Millionaire, Family Feud, ESPN Jeopardy! All Provide Updates This Week
Quite a lot of news went down this week in the game show space. We got new updates on the long-running shows Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Family Feud, as well as the brand new spin-off ESPN Jeopardy!. Let’s see what’s new in the world of game shows.
Who Wants To See A Millionaire?
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is back, but once again, most of the contestants are already millionaires. Jimmy Kimmel is returning to host another season of the classic game show, which will feature 16 pairs of celebrities. Each team will attempt to answer a series of trivia questions to win $1,000,000 for charity.
Ben Affleck will appear on the show this season, alongside Jeopardy! superchampion Jamie Ding. Earlier this year, Jamie won 31 consecutive games on the Alex Trebek Stage, and amassed $885,605 in cash winnings along the way. In his third game, he tied the record for the most correct responses in a single game (45, shared with current host Ken Jennings), and he broke the record for the highest one-game Coryat score of all time ($42,400).
Jamie also nearly became the second player to score $100,000 in a single regular season game. In his 14th game, he would have reached that threshold exactly if he had gotten the Final Jeopardy clue right. Unfortunately, he didn’t come up with the correct response, so he did not achieve a 6-figure score that day.
Other teams include Colin Jost and Michael Che, Jackie Tohn and Timothy Simons, Clayton Kershaw and Brad Baisley, and Larry David and his daughter Cazzie David. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire returns to ABC on July 22.
Family Feud’s 50th
The classic game show Family Feud is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and they’re celebrating in a wide variety of ways. Last year, the show began searching for “legacy families.” Teams who had previously competed on any other version of Family Feud were encouraged to apply for a second chance to play the game, and many of them are set to appear during this 50th anniversary season.
For many years, the standard Fast Money grand prize has been $20,000. But for 10 special episodes, BetMGM will partner with Family Feud to raise the prize money to $50,000. Family Feud previously gave away a $50,000 cash prize to celebrate Steve Harvey’s 1,000th episode.
The show has also joined forces with Carvel to bring the Family Feud Birthday Cake Carvelanche to stores on September 1. The 50th anniversary Family Feud board game will be made available at TGI Fridays for a limited time as well. Customers will be given the option to play the game physically or digitally.
Two other Family Feud games are being introduced. Arkadium is about to launch a new browser-based version of the show, and Gameloft just released Family Feud Pocket on Apple Arcade. In addition, a 50th anniversary clip show is coming to Twitch, thanks to a partnership between Family Feud and Gaggl. Streamers will have the chance to participate, and give out cash prizes to their viewers.
The 50 year celebration begins on Monday, September 28 in syndication.
LeBron ESPN Jeopardy!
We also have some new information about ESPN Jeopardy!, the sports-themed spin-off hosted by Joe Buck. The first season will premiere on July 31, and will consist ten episodes (6 quarterfinals, 3 semifinals, and 1 final). Eighteen personalities will be taking part, most of whom can be seen on ESPN. The field also includes several NFL commentators and analysts, as well as a few other celebrities. The quarterfinal matchups will be as follows:
Christine Williamson, Jeremy Schaap, Kimberley Martin
MJ Acosta-Ruiz, Peter Scrager, Omar Raja
Jon Hamm, Keegan-Michael Key, Adam Pally
Hannah Storm, Jay Harris, Amina Smith
Kyle Brandt, Jamie Erdahl, Manti Te’o
Kevin Negandhi, Domonique Foxworth, Madelyn Burke
The winner of the tournament will receive $500,000 for charity. ESPN Jeopardy! will be available for streaming on Hulu and Disney+, as well as the ESPN app.
