Ken Jennings reveals the two things he misses most about the OG 'Jeopardy': 'I loved seeing...'

"Jeopardy!" has been enjoying popularity among American television viewers for decades, and while Ken Jennings became the host a few years ago, he had been a contestant for some time, too. A lot has changed since Jennings took over after the legendary Alex Trebek's departure, but he hasn't forgotten the connection to the classic game. There are a lot of things that Jennings misses that were lost due to the time constraints of the show's modern format.

Jennings was the first to take up the mantle of host in Trebek’s absence, initially splitting duties with Mayim Bialik. Ultimately, he was picked as the only one to helm the show, and a lot has changed since then, including the set, the sound design, and a little bit of the show's format. Thus, during a candid behind-the-scenes Q&A, Jennings got nostalgic about what he misses about the old show. When he was asked about what he would change about the show, Jennings said that it was pretty much perfect, given that it was in its 39th Season at the time. However, he did talk about a couple of things that he missed. “You know what I miss is now entering the studio. I know we don’t have time anymore, but I loved seeing the contestants march in. You know?” he said, referring to how the contestants were introduced by the show's announcer, Johnny Gilbert. Before the changes, Gilbert used to open the show by saying, “This is Jeopardy! Now entering the studio are today’s contestants," before individually introducing the players, as seen in the video of Alex Trebek's first episode.

Jennings further shared that he also missed the old-school sound effects of the "Jeopardy!" board filling up as well. “I also like the beep-boop-boop-boop-boop when they do the board. But those are just things lost to the constraints of time, I think," he said. He then turned to one of the show's producers, Rocky Schmidt, asking him if he missed the sound effects or if he didn't like them at all. Schmidt was very technical with his answer and said that it cost the show about five seconds every round. “Yeah, it’s the timing," Jennings said in the end. 

Many fans shared similar sentiments on Twitter (now X), where a clip of the Q&A session was shared. "I would be okay with cutting 15 seconds off the interview portion and bringing back the beep beep boop," wrote one fan, @satwiseBTC. While some disagreed with Jennings on bringing back the march, the sound effects were a clear fan favorite.

With the rising demand to bring back the old sound effects, Jennings himself shared the video, almost starting a petition. “Beep-boop-boop hive rises up," he wrote in the caption of his tweet.

This prompted some fans to push Jennings to do more to bring back the classic sound effects. "As host, you have the power to tell the studio audience to make the old sound effect when the board goes in motion, kind of like how Bob did it here on Price," @EugeneByon wrote, sharing a video of Bob Barker where he asked the audience to create some sound effects.