Fans on Reddit and in a TV Insider story this week are asking the same question: is Jeopardy! getting harder? TV Insider noted that none of this season's champions had gone more than four games. Fans pointed to tougher, more confusing categories, and to players who now start from the bottom of the board. We went back through the season so far to see what the numbers say.
Season 43 So Far
Through Tuesday, October 27, Season 43 has played 32 games and crowned 17 different winners. Five champions have won at least three games in a row, and the longest run is four, reached by Rian Robertson, Anthony Cantor and Matthew Riggle (two of Riggle's four wins came at the end of Season 42). Shannon Leigh Godwin won her third game on October 27.
How That Compares
Here is the same stretch, the first 32 games, in the last two seasons:
| Season | Different winners | Champions with 3+ wins | Champions with 5+ wins | Longest run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 43 (Sept. 14–Oct. 27, 2026) | 17 | 5 | 0 | 4 |
| Season 42 (Sept. 8–Oct. 21, 2025) | 18 | 3 | 2 | 7 (Paolo Pasco) |
| Season 41 (Sept. 9–Oct. 22, 2024) | 17 | 4 | 1 | 5 (Mark Fitzpatrick) |
So Is It Harder?
The numbers don't show fewer multi-day champions. Season 43 has more three-game champions than the same stretch of the last two seasons. What it hasn't had yet is a long run: last season's first 32 games included Paolo Pasco's seven wins and TJ Fisher's five, and this season nobody has passed four. With only 32 games played, one strong champion would change the picture.
Whether the clues themselves are harder is something the numbers can't settle. A former player quoted by TV Insider offered another explanation: “I think probably since the pandemic a lot more people have gotten into trivia, so the average level of player has gone up.”
What Has Changed This Season
The changes the show has announced are to its tournaments, not to regular games. Qualifying for the next Tournament of Champions closed with Season 42, so this season's winners are playing for the following postseason, in late 2027 and early 2028. The next Second Chance, Champions Wildcard and Tournament of Champions run in January and February 2027, with the Jeopardy! Invitational moving to spring 2027, according to a show press release reported by The Jeopardy! Fan. We found no new limit on champions and no change to the rules of a regular game.
How We Counted
We used J! Archive, the fan-run record of every episode, and counted regular games only: the winner of each game is the champion who returns the next day. Runs include wins carried over from the season before. We left out Season 40, which opened with tournaments after the 2023 strikes, so its first regular games came much later in the year.
More on the show: how Jeopardy! tiebreakers work, our Season 43 preview, the greatest players of all time, and how to get on Jeopardy!
Sources (checked October 2026): TV Insider, on the champion drought (syndicated copy); TV Insider, on the postseason changes; The Jeopardy! Fan, tournament schedule; Matt Carberry, Season 43 FAQ; Jeopardy!, Inside Jeopardy! on Season 43; J! Archive, Season 43; J! Archive, Season 42; J! Archive, Season 41
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