Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik, hosts of Jeopardy. Bialik is currently on hiatus from the show due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Images courtesy Sony Entertainment.

If you are a regular viewer of Jeopardy, prepare yourself for a little déjà vu while you watch.

The long-running game show is still in production during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, so the staff who would normally be devising new questions for the show’s upcoming episodes are out on the picket line. But the show must go on, so prepare yourself for some recycled questions as the show dips into its past for future answers in the form of a question.

In case you were planning on memorizing previous questions in hopes of being cast on the show as a sure-fire winner, though, don’t bother. Not only will many of the questions come from past episodes, the show won’t be casting new contestants. The show is currently only being hosted by Ken Jennings as Mayim Bialik stepped down from hosting duties at the beginning of the SAG strike.

Jeopardy! showrunner Michael Davies announced on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast that the show will be taping some episodes out of order before Season 40 begins properly, and that past contestants are going to be given another chance at becoming champions.

“I believe, principally, that it would not be fair to have new contestants making their first appearance on the Alex Trebek Stage [where the show is taped] with non-original material,” Davies said. “We’re going to open the season with a second chance tournament for players from Season 37 who lost their initial game. Winners from that will advance to a Season 37 and Season 38 Champions Wildcard.”

Once the writers’ strike ends, “We’ll head into our Season 39 post-season, which will culminate with the [Tournament of Champions],” Davies continued. “So episodes at the beginning of the season for the Season 37 and Season 38 contestants, the material that we’re gonna be using is a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database and material that is being redeployed from multiple, multiple seasons of the show,” he said.

Davies also noted there will be changes to the winnings received by the runners-up in the game.

“A major announcement we can make today,” Davies also said, “is that we are increasing the second and third place prize amounts by $1,000 each.” Now, second place winners will receive $3,000 and third place winners will receive $2,000. This is the first time the prize amounts have been increased in over a decade. The move was made in response to growing criticisms over the fact that runners up must fund their own travel to participate in the show.

Prime-time show Celebrity Jeopardy is also set to return in September, but with completely original material that Davies said was completed before the WGA went on strike. As for Jeopardy Masters, a spring 2024 return date is expected.