Jeopardy! is such a nice game show that it could not possibly be made for a British audience

The Outline

Netflix recently started putting Jeopardy! episodes on its UK streaming service. "As far as I know, Netflix is the first platform to air it in Britain in any form," says Tom Whyman. After watching several episodes, he says, "what I hadn’t been prepared for, however, was how nice it is — how resplendent with niceness everything about Jeopardy! is." In comparison, British game shows for brainiacs like University Challenge and Mastermind are often "pointlessly mean," he says. Whyman adds: "I’m not saying that the U.S. is some sort of haven of enlightened intellectualism — it is more likely that the cash prizes available on Jeopardy! serve to literalize the American myth of meritocracy. Still, there are times, in the U.S., where it is acceptable to seem like you want to show off how smart you are — but in the UK, this is never the case, even if you’re someone who’s spent their career making major breakthroughs in theoretical physics or computer science. This is not just a problem for TV quiz shows; it is symptomatic of the British ruling class’s more general attitude to knowledge, to competence, or indeed to having any particular interest in anything at all."