more and more depths of knowledge amongst the population.
“I reckon Australia will welcome this uniquely beguiling and endlessly rewarding game and I just can’t wait to get started.”
Jeopardy! Australia won’t change the ageless format, and will present answers first in the form of short, written clues.
