⏳ Weekly Writing Contest | October 5: In the Spirit of Jeopardy!
This week's guest judge is Michael Davies, Executive Producer of Jeopardy! Submit your entry by Friday, October 10th at 12pm ET/5pm BST.
Welcome to the Weekly Writers’ Hour Contest!
This week’s challenge invites you to turn your words into a puzzle—something brief, clever, and designed to spark discovery.
PROMPT
In the Spirit of Jeopardy! Write a piece in the genre of your choosing that shares the qualities of a Jeopardy! clue: concise, puzzle-like, surprising, and rewarding close attention.
(Please note: we’re not asking you to write actual Jeopardy! categories or clues, just a piece of writing that captures their spirit!)
Don’t worry, you don’t need to know the rules of Jeopardy! to take part. A good clue is layered. It invites you to think, to interpret, to solve, and often contains a twist that makes you see something in a new way.
Unpublished pieces of 500 words or less in any genre are eligible.
Submissions are due by Friday, October 10th, at 5pm BST / 12pm ET.
Keep reading for more information on prizes and FAQs – plus an introduction to this week’s guest judge Michael Davies, Executive Producer of Jeopardy!, streaming next-day on Hulu & Peacock https://www.jeopardy.com/watch.
Happy writing!
The Writers’ Hour Magazine Team
Meet Our Guest Judge: Michael Davies
Michael Davies is the Founder and President of Embassy Row. A ten-time Emmy Award winner, Davies is one of the most prolific and versatile producers in the television industry and has been key in transforming the television and digital landscapes while bringing alternative ideas to the mainstream.
As an executive and producer at Disney, ABC, and Sony, Davies has been responsible for dozens of hit shows and franchises including “Bill Nye The Science Guy,” “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” “Talking Dead,” “Beyond Stranger Things,” “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” “Good Morning Football,” “Men in Blazers” and “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.” In addition to television, Davies has served as executive producer for a number of documentary sports films, including the Academy Award shortlisted “The Tillman Story,” and for ESPN, “Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos” and “I Scored a Goal in the World Cup Final.” He is also a successful podcast host and now a New York Times best-selling author with the release of his 2018 book “Men in Blazers Present Encyclopedia Blazertannica: A Suboptimal Guide to Soccer, America’s ‘Sport of the Future’ Since 1972.”
Before founding Embassy Row, the London-born Davies, a graduate of The University of Edinburgh, rose through the ranks as an executive at The Walt Disney Studios and ABC Entertainment, between 1992 and 1999, where he ultimately ran Alternative Series, Specials, and Late Night. After sealing the U.S. rights for the UK game format, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,” Davies left the network to executive produce more than 350 primetime episodes of the format and form his own company, Diplomatic, which became Embassy Row in 2005.
Davies sold Embassy Row to Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2009 and has remained its president ever since, cementing his industry-wide reputation as a creative leader in the sports and entertainment talk show business. However, it was his strong background in quiz shows that led to him being named interim Executive Producer of Jeopardy! in August 2021. His position became official in April 2022, becoming the fourth ever EP of Jeopardy! in its 42 years in syndication.
Over the course of his time at Jeopardy!, Davies has successfully launched three new primetime Jeopardy! spinoffs at ABC: “Celebrity Jeopardy!,” “Jeopardy! Masters” and the “Jeopardy! National College Championship.” In 2024, he created “Pop Culture Jeopardy!” on Amazon’s Prime Video, the first Jeopardy! series produced exclusively for a major streaming service. Davies and the writers of “Pop Culture Jeopardy!” won the WGA Award for Quiz and Audience Participation for the show’s first season. Davies is also a co-host of the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast, which he established in August 2022.
A Note from Michael
Jeopardy! stands unique amongst quiz shows chiefly because of the quality of our writing. Last year we put 25,687 clues on the air in more than 5000 categories. Not every clue is a banger like the one that caused a former Head Writer to march around the office exclaiming - “This is how you do it!’:
Show 3367 air April 6, 1999, category JOB BANK:
ONE OF THE JOBS OF A DESHI IN JAPAN IS TO WASH THE PLACES ON THESE ATHLETES THAT THEY CAN’T REACH THEMSELVES
WHO ARE SUMO WRESTLERS?
Even if you’ve never heard of a deshi, you can picture it.
But our current Head Writers, Billy and Michele, drive our writers hard to make every piece of writing reach our standards. Because of the “answer” “question” format of our program our clues are often puzzles that have to be figured out - what are we actually looking for here? We also employ humor a lot - quite famously, a category about the History of Monarchy was titled “Princess, Who’s Your Daddy?” And another looked for responses in the category “Buddhist, Cubist or Nudist?” Our work is concise, we are limited to seven lines max, 17 characters per line (including spaces and punctuation) but we don’t mind a flourish. Unlike almost every other quiz show on the air, our material plays full screen. And it must be good enough to deserve its close-up.
I can’t wait to read your responses influenced by our writing and program. If you want to learn more there’s lots on our social channels - YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok - and even on Substack. There’s also a whole fan-maintained website J! Archive which holds almost every category and clue ever played.
Bring it!
How to Submit:
Submissions should be made through our online submission platform, Submittable, and formatted as a Word Doc.
For more details, please read the full Contest Guidelines.
The winning entries will receive:
First Prize:
$65 USD (£50 GBP)
Publication in Writers’ Hour Magazine
3-months of London Writers’ Salon Silver Membership (£79 value)
Commemorative Writers’ Hour trophy mug
Second Prize:
Publication in Writers’ Hour Magazine
1-month of London Writers’ Salon Silver Membership (£29 value)
Third Prize:
Publication in Writers’ Hour Magazine
FAQs:
What genres can I write in?
All genres - fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc - are welcome.Is there a word limit?
Your piece must be 500 words or less. Pieces that exceed this will not be considered. There is no minimum word limit.Do I need to submit in a specific format?
Please follow the instructions outlined in the Contest Guidelines.When is the deadline to submit?
Submissions are due by Friday, October 10th at 5pm BST / 12pm ET / 9am PT. Submissions received outside this window will not be considered.When will the winner be announced?
The winner will be contacted via Submittable, and the winning entries will be published in Writers’ Hour Magazine by Saturday, November 1st.Can I submit a piece I’ve already published?
Only previously unpublished pieces are eligible for this contest. (Published means anything that has already been made publicly available in print or online.)Can I use AI tools (like ChatGPT) to help write my contest submission?
No. We do not accept any AI-assisted writing for contest entries. All submissions must be the author’s original work and human-generated. Use of AI will disqualify you from this and any future contests.
Congratulations to the winners of The Garment!
We are thrilled to share the contest results for the week of September 7. Writers were invited to explore how a single piece of clothing can carry a story. Special thanks once again to our guest judge Randy Winston.
First Place: The Purple Sweatshirt by Tracey Edelist, PhD
Second Place: Dedications by Nadia Khan
Third Place: Shirts of Shame by Claire Gunter
Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who participated. It’s a pleasure to share these pieces with you, and we can’t wait to see what you create in the next contest!
PS: ✍️ Write with us daily at Writers’ Hour
Come work on your submission at Writers’ Hour—our daily silent writing sprints—where writers around the world gather together to write. It’s the perfect environment to focus, share space with other writers, and make progress on your contest entry.
🔒 Paid Subscriber Perk: Editorial Feedback Lottery
This week, three paid subscribers will be chosen at random to receive personalized feedback from our editorial team on their contest submission.
How to enter the feedback lottery:
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