Jeopardy! Champ Dings Show For Making Him Pay His Own Travel Expenses

Michael Ausiello
·1 min read
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Jeopardy!‘s T&E backlash is growing.

Recent champ Ben Goldstein has come out as a non-fan of the game show’s longstanding policy of not paying contestants’ travel expenses (unless they get a win streak under their belts).

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“Personally, I think covering travel/lodging would make the show more accessible to a wider range of contestants,” Goldstein argued on Twitter earlier this week. “Not everyone can afford a trip to LA with no guarantee of payback.

“We’re talking about an additional ~$2,500 per episode to pay for a flight and two nights in a local hotel for the two new challengers,” he continued. “That really doesn’t strike me as that much… They paid for my flight when I had to go back out for a second taping week. But the first flight and four total nights in a hotel and a lot of Uber-ing was on me.”

Jeopardy! producer Sarah Whitcomb Foss recently confirmed via the Inside Jeopardy! podcast that, yes, “Our contestants are asked to fly themselves out to Los Angeles for their first appearance. If they end up being a returning champion, then we do provide travel for them on their return trips.”

A Sony Pictures rep declined to comment, but a Jeopardy! insider notes that non-winning contestants do not go home empty-handed: second and third place finishers pocket $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, “which do help offset travel costs.”

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