Although the quiz show is more challenging than most other game shows, Jeopardy! writers chose to go with a ridiculously easy category recently. It was so simple that my young kids could have answered the clues correctly. In fact, it almost felt like we were watching an SNL skit with Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek.
In the episode that aired on January 24, 2023, the Jeopardy! round included a category with the title “What Season Is It?” Although fans of the show may have assumed that the category would include fun and challenging clues, the audience was disappointed to find that the category was simply about the four seasons. That’s right. Every correct response was either winter, spring, summer, or fall.
Although the answers could have included a unique take on baseball season or even tax season, the writers apparently kept it as simple as possible. In fact, since there are only four seasons but five clues in the category, one season was repeated. Fall (or autumn) was the correct response for both the $400 clue, “Olympic Peninsula Apple & Cider Festival,” and the $1000 clue, “Duck hunting season (not wabbit season) starts in Louisiana & Minnesota.”
Even if the clues in the category were uber difficult, contestants still had a one in four chance of responding with the correct season. Honestly, even preschool-age kids can name the four seasons, which means that it’s a no-brainer category for Jeopardy! players.
Since the quiz show provided such an effortless category to contestants, we’re wondering if SNL writers actually wrote the clues. After all, it seemed more like the hilarious skits where the celebrities were so dumb they couldn’t even name numbers. With the actual Jeopardy! approaching its 40th season—nearly 9,000 episodes of the quiz show and its spinoffs have aired so far—we’ll give the team a pass for the occasional boring category.