Jeopardy! Next Week (Sept. 21–25, 2026): Jennifer Leavey Takes Over, Four Nights Left
The gist: Five new Jeopardy! episodes run Monday through Friday next week, Sept. 21–25, in whatever weeknight slot your local station uses. Mark Ramirez came back Monday with two wins and $32,300 banked and lost the title to Jennifer Leavey, who won again Tuesday before Emily Burnham and then Nikolas Polsinelli took over. Ken Jennings hosts all five nights, there is no tournament attached and no primetime hour on ABC — week two of Season 43 is five straight regular games.
What is on Jeopardy! next week, day by day?
| Day (ET) | What airs | The detail that matters |
|---|---|---|
| Mon 9/21 | Played | Jennifer Leavey won, $20,000 — Ramirez out after two |
| Tue 9/22 | Played | Leavey won again, $30,801 — two-day total $50,801 |
| Wed 9/23 | Played | Emily Burnham won, $17,201 — Leavey out after two |
| Thu 9/24 | Played | Nikolas Polsinelli won, $17,601 — Burnham out after one |
| Fri 9/25 | Played | Polsinelli won again, $22,400 — two-day total $40,001 |
All five are first-run half hours. Nothing next week is an encore on the weeknight schedule, though stations that carry weekend Jeopardy! get a Season 42 repeat on Sept. 26–27 — the same slot that just ran E173 over Sept. 19–20, a May 6 game Tristan Williams won with $20,000 on a Final about Crimea. If the two keep blurring together, we laid out how to tell an old game from a new one.
Monday, Sept. 21: how did the opener go?
Leavey won it on the last wager of the night. She went into Final with $10,000, bet all of it on Famous Women, wrote Jane Goodall and finished at $20,000.
| Player | Into Final | Wager | Final |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jennifer Leavey | $10,000 | $10,000 ✓ | $20,000 |
| Donovan Bisbee | $18,600 | $1,501 ✗ | $17,099 |
| Mark Ramirez | $8,600 | $1,600 ✓ | $10,200 |
Bisbee led into Final and needed only $1,401 to cover a Leavey double. He bet $1,501, answered Mother Teresa, and dropped to second. Full wagers and the Coryat line are on the Jeopardy! Tonight page.
Leavey is a technical writer originally from Ashland, Mass.; Bisbee is a professor from Portland, Ore. Neither had played before Monday, which makes the new champion a complete unknown going into her first defense.
Ramirez leaves with $32,300 and a story: he took the online test for years and auditioned four separate times before the call came. That is not the profile of a lucky walk-on, and two wins undersells him.
His Friday had been ugly and he survived it: he led with $15,400, bet $3,900 on a Fictional Characters clue about the monster who terrorized the hall Heorot, answered Sauron, and finished at $11,500. The right response was Grendel, and nobody had it. Monday he answered correctly and still lost, which is the harder way to go out.
Tuesday, Sept. 22: what did week one actually look like?
Three different champions in five nights. Here is the whole premiere week in one place, which is the quickest way to see how unsettled the top of Season 43 is.
| Night | Winner | Won | Running total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 9/14 | Matthew Riggle | $8,001 | $72,401 (3 wins) |
| Tue 9/15 | Matthew Riggle | $23,201 | $95,602 (4 wins) |
| Wed 9/16 | Jen Spinoglio | $10,801 | $10,801 (1 win) |
| Thu 9/17 | Mark Ramirez | $20,800 | $20,800 (1 win) |
| Fri 9/18 | Mark Ramirez | $11,500 | $32,300 (2 wins) |
Riggle's four wins and $95,602, two of those wins from July, are still the benchmark for this fall's champions, and he is already close to the money range that usually earns a Tournament of Champions seat. Ramirez averages $16,150 a night, which is solid rather than scary. Our Thursday result has the game where he took over.
Wednesday, Sept. 23: is Celebrity Jeopardy! on next week?
No. ABC left Celebrity Jeopardy! off its fall schedule entirely, and the show is now expected in 2027 with no dates announced.
So the syndicated half hour is the only Jeopardy! on television next week, same as the last two. If you are looking for the primetime version, there is nothing to look for yet.
Thursday, Sept. 24: how do you find out who is playing?
Jeopardy.com's contestant page lists each game's challengers — name, hometown, occupation — before it airs. On Thursday, Oct. 1, for example, Friday's two challengers were already posted.
The one name nobody can give you early is the returning champion, because that depends on the game before. Each night's lineup and air time goes up on the Jeopardy! Tonight page, and the winner and Final Jeopardy! response follow after the East Coast broadcast, with the back catalogue in results.
Friday, Sept. 25: what is at stake by the end of the week?
Five wins, if Leavey runs the table from here. That is the point where a champion stops being a weekly curiosity and starts showing up in postseason math.
👉 Worth keeping in mind: Riggle lost on his fifth try, Spinoglio lost on her first defense, and Ramirez went out on his third. Six games, four champions — nobody has held this title longer than two nights since the premiere.
The other thing Friday settles is a second full week of qualifying. Season 42 ran out of postseason slots and producers closed its window early, so every win from Sept. 14 on builds a clean Season 43 leaderboard — you can count contenders from night one instead of untangling two seasons. For the shape of a genuinely long run, our winning-streak rankings put the current numbers in scale.
What time is Jeopardy! on in my city?
There is no national answer, because each station picks its own slot. The spread is wider than most people assume.
| Market | Typical Jeopardy! slot | Wheel of Fortune |
|---|---|---|
| New York | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. |
| Los Angeles | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. |
| Chicago | 3:30 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. |
| Philadelphia | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. |
| Atlanta | 7:30 p.m. | 7:00 p.m. |
Those are the big-market slots as of the September 2026 station check, and the two shows sit in back-to-back half hours nearly everywhere, Chicago excepted. Look yours up by ZIP code — the method is in our air-time guide.
Where can you watch or stream Season 43?
New episodes hit Hulu and Peacock the day after they air. Jeopardy.com keeps clips and the nightly Final Jeopardy! clue, and Pluto TV runs older seasons free around the clock.
What is worth watching for beyond next week?
The postseason calendar, mostly, and it has moved. Second Chance, Champions Wildcard and the Tournament of Champions are all slated for January and February 2027, and the Invitational shifts to spring. Field sizes and formats for this cycle have not been announced; last winter's ran 27 Second Chance players over three weeks, with the three winners feeding Champions Wildcard.
The practical effect is that autumn is pure qualifying. Nothing next week is a tournament, and nothing in October is either, so the only thing that changes the standings is somebody stringing wins together.
FAQ
What is on Jeopardy! this week?
Five new Season 43 episodes, Monday Sept. 21 through Friday Sept. 25, in the usual syndicated weeknight slot. All five are played — Jennifer Leavey won Monday and Tuesday, Emily Burnham Wednesday, Nikolas Polsinelli Thursday and Friday.
Who won Jeopardy! on Monday, Sept. 21?
Jennifer Leavey, with $20,000. Final Jeopardy! was Famous Women and the response was Jane Goodall.
Is Jeopardy! new this week?
Yes, all five weeknights are first-run. The summer encores ended Sept. 11, though weekend Jeopardy! markets get a Season 42 repeat on Sept. 26–27.
What time is Jeopardy! on?
Most markets air it at 7 or 7:30 p.m. local time (6 or 6:30 Central), a handful in the afternoon. Check the table above, then confirm with your local listings.
Wheel of Fortune runs Words With Friends week in the next half hour, with a sweepstakes attached to every episode — that week is laid out in Wheel of Fortune Next Week, and each night's puzzle and winner goes on our Wheel of Fortune Tonight page. Last week's schedule post covers the Season 43 premiere run.
Sources
The Jeopardy! Fan — Sept. 21 Final, scores and wagers · Jeopardy Tonight — nightly winner and final scores · Jeopardy.com — nightly contestants and season information · The Jeopardy! Fan — Sept. 18 scores, wagers and weekend encore schedule · Fikkle Fame — Sept. 18 Final Jeopardy! clue and responses · TV Insider — Mark Ramirez on his four auditions · The Jeopardy! Fan — Season 43 tournament schedule · Matt Carberry — last winter's Second Chance and Champions Wildcard format · Jeopardy.com — this week's contestants
- Who Hosts Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud and The Price Is Right?
- How to Qualify for the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions: Wins Needed and Who Decides
- How the Jeopardy! Buzzer Works: The Quarter-Second Lockout and the Hidden Lights
- Jeopardy! Daily Double Rules: The $5 Minimum, Where They Hide and the $25,000 Record