Jeopardy took home the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show this year, meaning the executive producer of the series, Harry Friedman, was on hand to answer journalists' burning questions about America's favorite knowledge-based game show. Since we are soap opera obsessed here at Soap Central, we of course asked Friedman if he sees more soap opera categories and stars in the show's future.
"We love [the soap opera] connection!" answered the exec, who's been producing the show since 1997. "The very first one we did was called 'Adjectives of The Young and the Restless.' And the actors all really got into it, and it gave them a chance to really ham it up, and they got it, of course, immediately. How they memorize line after line after line without looking at a script, it's astonishing. And they loved it!"
He continues: "We did it again -- we did more adjectives of The Young and the Restless. Then we did The Bold and the Beautiful, and I have a feeling there may be two other soaps in our future."
That being said, viewers shouldn't expect questions like "How many husbands has Susan Lucci's All My Children character, Erica, had?" After all, Jeopardy! isn't quite set up like that.
"There's a fine line between information -- knowledge -- and trivia. And we try not to get into anything that might border on trivia," Friedman points out. "If you're a regular viewer of the show, then you know that we include soap opera storylines, characters, settings, some of the best 'Fictional Cities' categories that we've ever had. So they get pretty liberal exposure on the show."
Well, let's hope that whatever clues are used the contestants will fare better than these:
What do you think about Jeopardy! featuring soap opera stars and soap opera categories on the show? Would you like to see General Hospital and Days of our Lives be featured next? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
