It’s an exciting time at Jeopardy!, both on-screen — where Caleb Groen is the latest superchampion trying to become one of Jeopardy!’s biggest winners — and behind the scenes, with the search for a new writer being opened up to the public for the first time ever. In reading about the rigorous application process the potential clue-writers have to go through, I came upon a fact that was surprising to me — there’s one word that is apparently never used on the set of one of the greatest game shows of all time.
Watching new episodes of Jeopardy! as they hit the 2026 TV schedule each weekday has become an integral part of my post-work routine over the years, so I was caught off-guard a bit to learn that one word I would closely associate with the show is apparently off-limits to its employees. As executive producer Michael Davies told CNN:
We do not use the word trivia at ‘Jeopardy!’ We don’t regard what we write as trivial. We regard this as the subjects, the facts, the things that an elite, modern American should know.
OK, that makes sense when he says it like that. While Jeopardy! Masters champion Yogesh Raut has had his opinions about the show’s relevance, I definitely wouldn’t call it “trivial.” It definitely seems to be in a more elite class than other question-and-answer game shows.
Admittedly, I tend to use the word “trivia” more as a synonym for facts or general knowledge without assigning importance to those facts. But, if I’m going by Michael Davies’ rules, I don’t exactly qualify as an “elite, modern American” either, because as much as I watch Jeopardy!, I feel I’ve retained shamefully little knowledge about opera or world history (give me “Before & After” or “Triple Rhyme Time” any day though!).
Also, we can’t ignore that many of our favorite Jeopardy! winners have been regulars at their respective trivia nights. And while the Jeopardy! GOAT and current host Ken Jennings doesn’t show up at bar trivia to “stunt on those hoes,” he did come up in the quizzing community before finding fame via his 74-game win streak. (I now have no doubt that professional quizzers would also take offense to the word “trivia.”)
The trivia world has also served Jeopardy! alumni well, with Ken Jennings and others — Austin Rogers and Buzzy Cohen, for example — authoring their own trivia books after finishing their stints on the quiz show.
Jeopardy! and trivia may exist in the same world as each other, but it makes complete sense that Michael Davies and everyone involved in the show would want to protect it from being considered a “trivial” game of useless general knowledge. That knowledge is anything but useless when it leads to big paychecks and even sometimes career opportunities afterward.
We’ll have to keep watching Jeopardy! on weekdays to see who will bring enough smarts to the Alex Trebek Stage to dethrone Caleb Groen, who as of July 17 had accumulated $346,968 in 12 games. Check your local listings to see when episodes air, or catch them streaming the next day with either a Hulu subscription or Peacock subscription.
