'Celebrity Jeopardy!' Announces New 'Triple Jeopardy' Format

"Jeopardy!" fans are looking forward to "Celebrity Jeopardy!", which is coming to ABC on Sunday nights later this month.

Hosted by "Jeopardy!" co-host Mayim Bialik, fans are looking forward to seeing some of their favorite celebrities compete for charity.

Ahead of its premiere on September 25, executive producer Michael Davies released a video explaining that there will be a new "Triple Jeopardy" format and what it means for the beloved game show.

In a new video published on Thursday, the “Jeopardy!” team was excited to announce the addition of “Triple Jeopardy” to the show.

For the first time ever, dollar amounts are tripled and there are three Daily Doubles hidden on the board. Davies said it “really makes a difference,” noting that they have an hour format in primetime, so the show’s pace is going to be a bit different than the standard “Jeopardy!” format that most fans watching along at home are used to.

Davies discussed the challenges of having two half-hour episodes back-to-back, mostly in terms of “booking” that many celebrities. “I think we’re already booking 27 celebrities over the run,” he said, noting that the show was “ordered quite late on in the year” and they might have had trouble securing 54 celebrities to compete, which is why they decided to go with one hour-long format.

“We didn’t have a lot of preparation and so early on we started thinking about how could we make it an hour format?” he went on. One of the ideas he mentioned was that they wanted to have an “Inside Jeopardy!” sports center-type desk to potentially talk about pre-game and post-game details with followers who were interested in those elements of “Jeopardy!” gameplay.

“But in the end, we really sort of, you know, settled upon the idea of building a new round, Triple Jeopardy,” he added, noting that this is the first time that the “Triple Jeopardy” round will be seen by audiences in the United States. In other countries, they have tried the triple format before, which led the team to start experimenting with the idea and toying around with the dollar values they wanted to introduce in each round.

“And it seems to work pretty well,” Davies concluded, explaining that, in the first round, they start out with $100 to $500 and then $200 to $1000 in Double. In the Triple Jeopardy round, it’s $300 to $1500. Although the numbers are bigger, the "Jeopardy!" team doesn't feel as though it will significantly alter the gameplay that fans have gotten used to.

“But what we’ve seen so far, it really worked out perfectly,” she added. Davies called “Triple Jeopardy” the round “where the game changes.” He added, “And I think one thing about the leveling, one thing about the dollar values, is that was decided to bring the dollar values down to the old original Jeopardy! round values partly because of the leveling of the material.”

Although contestants who want to appear on the show have to pass the Anytime Test, a second knowledge test, and then an audition, Davies revealed that the celebrities who are competing on “Jeopardy!” did not have to take a test in order to appear on the show. “We don’t really know how smart they are,” he joked. “On the whole, we didn’t really know what was going to happen.”

He said that they “ease up” on the material in the first round and the questions get harder as they proceed through each of the three rounds. “It’s a much more accessible show, I think, for an entire family,” he said.

However, “Final Jeopardy!” might still be the “great equalizer” when it comes to how the contestants perform. Mayim Bialik will host this "Jeopardy!" spin-off series while Greatest of All Time tournament winner Ken Jennings continues to host regular episodes of "Jeopardy!" through December. Bialik will then pick up hosting duties in January.

Fans are pretty curious to see who will be competing in "Celebrity Jeopardy!" and how well their favorite stars will perform under pressure. Fans can check out the celebrities who have already been announced and a short bio for each contestant by clicking here.