Jeopardy! contestant claims game show didn’t pay for travel or hotel expenses

A former Jeopardy! contestant has claimed that the iconic game show failed to accommodate for his hotel and travel expenses during his time on the show.

Ben Goldstein, who appeared during the show’s currently airing 39th season, took to Twitter on Sunday (25 June) to call out those at Jeopardy! in an effort to make the show more “accessible” to its fans and contestants.

He replied to a tweet from fellow Jeopardy! fan Andy Saunders, who wrote that it’s been a longstanding policy of the show to not pay for airfare and accommodations, ultimately posing an “issue of fairness” amongst contestants.

“Interesting discussion of the ‘Why doesn’t #Jeopardy pay airfare and accommodations’ question here,” Goldstein said. “Personally, I think covering travel/lodging would make the show more accessible to a wider range of contestants. Not everyone can afford a trip to LA with no guarantee of payback.”

Goldstein then discussed his own six-episode run on Jeopardy!, before he was beat out by Donna Matturri during last week’s episode. “They paid for my flight when I had to go back out for a second taping week,” he explained. “But the first flight and four total nights in a hotel and a lot of Ubering was on me.”

In a 1994 article from the Oakland Tribune, former contestant coordinator Kelley Carpenter said that if the show were to fly out contestants from the other side of the country, it would be unfair to those who live closer to Jeopardy’s studio in Los Angeles. “Because we have both out-of-towners and locals appearing on the show, if we were to pay for an airfare and a hotel, we would have technically given away money to some contestants coming from the East Coast, which wouldn’t be fair to someone who only lives 20 minutes away,” she said.

According to Saunders, those who make it to the Jeopardy! tournament do have their flights and hotels paid for by the show. Each episode, non-winners are also given consolation prizes of $2,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place.

Goldstein’s revelation shocked many Jeopardy! fans, as some were stunned to learn the long-running game show doesn’t pay for airfare or hotel expenses.

“Wow … no clue they didn’t pay your travel expenses … that’s weak,” wrote one Twitter user, while another said: “I remember thinking ‘at least the $1,000 third prize would pay for the trip,’ but that’s probably not true anymore.”

Jeopardy! has been on television since 1964, making it one of the longest-running game shows ever. Famed TV personality Alex Trebek hosted the game show from 1984 until his death, with his last episode airing on 8 January 2021 after more than 35 years as host. Since then, former Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings and Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik have served as permanent rotating hosts. Jeopardy’s 39th season premiered on 12 September 2022.

In March, Jeopardy! viewers noticed an on-air blunder after a shot of the contestants’ final scores was shown during host Mayim Bialik’s opening speech. Speaking on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, executive producer Michael Davies divulged a show secret as he apologised for the “horrible error”.

“Right off the bat, apologies to our entire audience,” he said. “We totally blew it at the top of the show. We made a horrible error where we revealed the final scores at the end in the opening cutaway shot during Mayim’s monologue.”

Davies then revealed that the opening part of the show is often re-shot after the game has been completed, with cutaway shots including the contestants’ final scores replaced by the same shots from the start.

He said that while “it is standard procedure to take the scores in the podium back to the original level,” for some reason “it didn’t happen” on that particular day – and nobody in post-production caught the mistake.

“It’s a series of errors and it’s somehow remarkable they all happened,” Davies said, but assured viewers that protocols are now in place “that will prevent this from happening again”.

The Independent has contacted Jeopardy! for comment.