Jeopardy!
Encyclopedia
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories. Taking inspiration from horse racing
, he also decided to add three "Daily Doubles," clues in which a contestant could wager his or her money. Griffin discarded his original name for the show, What's the Question?, after a network executive suggested that the game "need[ed] more jeopardies."
s compete in three rounds: the Jeopardy! Round, the Double Jeopardy! Round, and the Final Jeopardy! Round. If there is a returning champion, he or she occupies the leftmost lectern from the viewer's perspective.
-laden titles (many of which refer to the standard subjects), wordplay categories, and even sets of categories with a common theme.
The value of each clue within categories has increased over time (with Super Jeopardy! values in points rather than dollars):
The contestant at the leftmost lectern from the viewer's perspective—the returning champion during non-tournament games—selects the first clue from any position on the game board, and the selected clue is revealed. The host then reads the clue, after which any of the three contestants may ring-in using a hand-held signaling device. The first contestant to ring-in successfully, following the host's reading of the clue, must then respond in the form of a question.
A correct response adds the dollar value of the clue to the contestant's score, and gives them the opportunity to select the next clue from the board. An incorrect response or a failure to respond within a five-second time limit (shown by the red lights on the contestant's lectern) deducts the dollar value of the clue from the contestant's score and gives any remaining opponent(s) the opportunity to ring-in and respond. If none of the contestants give a correct response, the host reads the correct response and the contestant who selected the previous clue chooses the next clue.
Daily Doubles are occasionally designated with special tags, such as "Audio Daily Double" or "Video Daily Double," in which an audio or video clip is played along with the clue. Such tags are displayed as soon as the Daily Double has been revealed.
Prior to 1985, contestants were able to ring in at any time after the clue had been revealed, and a buzzer would sound whenever someone rang in. According to Trebek, the buzzer sound was "distracting to the viewers" and sometimes presented problems, as contestants would inadvertently ring-in too soon, or ring in so quickly that by the time he finished reading the clue, the contestant's five-second limit had expired. He also said that, by not allowing anyone to ring in until the clue was finished, home viewers could play along more easily, and faster contestants would be less likely to dominate the game.
During the Jeopardy! Round, contestants are not penalized for forgetting to phrase a response in the form of a question, although the host will remind contestants to watch their phrasing on future clues. During the Double Jeopardy! Round, or on Daily Doubles (regardless of the round), adherence to the phrasing rule is followed more strictly, but contestants are still permitted to correct themselves before their time runs out.
At times, the show's producers may determine that a response previously given by a contestant was wrongly ruled correct or incorrect. When this happens, the scores are adjusted at the first available opportunity. If, after a game is over, a ruling change is made that would have significantly altered the outcome of the game, the affected contestant(s) are invited back to compete on a future show.
The value of each clue within categories has increased over time:
A category is announced by the host followed by a commercial break. During the break, barriers are placed between the contestants and contestants are asked to make one final wager (between $0 and their total score), writing it down. After the final commercial break, the Final Jeopardy! clue is revealed and read by the host. The contestants have thirty seconds to write a response, again phrased in the form of a question. During the time in which the contestants write their response, the iconic "Think!" music plays in the background. Since 1984, contestants use a light pen
to write down their Final Jeopardy! wager and response. Contestants giving the correct response are awarded the value of their wager. Those that fail to come up with the correct response or phrase their response in the form of a question (even if the response itself is correct) have that amount subtracted from their score.
Final Jeopardy! betting has been discussed by mathematicians as an exercise in game theory
.
If two or more contestants are tied for first place following Final Jeopardy! during non-tournament play, both (or all three) are declared co-champions and appear on the next episode.
When the 1984 version began, the show's creators decided to award full winnings only to the champion as a means of making the game more competitive, so that the final outcome is not always evident until the end of the game. On the Fleming version, contestants would occasionally decide that they only wanted to win a certain amount of money, and stop ringing-in when they reached that amount, instead of attempting to become a returning champion. Others would refuse to write down a question for Final Jeopardy! if another contestant had a significant lead.
If two or three contestants tie for first place, they are declared co-champions; each keeps his or her winnings and comes back on the following episode. Three contestants have each finished two consecutive games as co-champions.
A three-way tie for first place has only occurred once since 1984, and only one contestant from the same period has won a game with the lowest amount possible, $1.
Special considerations are also given for contestants who are unable to return as champion for medical reasons. This occurred for the first time in Season 25: three new contestants appeared on the January 19, 2009 episode, owing to the previous show's champion, Priscilla Ball, taking ill. At the top of the episode Alex Trebek explained that in such a case, the contestant would return at a later date as a co-champion. Ball returned on the episode that aired April 9, 2009.
Until 2003, a contestant who won five consecutive days retired undefeated, with a guaranteed spot in the next Tournament of Champions; three new contestants would appear on the following show. From 1997 until 2001, an undefeated champion was also awarded his or her choice of Chevrolet
cars or trucks. From 2001 to 2003, the winner won a Jaguar X-Type
. Similarly, as part of the deal with Ford Motor Company
for the 2001–2002 season, Ford also added a Volvo
to the Teen Tournament prize package.
From 1984 until 1990, champions kept all winnings up to a limit of $75,000; any amount above that was donated to a charity of the champion's choice. The limit was increased to $100,000 in 1990, after Bob Blake ($82,501) and Frank Spangenberg
($102,597) exceeded the old amount, and raised again to $200,000 in 1997.
In September 2003, with the start of Season 20, the show eliminated both the five-episode limit on returning champions and the total cash winnings limit. Champions can now remain on the program indefinitely until defeated, although champions who appear on five or more consecutive episodes no longer receive an automobile. The most successful returning champion after this rule change was implemented is Ken Jennings
, who won seventy-four consecutive games from June 2 through November 30, 2004 and amassed a total of $2,520,700, breaking several records for both Jeopardy! and American game shows in general.
The first was a weekly syndicated series, which aired during the 1974–1975 season; except for some minor changes in gameplay, this version was essentially similar to the original NBC series. A short-lived revival aired on NBC during the 1978–1979 season as The All New Jeopardy! with a number of changes in the rules — most notably, progressive elimination of the lowest-scoring contestants through the course of the main game, and a new bonus round as a replacement for Final Jeopardy! Later came Rock & Roll Jeopardy!
, a music-intensive version of Jeopardy! that aired on VH1
from 1998 to 2001, and Jep!
, which aired on GSN
from 1998 to 1999 and featured pre-teen contestants.
has been held more or less annually, featuring the top fifteen champions and other biggest winners who have appeared on the show since the last tournament. The tournament runs for ten consecutive episodes in a format devised by Alex Trebek. A top prize of $250,000 is awarded to the winner.
Beginning in 1992, Celebrity Jeopardy! has featured celebrities and other notable individuals competing for charitable organization
s of their choice. The 2009–2010 season included the Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational played throughout the season, with twenty-seven celebrity contestants competing for a grand prize of $1,000,000 for their charity.
First aired in 1987, the Teen Tournament
features competition between fifteen high school students, with the winner receiving $75,000 and, in some years, a new car. Until 2001, the winner was also invited to participate in the Tournament of Champions.
Beginning in 1989, the College Championship
features college students competing for a $100,000 prize. The tournament pits fifteen full-time undergraduate students from colleges and universities in the United States against one another in a two-week tournament, identical in format to the Tournament of Champions. The winner is also invited to participate in the next Tournament of Champions. From 1997–2008, the College Championship was taped on location at college campuses.
Ten Seniors Tournaments were held for a top prize of $25,000 (or the contestant's two-game total, whichever was greater) between 1987 and 1995. The tournaments featured contestants over the age of 50. Typically this tournament aired as the last two weeks of a season prior to a six-week-long summer break, with the winner earning an invitation to the next Tournament of Champions. Since the last Seniors Tournament in December 1995, contestants older than 50 years regularly appear on the program in non-tournament games.
There have been a number of special tournaments featuring the greatest contestants during the history of Jeopardy! The first of these "all-time best" tournaments, Super Jeopardy! aired in the summer of 1990 on ABC. It featured 37 top contestants who had competed on the program from 1984–1990, plus one notable champion from the original 1964–1975 version, all competing for a top prize of $250,000. In 1993, a Tenth Anniversary Tournament was conducted over five episodes and aired following the conclusion of that year's regular Tournament of Champions. In May 2002, to commemorate the Trebek version's 4,000th episode, the show invited fifteen champions to play for a $1 million bonus, in the Million Dollar Masters tournament, which took place at Radio City Music Hall
. The Ultimate Tournament of Champions
aired in 2005 and pitted 154 former Jeopardy! champions against each other, with two winners moving on to face Ken Jennings
in a three-game final for a $2 million top prize, the largest in the show's history. Overall, the tournament spanned 76 shows.
In November 1998, contestants from the 1987, 1988, and 1989 Teen Tournaments (including the champions) were invited to Boston to play in a special Teen Reunion Tournament
. Jeopardy! celebrated its landmark 25th anniversary season by holding a special Kids Week Reunion tournament featuring 15 former Kids Week alumni from the 1999 and 2000 Kids Weeks competing against each other.
The IBM Challenge, aired February 14–16, 2011, featured IBM
's Watson
computer facing off against two former Jeopardy! champions, Ken Jennings
and Brad Rutter
, in a two-game match played over three shows. This was the first man-vs.-machine competition in Jeopardy!' s history. Watson locked up the first game and the match to win $1 million, which IBM divided between two charities. Jennings, who won $300,000 for second place, and Rutter, who won the $200,000 third-place prize, both pledged to donate half their winnings to charity. The competition brought the show its highest ratings since the Ultimate Tournament of Champions.
Held in May 2011 to honor Jeopardy!' s 6,000th episode, the inaugural Teachers Tournament featured fifteen teachers competing for $100,000 in a format identical to the Tournament of Champions. The winner also received a spot in the next Tournament of Champions.
Since 1984, prospective contestants are given a fifty-question written exam. The questions cover various topics (including traditional academic information, popular culture, lifestyle and wordplay categories), and the number of questions in each topic has been modified throughout the years. Those who pass the exam by correctly answering at least thirty-five questions advance in the audition process and compete in mock games.
Contestant searches for the current syndicated version were initially only held in southern California but have been conducted regionally (sponsored by local affiliates that air the program) since 1985. Invitations to audition were originally awarded by postcard drawings and other types of contests. Prospective contestants can now obtain the location of regional contestant searches or register to participate in an online test via the official website.
Internet screenings have also been conducted for prospective contestants that previously registered on the official website, with a random selection of those obtaining a passing score invited to participate in additional regional contestant searches.
vehicle that travels to regional locations to conduct contestant searches. Attendees not wishing to compete for a chance to appear on the show can also play a shortened game of Jeopardy! for prizes such as t-shirts, hats, water bottles, etc., with the Jeopardy! logo.
Other aesthetic changes have been made to the set since the current syndicated version's premiere in 1984. Starting in 1985 and continuing until 1997, the sets were designed to have a background color of blue for Jeopardy! Rounds and red for Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy! Rounds. At the beginning of Season 8 in 1991, a brand new set was introduced that resembled a grid. On the episode aired November 11, 1996, two months after the start of Season 13, Jeopardy! introduced an entirely new set a second time by production designer Naomi Slodki. Slodki intended the set to resemble "the foyer of a very contemporary library". Shortly after the start of Season 19 in 2002, Jeopardy! once again changed its set. This set was modified slightly in 2006 when Jeopardy! became one of the first game shows to air in high-definition
. During this time, several virtual tour
s were featured on the official Jeopardy! web site.
Between Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune
, the various HD improvements represented an investment of about $4 million, 5,000 labor hours and 6 miles of cable. Both shows had been shot using HD cameras for several years prior to the upgrade. On standard-definition television
broadcasts, the show continues to be displayed with an aspect ratio
of 4:3.
A new set debuted with the Celebrity Jeopardy! and Tournament of Champions episodes taped in 2009 at the Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas
. This set became the primary set for Jeopardy! on September 14, 2009.
, which debuted on NBC
on March 30, 1964, was taped in Studio 6A at NBC Studios
at 30 Rockefeller Plaza
in New York City
. In addition to Studio 6A, Studio 8G was also frequently used to record the show.
The 1978 version of the show, The All-New Jeopardy!, was taped from NBC Studio 3 in Burbank
, California
, with a set designed by Henry Lickel and Dennis Roof.
When the syndicated Jeopardy! premiered in 1984, it was taped at Metromedia
Stage 7, KTTV
-TV, on Sunset Boulevard
in Hollywood. From 1985 to 1994, the show was taped at Hollywood Center Studios
' Stage 9.
After the final shows of Season 10 were taped on February 15, 1994, production moved to Sony Pictures Studios
' Stage 10 on Washington Boulevard
in Culver City, California
, where the first shows of Season 11 were taped on July 12, 1994.
kinescope
s of the original color
videotape
s. Some episodes from 1967, 1971, and 1973–1974 exist in the UCLA Film and Television Archive
while various episodes are at the Paley Center for Media (including the 1964 "test" episode). Incomplete paper records of the NBC-era games exist on microfilm
at the Library of Congress
.
After the original series ended, several NBC stations continued airing repeats for a few months in 1975 – including NBC-owned KNBC
, according to TV Guide
listings from that time.
Episodes #2,000 (from February 21, 1972) and #2,753 (the 1975 finale), along with a few others, are held by GSN
. However, only the 2,000th episode has been rerun by the network.
holds both the premiere and finale in broadcast quality, and aired the latter on December 31, 1999 as part of its "Y2Play" marathon. The UCLA Film and Television Archive holds a copy of a pilot taped for CBS in 1977, featuring a "sub-Round 1" in which each contestant "played solo" for 30 seconds (an incorrect response did not deduct from his or her score). Several other episodes exist among private collectors in varying degrees of quality.
as announcer. The second was shot on what eventually became the series' first set with Johnny Gilbert announcing and a different version of the show's theme. GSN, which like Jeopardy! is an affiliate of Sony Pictures Television, reran nine seasons between the channel's launch in 1994 and April 1, 2010.
There is a 67-game disparity between the show numbers assigned to first-run Jeopardy! episodes and the actual number of Trebek-era games played. To assist subscribing affiliate stations in airing episodes in the correct order, a show number is read by announcer Johnny Gilbert just prior to the taping of each game. This number is audible on the episodes as received by the affiliates and visible on the slate attached to them. The slate is trimmed from the show prior to broadcast. Each new episode receives an integer show number 1 greater than the previous episode; however, the 65 reruns in Season 1 (1984–1985) were given new show numbers despite not being new games; a retrospective clip show
aired May 15, 2002 was credited as #4088; and a single game of The IBM Challenge against IBM's Watson computer was broadcast over two shows (#6086, #6087).
s since 1984. Eleven of these have been for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show
. Another five awards have been won by host Alex Trebek for Outstanding Game Show Host
. Twelve other Emmy Awards have been won by the show's directors and writers in separate categories until 2006, when the Emmy Awards for Outstanding Direction for a Game/Audience Participation Show (for the directors) and Outstanding Special Class Writing (which the show's writers competed for and won the award perennially) were merged into the Outstanding Game/Audience Participation show category. In 2011, Trebek was announced as one of the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards held on June 17, 2011.
In January 2001, TV Guide
ranked it #2 among the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time. Esquire
magazine readers named it their "favorite game show", and in the summer of 2006, it was also ranked #2 by GSN
on their list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time. The show holds the record for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show
, with 12.
run of the show in the 1960s, and subsequent updated editions and themed variants of the Jeopardy! board game have been issued periodically ever since. The game has also been licensed to create video games and various other products, such as watches, scorekeeping devices, home-based or educational game systems, and slot machines.
, Mama's Family
, The Nanny
, and Cheers
have all featured episodes wherein characters either audition for or appear on the show. Trebek also appeared as himself in an episode of the cartoon The Simpsons
, where Marge Simpson
appeared on a fictional version of the show. Jeopardy! is also featured in a subplot of the movie White Men Can't Jump
, with Rosie Perez
' character attempting to pass the show's auditions. In several films, including The Bucket List
and Diner
, a character's intelligence is demonstrated when he is shown watching Jeopardy! on television and guessing the correct response to every clue. In Groundhog Day
, Bill Murray
's character impresses other watchers of the show by correctly responding to every clue, some before they are even read.
Saturday Night Live
has regularly parodied Jeopardy! as well, with a season 2 sketch entitled Jeopardy! 1999 (which parodied the Fleming version), and a recurring sketch called Celebrity Jeopardy!
, which featured Will Ferrell
as Trebek. Each Celebrity Jeopardy! skit also features a recurring antagonist as one of the guests, with Norm Macdonald
portraying Burt Reynolds
in the first three, and Darrell Hammond
playing Sean Connery
in all of the rest after Macdonald left the show, with Macdonald also making two return guest appearances as Reynolds.
The song "I Lost on Jeopardy
," a parody of Greg Kihn
's 1983 hit song "Jeopardy
," was created by "Weird Al" Yankovic
in 1984, shortly before Trebek's version debuted. Its music video
featured cameos from Art Fleming and Don Pardo.
The show is the setting for the David Foster Wallace
short story "Little Expressionless Animals
," which was first published in The Paris Review, and was later reprinted in Wallace's collection Girl with Curious Hair
. The story depicts the fictionalized three year Jeopardy! winning streak of Julie Smith.
In the Jodi Picoult
novel Salem Falls
, the game of Jeopardy! becomes part of a tense prison bet for protagonist Jack St. Bride, who is an avid watcher of the show. If he proves himself capable of supplying the correct answers before the contestants, he will be left alone by a fellow prisoner.
The Clue Crew has traveled to over 200 cities worldwide, through 45 states in the United States, and to 33 countries. In addition to presenting video clues for Jeopardy!, the Clue Crew also travels to meet fans of the show, as well as future contestants. Occasionally, they visit schools to showcase the educational game, Classroom Jeopardy!
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
, he also decided to add three "Daily Doubles," clues in which a contestant could wager his or her money. Griffin discarded his original name for the show, What's the Question?, after a network executive suggested that the game "need[ed] more jeopardies."
Gameplay
Three contestantContestant
A contestant is someone who takes part in a competition, usually a professional competition or a game show on television. The participants competing against each other have to go through rounds...
s compete in three rounds: the Jeopardy! Round, the Double Jeopardy! Round, and the Final Jeopardy! Round. If there is a returning champion, he or she occupies the leftmost lectern from the viewer's perspective.
Jeopardy! Round
Six categories are announced, each with a column of five trivia clues (phrased in answer form), each one incrementally valued more than the previous, ostensibly by difficulty. The subjects range from standard topics including history and current events, the sciences, the arts, popular culture, literature and languages, to punPun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
-laden titles (many of which refer to the standard subjects), wordplay categories, and even sets of categories with a common theme.
The value of each clue within categories has increased over time (with Super Jeopardy! values in points rather than dollars):
| 1964–1975 | 1978–1979 | 1984–2001 | 2001–present | Super Jeopardy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10 | $25 | $100 | $200 | 200 |
| $20 | $50 | $200 | $400 | 400 |
| $30 | $75 | $300 | $600 | 600 |
| $40 | $100 | $400 | $800 | 800 |
| $50 | $125 | $500 | $1,000 | 1,000 |
The contestant at the leftmost lectern from the viewer's perspective—the returning champion during non-tournament games—selects the first clue from any position on the game board, and the selected clue is revealed. The host then reads the clue, after which any of the three contestants may ring-in using a hand-held signaling device. The first contestant to ring-in successfully, following the host's reading of the clue, must then respond in the form of a question.
A correct response adds the dollar value of the clue to the contestant's score, and gives them the opportunity to select the next clue from the board. An incorrect response or a failure to respond within a five-second time limit (shown by the red lights on the contestant's lectern) deducts the dollar value of the clue from the contestant's score and gives any remaining opponent(s) the opportunity to ring-in and respond. If none of the contestants give a correct response, the host reads the correct response and the contestant who selected the previous clue chooses the next clue.
Daily Doubles
One clue hidden on the Jeopardy! Round game board is designated a "Daily Double". Only the contestant who selects a Daily Double may respond to its clue, and make a wager no smaller than $5 on it. If the contestant has a score of less than the highest dollar value in the round, he or she may wager up to that top value. Alternatively, a contestant may wager all of his or her money, which is known as a "true Daily Double".Daily Doubles are occasionally designated with special tags, such as "Audio Daily Double" or "Video Daily Double," in which an audio or video clip is played along with the clue. Such tags are displayed as soon as the Daily Double has been revealed.
Ringing-in
Contestants must wait until the host finishes reading the clue before ringing in; doing so before this point locks the contestant out for one fourth of a second. Lights mounted around the game board illuminate to indicate when contestants may ring-in, and the contestant has five seconds to offer a response. Additionally, a tone sounds in conjunction with the illuminated lights on episodes that feature visually impaired contestants.Prior to 1985, contestants were able to ring in at any time after the clue had been revealed, and a buzzer would sound whenever someone rang in. According to Trebek, the buzzer sound was "distracting to the viewers" and sometimes presented problems, as contestants would inadvertently ring-in too soon, or ring in so quickly that by the time he finished reading the clue, the contestant's five-second limit had expired. He also said that, by not allowing anyone to ring in until the clue was finished, home viewers could play along more easily, and faster contestants would be less likely to dominate the game.
Phrasing and judging
All responses must be phrased in the form of a question. For example, a contestant might select "Presidents for $200," and the resulting clue might be "The Father of Our Country; he didn't really chop down a cherry tree," to which the contestant would respond "Who is George Washington?" Griffin had originally intended for the phrasing to be grammatically correct (e.g., not accepting any phrasing other than "Who is..." for a person), but after finding that grammatical correction slowed the game down, he decided that the show should instead accept any correct response that was in question form.During the Jeopardy! Round, contestants are not penalized for forgetting to phrase a response in the form of a question, although the host will remind contestants to watch their phrasing on future clues. During the Double Jeopardy! Round, or on Daily Doubles (regardless of the round), adherence to the phrasing rule is followed more strictly, but contestants are still permitted to correct themselves before their time runs out.
At times, the show's producers may determine that a response previously given by a contestant was wrongly ruled correct or incorrect. When this happens, the scores are adjusted at the first available opportunity. If, after a game is over, a ruling change is made that would have significantly altered the outcome of the game, the affected contestant(s) are invited back to compete on a future show.
Double Jeopardy! Round
The second round, Double Jeopardy!, is played largely like the first round. In it, a new set of categories is revealed, and the value of each clue is doubled (except during Super Jeopardy!, see below). In addition, Double Jeopardy! has two Daily Doubles on the board instead of one. The contestant with the lowest amount of money at the end of the Jeopardy! Round makes the first selection in Double Jeopardy! If there is a tie for second place or a three-way tie for first place, the contestant with the tied score standing at the left-most lectern selects first.The value of each clue within categories has increased over time:
| 1964–1975 | 1978–1979 | 1984–2001 | 2001–present | Super Jeopardy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $20 | $50 | $200 | $400 | 500 |
| $40 | $100 | $400 | $800 | 1,000 |
| $60 | $150 | $600 | $1,200 | 1,500 |
| $80 | $200 | $800 | $1,600 | 2,000 |
| $100 | $250 | $1,000 | $2,000 | 2,500 |
Finishing Double Jeopardy! with $0 or a negative score
Contestants who finish Double Jeopardy! with $0 or a negative score are not allowed to participate in the game's final round, Final Jeopardy! Instead, they leave the game and receive the third place prize, which has been $1,000 since May 16, 2002. On episodes of Celebrity Jeopardy!, in which celebrities compete against each other for charity, contestants are granted nominal scores ($1,000) to compete in Final Jeopardy! should their score fall below $0. These episodes also feature a "house minimum" of $25,000. On at least one Fleming-hosted episode, all three contestants finished Double Jeopardy! with $0 or less, and as a result, no Final Jeopardy! round was played that day.Final Jeopardy! Round
Light pen
A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's CRT TV set or monitor. It allows the user to point to displayed objects, or draw on the screen, in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional accuracy...
to write down their Final Jeopardy! wager and response. Contestants giving the correct response are awarded the value of their wager. Those that fail to come up with the correct response or phrase their response in the form of a question (even if the response itself is correct) have that amount subtracted from their score.
Final Jeopardy! betting has been discussed by mathematicians as an exercise in game theory
Game theory
Game theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...
.
Tiebreaker Round
During tournaments, if two or more contestants are tied for first place at the conclusion of Final Jeopardy!, a one-question tiebreaker round is played. The tied contestants are presented with a category and the clue is then revealed. The contestant who rings-in and provides the correct response becomes the champion and moves on to the next round of play. Contestants are not eliminated from play for providing an incorrect response.If two or more contestants are tied for first place following Final Jeopardy! during non-tournament play, both (or all three) are declared co-champions and appear on the next episode.
Cash prizes
The top scorer on each show keeps his or her winnings and returns as the champion in the next match, and non-winners receive consolation prizes. The current prizes are $2,000 for the second-place contestant and $1,000 for the third-place contestant. Since the show does not provide airfare or lodging for most contestants, these cash consolation prizes alleviate the financial burden of appearing on the show. Prior to May 16, 2002, the second-place contestant typically received a vacation package or merchandise and the third-place contestant received lesser-value merchandise. Prior to 1984, all contestants kept their winnings, and contestants who finished with scores below $0 received consolation prizes.When the 1984 version began, the show's creators decided to award full winnings only to the champion as a means of making the game more competitive, so that the final outcome is not always evident until the end of the game. On the Fleming version, contestants would occasionally decide that they only wanted to win a certain amount of money, and stop ringing-in when they reached that amount, instead of attempting to become a returning champion. Others would refuse to write down a question for Final Jeopardy! if another contestant had a significant lead.
Returning champions
If no contestant finishes Final Jeopardy! with a positive total, nobody wins and three new contestants appear on the following show. In such cases, the three new contestants participate in a backstage draw to determine their positions at the contestant lecterns. This first happened on the second episode of the current run, on September 11, 1984, and most recently on June 12, 1998.If two or three contestants tie for first place, they are declared co-champions; each keeps his or her winnings and comes back on the following episode. Three contestants have each finished two consecutive games as co-champions.
A three-way tie for first place has only occurred once since 1984, and only one contestant from the same period has won a game with the lowest amount possible, $1.
Special considerations are also given for contestants who are unable to return as champion for medical reasons. This occurred for the first time in Season 25: three new contestants appeared on the January 19, 2009 episode, owing to the previous show's champion, Priscilla Ball, taking ill. At the top of the episode Alex Trebek explained that in such a case, the contestant would return at a later date as a co-champion. Ball returned on the episode that aired April 9, 2009.
Until 2003, a contestant who won five consecutive days retired undefeated, with a guaranteed spot in the next Tournament of Champions; three new contestants would appear on the following show. From 1997 until 2001, an undefeated champion was also awarded his or her choice of Chevrolet
Chevrolet
Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
cars or trucks. From 2001 to 2003, the winner won a Jaguar X-Type
Jaguar X-Type
The X-Type is a compact executive car manufactured and marketed for model years 2001-2009 by Jaguar Cars. The smallest of the Jaguar model range, the X-type was marketed in saloon and wagon variants and was the only estate ever manufactured in series production by the company...
. Similarly, as part of the deal with Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
for the 2001–2002 season, Ford also added a Volvo
Volvo Cars
Volvo Car Corporation, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Swedish automobile manufacturer founded in 1927, in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Volvo was originally formed as a subsidiary company to the ball bearing maker SKF. When Volvo AB was introduced on the Swedish...
to the Teen Tournament prize package.
From 1984 until 1990, champions kept all winnings up to a limit of $75,000; any amount above that was donated to a charity of the champion's choice. The limit was increased to $100,000 in 1990, after Bob Blake ($82,501) and Frank Spangenberg
Frank Spangenberg
Lieutenant Frank Spangenberg garnered fame in 1990 when he set the five-day cumulative winnings record on the game show Jeopardy!, becoming the first person to win more than $100,000 in five days on the show...
($102,597) exceeded the old amount, and raised again to $200,000 in 1997.
In September 2003, with the start of Season 20, the show eliminated both the five-episode limit on returning champions and the total cash winnings limit. Champions can now remain on the program indefinitely until defeated, although champions who appear on five or more consecutive episodes no longer receive an automobile. The most successful returning champion after this rule change was implemented is Ken Jennings
Ken Jennings
Kenneth Wayne "Ken" Jennings III is an American game show contestant and author. Jennings is noted for holding the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and as being the all-time leading money winner on American game shows...
, who won seventy-four consecutive games from June 2 through November 30, 2004 and amassed a total of $2,520,700, breaking several records for both Jeopardy! and American game shows in general.
Other versions
Throughout the original NBC and 1984 syndicated runs of Jeopardy!, several versions of the show have been broadcast in the United States.The first was a weekly syndicated series, which aired during the 1974–1975 season; except for some minor changes in gameplay, this version was essentially similar to the original NBC series. A short-lived revival aired on NBC during the 1978–1979 season as The All New Jeopardy! with a number of changes in the rules — most notably, progressive elimination of the lowest-scoring contestants through the course of the main game, and a new bonus round as a replacement for Final Jeopardy! Later came Rock & Roll Jeopardy!
Rock & Roll Jeopardy!
Rock & Roll Jeopardy! is a variant of the quiz show Jeopardy! which centered entirely around popular music. The series was hosted by Jeff Probst and ran on VH1 from August 8, 1998 to May 12, 2001. Loretta Fox was the show's announcer for the first two seasons...
, a music-intensive version of Jeopardy! that aired on VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
from 1998 to 2001, and Jep!
Jep!
Jep! is a children's version of the American quiz show Jeopardy!, hosted by Bob Bergen. The program premiered on January 30, 1998 on GSN and lasted for one season...
, which aired on GSN
Game Show Network
The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...
from 1998 to 1999 and featured pre-teen contestants.
Tournaments and events
Starting in 1985, a Tournament of ChampionsJeopardy! Tournament of Champions
The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions is an annual tournament featuring the longest-running champions from the past season or seasons of the TV quiz show Jeopardy! The tournament began in the show's first season in 1964 during Art Fleming's tenure as host, and continued into the Alex Trebek era of...
has been held more or less annually, featuring the top fifteen champions and other biggest winners who have appeared on the show since the last tournament. The tournament runs for ten consecutive episodes in a format devised by Alex Trebek. A top prize of $250,000 is awarded to the winner.
Beginning in 1992, Celebrity Jeopardy! has featured celebrities and other notable individuals competing for charitable organization
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
s of their choice. The 2009–2010 season included the Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational played throughout the season, with twenty-seven celebrity contestants competing for a grand prize of $1,000,000 for their charity.
First aired in 1987, the Teen Tournament
Jeopardy! Teen Tournament
The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament is one of the traditional tournaments held each season on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Contestants in this tournament are primarily high school students, and between the ages of thirteen and seventeen...
features competition between fifteen high school students, with the winner receiving $75,000 and, in some years, a new car. Until 2001, the winner was also invited to participate in the Tournament of Champions.
Beginning in 1989, the College Championship
Jeopardy! College Championship
The Jeopardy! College Championship is one of the traditional tournaments held each season on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Contestants in this tournament are full-time undergraduate college students with no prior degrees...
features college students competing for a $100,000 prize. The tournament pits fifteen full-time undergraduate students from colleges and universities in the United States against one another in a two-week tournament, identical in format to the Tournament of Champions. The winner is also invited to participate in the next Tournament of Champions. From 1997–2008, the College Championship was taped on location at college campuses.
Ten Seniors Tournaments were held for a top prize of $25,000 (or the contestant's two-game total, whichever was greater) between 1987 and 1995. The tournaments featured contestants over the age of 50. Typically this tournament aired as the last two weeks of a season prior to a six-week-long summer break, with the winner earning an invitation to the next Tournament of Champions. Since the last Seniors Tournament in December 1995, contestants older than 50 years regularly appear on the program in non-tournament games.
There have been a number of special tournaments featuring the greatest contestants during the history of Jeopardy! The first of these "all-time best" tournaments, Super Jeopardy! aired in the summer of 1990 on ABC. It featured 37 top contestants who had competed on the program from 1984–1990, plus one notable champion from the original 1964–1975 version, all competing for a top prize of $250,000. In 1993, a Tenth Anniversary Tournament was conducted over five episodes and aired following the conclusion of that year's regular Tournament of Champions. In May 2002, to commemorate the Trebek version's 4,000th episode, the show invited fifteen champions to play for a $1 million bonus, in the Million Dollar Masters tournament, which took place at Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
. The Ultimate Tournament of Champions
Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions
The Ultimate Tournament of Champions was a special fifteen-week single-elimination tournament that aired during the twenty-first season of the syndicated game show Jeopardy! that began airing on February 9, 2005 and concluded on May 25, 2005, covering 76 shows in all...
aired in 2005 and pitted 154 former Jeopardy! champions against each other, with two winners moving on to face Ken Jennings
Ken Jennings
Kenneth Wayne "Ken" Jennings III is an American game show contestant and author. Jennings is noted for holding the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and as being the all-time leading money winner on American game shows...
in a three-game final for a $2 million top prize, the largest in the show's history. Overall, the tournament spanned 76 shows.
In November 1998, contestants from the 1987, 1988, and 1989 Teen Tournaments (including the champions) were invited to Boston to play in a special Teen Reunion Tournament
Jeopardy! Teen Tournament
The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament is one of the traditional tournaments held each season on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Contestants in this tournament are primarily high school students, and between the ages of thirteen and seventeen...
. Jeopardy! celebrated its landmark 25th anniversary season by holding a special Kids Week Reunion tournament featuring 15 former Kids Week alumni from the 1999 and 2000 Kids Weeks competing against each other.
The IBM Challenge, aired February 14–16, 2011, featured IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
's Watson
Watson (artificial intelligence software)
Watson is an artificial intelligence computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM's DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's first president, Thomas J...
computer facing off against two former Jeopardy! champions, Ken Jennings
Ken Jennings
Kenneth Wayne "Ken" Jennings III is an American game show contestant and author. Jennings is noted for holding the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and as being the all-time leading money winner on American game shows...
and Brad Rutter
Brad Rutter
Bradford Gates "Brad" Rutter is the biggest all-time money winner on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and the second biggest all-time money winner on a game show....
, in a two-game match played over three shows. This was the first man-vs.-machine competition in Jeopardy!
Held in May 2011 to honor Jeopardy!
Audition process
In the 1964–1975 version, prospective contestants called the Jeopardy! office in New York to arrange an appointment and to preliminarily determine eligibility. Prospective contestants were briefed and auditioned together in groups of ten to thirty individuals, participating in both a written test and mock games. Following the audition, successful contestants were invited to appear on the program within approximately six weeks.Since 1984, prospective contestants are given a fifty-question written exam. The questions cover various topics (including traditional academic information, popular culture, lifestyle and wordplay categories), and the number of questions in each topic has been modified throughout the years. Those who pass the exam by correctly answering at least thirty-five questions advance in the audition process and compete in mock games.
Contestant searches for the current syndicated version were initially only held in southern California but have been conducted regionally (sponsored by local affiliates that air the program) since 1985. Invitations to audition were originally awarded by postcard drawings and other types of contests. Prospective contestants can now obtain the location of regional contestant searches or register to participate in an online test via the official website.
Internet screenings have also been conducted for prospective contestants that previously registered on the official website, with a random selection of those obtaining a passing score invited to participate in additional regional contestant searches.
Jeopardy! Brain Bus
The Jeopardy! Brain Bus is a 32-foot WinnebagoWinnebago Industries
Winnebago Industries Inc., , is a manufacturer of motor homes, a type of recreational vehicle or RV, in the United States. It is based in Forest City, Iowa.-Corporate history:...
vehicle that travels to regional locations to conduct contestant searches. Attendees not wishing to compete for a chance to appear on the show can also play a shortened game of Jeopardy! for prizes such as t-shirts, hats, water bottles, etc., with the Jeopardy! logo.
Theme music
Since the debut of Jeopardy! in 1964, several different songs and arrangements have served as the theme music for the show, a majority of which have been composed by Merv Griffin. Starting in 1984, a rendition of the show's "Think!" music has also been used as the main theme song.Set
Like the theme music, the Jeopardy! set has also changed over the years. The original game board was exposed from behind a curtain and featured the answers printed on pull cards which were revealed as contestants selected question values in each category. The cards were discarded for the 1978 version, replaced by flipping panels that had the dollar amount on one side and the clue on the other; the curtain was also replaced with double slide panels. When the show returned in 1984, the game board was replaced with individual monitors for each clue in a category. As technology has improved since then, the monitors have been upgraded accordingly. The original monitors were replaced in 1991 with larger and sleeker monitors. In 2006, these monitors were replaced with a nearly seamless projection video wall (which originally was used as part of the road show set). In 2009, this video wall was replaced by thirty-six 42-inch high-definition flat-panel monitors.Other aesthetic changes have been made to the set since the current syndicated version's premiere in 1984. Starting in 1985 and continuing until 1997, the sets were designed to have a background color of blue for Jeopardy! Rounds and red for Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy! Rounds. At the beginning of Season 8 in 1991, a brand new set was introduced that resembled a grid. On the episode aired November 11, 1996, two months after the start of Season 13, Jeopardy! introduced an entirely new set a second time by production designer Naomi Slodki. Slodki intended the set to resemble "the foyer of a very contemporary library". Shortly after the start of Season 19 in 2002, Jeopardy! once again changed its set. This set was modified slightly in 2006 when Jeopardy! became one of the first game shows to air in high-definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
. During this time, several virtual tour
Virtual Tour
A virtual tour is a simulation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence of video images. They also may use other multimedia elements such as sound effects, music, narration, and text....
s were featured on the official Jeopardy! web site.
Between Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
, the various HD improvements represented an investment of about $4 million, 5,000 labor hours and 6 miles of cable. Both shows had been shot using HD cameras for several years prior to the upgrade. On standard-definition television
Standard-definition television
Sorete-definition television is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either enhanced-definition television or high-definition television . The term is usually used in reference to digital television, in particular when broadcasting at the same resolution as...
broadcasts, the show continues to be displayed with an aspect ratio
Aspect ratio (image)
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this...
of 4:3.
A new set debuted with the Celebrity Jeopardy! and Tournament of Champions episodes taped in 2009 at the Consumer Electronics Show
Consumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. This set became the primary set for Jeopardy! on September 14, 2009.
Taping location
The original version of the show, hosted by Art FlemingArt Fleming
Art Fleming was an American television host, most notably the original host of the TV game show Jeopardy!.-Early life:...
, which debuted on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
on March 30, 1964, was taped in Studio 6A at NBC Studios
NBC Studios
The NBC Studios in New York, New York is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the historic GE Building houses the headquarters of the NBC television network, its parent General Electric, and NBC's flagship station WNBC , as well as cable news channel MSNBC.When NBC Universal relocated,...
at 30 Rockefeller Plaza
GE Building
The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the midtown Manhattan section of New York City. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is most famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In addition to Studio 6A, Studio 8G was also frequently used to record the show.
The 1978 version of the show, The All-New Jeopardy!, was taped from NBC Studio 3 in Burbank
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, with a set designed by Henry Lickel and Dennis Roof.
When the syndicated Jeopardy! premiered in 1984, it was taped at Metromedia
Metromedia Square
Metromedia Square was a radio and television studio facility located at 5746 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on the southeastern corner of Sunset and Van Ness Avenue. For decades it was recognizable by the white, ladder-like snake on the building's roof...
Stage 7, KTTV
KTTV
KTTV, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Los Angeles, California. Serving the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area, KTTV is a sister station to KCOP , Los Angeles' MyNetworkTV station...
-TV, on Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
in Hollywood. From 1985 to 1994, the show was taped at Hollywood Center Studios
Hollywood Center Studios
Hollywood Center Studios is a company based in Los Angeles, California that provides stage facilities to television and movie production companies. Its sound stages, located at 1040 N. Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood, California, are steeped in Hollywood history...
' Stage 9.
After the final shows of Season 10 were taped on February 15, 1994, production moved to Sony Pictures Studios
Sony Pictures Studios
The Sony Pictures Studios are a television and film studio complex located in Culver City, California at 10202 West Washington Boulevard and bounded by Culver Boulevard , Washington Boulevard , Overland Avenue and Madison Avenue...
' Stage 10 on Washington Boulevard
Washington Boulevard (Los Angeles)
Washington Boulevard is the longest continuous east-west arterial road in Los Angeles, California. It starts by the Pacific Ocean just west of Pacific Avenue in Marina del Rey, and ends far to the east in the city of Whittier, on Whittier Boulevard. It is south of Venice Boulevard for most of its...
in Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
, where the first shows of Season 11 were taped on July 12, 1994.
International adaptations
Since the early days of Jeopardy!, versions of the show have been produced in foreign countries worldwide.1964–1975, NBC
Only a small number of the 2,753 episodes from the original NBC Daytime version survive, mostly as black-and-whiteBlack-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
kinescope
Kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor...
s of the original color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
s. Some episodes from 1967, 1971, and 1973–1974 exist in the UCLA Film and Television Archive
UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is an internationally renowned visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds more than 220,000 film and television titles and 27 million feet of...
while various episodes are at the Paley Center for Media (including the 1964 "test" episode). Incomplete paper records of the NBC-era games exist on microfilm
Microform
Microforms are any forms, either films or paper, containing microreproductions of documents for transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about one twenty-fifth of the original document size...
at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
.
After the original series ended, several NBC stations continued airing repeats for a few months in 1975 – including NBC-owned KNBC
KNBC
KNBC, channel 4, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KNBC's studios and offices are located within the NBC Studios complex in Burbank, California, and its transmitter is located on Mount Wilson...
, according to TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
listings from that time.
Episodes #2,000 (from February 21, 1972) and #2,753 (the 1975 finale), along with a few others, are held by GSN
Game Show Network
The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...
. However, only the 2,000th episode has been rerun by the network.
1978–1979, NBC
GSNGame Show Network
The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...
holds both the premiere and finale in broadcast quality, and aired the latter on December 31, 1999 as part of its "Y2Play" marathon. The UCLA Film and Television Archive holds a copy of a pilot taped for CBS in 1977, featuring a "sub-Round 1" in which each contestant "played solo" for 30 seconds (an incorrect response did not deduct from his or her score). Several other episodes exist among private collectors in varying degrees of quality.
Alex Trebek
1984–present, syndicated
The Trebek version is completely intact, including both pilots. The first featured a set modeled after a computer, the 1978 series' logo and theme, and Jay StewartJay Stewart
Jay Fix , known professionally as Jay Stewart, was an American television and radio announcer known primarily for his work on game shows. One of his longest-lasting roles was as the announcer on the game show Let's Make a Deal, which he announced throughout the 1960s and 1970s...
as announcer. The second was shot on what eventually became the series' first set with Johnny Gilbert announcing and a different version of the show's theme. GSN, which like Jeopardy! is an affiliate of Sony Pictures Television, reran nine seasons between the channel's launch in 1994 and April 1, 2010.
There is a 67-game disparity between the show numbers assigned to first-run Jeopardy! episodes and the actual number of Trebek-era games played. To assist subscribing affiliate stations in airing episodes in the correct order, a show number is read by announcer Johnny Gilbert just prior to the taping of each game. This number is audible on the episodes as received by the affiliates and visible on the slate attached to them. The slate is trimmed from the show prior to broadcast. Each new episode receives an integer show number 1 greater than the previous episode; however, the 65 reruns in Season 1 (1984–1985) were given new show numbers despite not being new games; a retrospective clip show
Clip show
A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows feature the format of a frame story in which cast members recall past events from past installments of the show, depicted with a clip of the event presented as a flashback. ...
aired May 15, 2002 was credited as #4088; and a single game of The IBM Challenge against IBM's Watson computer was broadcast over two shows (#6086, #6087).
1990, ABC
Super Jeopardy! is completely intact. However, only the finale has been rerun (on GSN as part of a special marathon) since the original broadcast.Awards and honors
Jeopardy! has won a record 29 Daytime Emmy AwardDaytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
s since 1984. Eleven of these have been for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show
The Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show is one of the overall awards presented every year at the Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony...
. Another five awards have been won by host Alex Trebek for Outstanding Game Show Host
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host
The Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host is one of the performance awards awarded annually at the Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony. Game show hosts that host daytime or syndicated game shows are eligible for the award....
. Twelve other Emmy Awards have been won by the show's directors and writers in separate categories until 2006, when the Emmy Awards for Outstanding Direction for a Game/Audience Participation Show (for the directors) and Outstanding Special Class Writing (which the show's writers competed for and won the award perennially) were merged into the Outstanding Game/Audience Participation show category. In 2011, Trebek was announced as one of the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards held on June 17, 2011.
In January 2001, TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
ranked it #2 among the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time. Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
magazine readers named it their "favorite game show", and in the summer of 2006, it was also ranked #2 by GSN
Game Show Network
The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...
on their list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time. The show holds the record for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show
The Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show is one of the overall awards presented every year at the Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony...
, with 12.
Merchandising
The Jeopardy! brand was first merchandised into a board game during the original Art FlemingArt Fleming
Art Fleming was an American television host, most notably the original host of the TV game show Jeopardy!.-Early life:...
run of the show in the 1960s, and subsequent updated editions and themed variants of the Jeopardy! board game have been issued periodically ever since. The game has also been licensed to create video games and various other products, such as watches, scorekeeping devices, home-based or educational game systems, and slot machines.
Portrayal in other media
The show has been portrayed or parodied in numerous television shows, films, and works of literature over the years, frequently with one or more characters participating as contestants, or as a television show which the character(s) watch and play along with. The television series The Golden GirlsThe Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
, Mama's Family
Mama's Family
Mama's Family is an American television sitcom that premiered on NBC on January 22, 1983. It was cancelled in May 1984, but NBC would continue to air reruns until September 1985. In September 1986, Mama's Family returned in first-run syndication, where it aired for an additional four seasons,...
, The Nanny
The Nanny (TV series)
The Nanny is an American television sitcom co-produced by Sternin & Fraser Ink, Inc., and Fran Drescher in association with TriStar Television for the CBS network...
, and Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
have all featured episodes wherein characters either audition for or appear on the show. Trebek also appeared as himself in an episode of the cartoon The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, where Marge Simpson
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
appeared on a fictional version of the show. Jeopardy! is also featured in a subplot of the movie White Men Can't Jump
White Men Can't Jump
White Men Can't Jump is a 1992 American sports comedy drama film starring Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes as streetball hustlers, co-starring Rosie Perez...
, with Rosie Perez
Rosie Perez
Rosa María "Rosie" Pérez is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.- Early life :...
' character attempting to pass the show's auditions. In several films, including The Bucket List
The Bucket List
The Bucket List is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Rob Reiner, written by Justin Zackham, and starring Academy Award-winners Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman...
and Diner
Diner (film)
Diner is a 1982 comedy-drama film written and directed by Barry Levinson. Levinson's screen directing debut, Diner is the first in his "Baltimore films", which also include the subsequent Tin Men, Avalon and Liberty Heights.-Plot:...
, a character's intelligence is demonstrated when he is shown watching Jeopardy! on television and guessing the correct response to every clue. In Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day (film)
Groundhog Day is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. It was written by Ramis and Danny Rubin, based on a story by Rubin....
, Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
's character impresses other watchers of the show by correctly responding to every clue, some before they are even read.
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
has regularly parodied Jeopardy! as well, with a season 2 sketch entitled Jeopardy! 1999 (which parodied the Fleming version), and a recurring sketch called Celebrity Jeopardy!
Celebrity Jeopardy! (Saturday Night Live)
Celebrity Jeopardy! was a recurring sketch on the television comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live that regularly aired between 1996 and 2002, the years when Will Ferrell was a cast member...
, which featured Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell
John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...
as Trebek. Each Celebrity Jeopardy! skit also features a recurring antagonist as one of the guests, with Norm Macdonald
Norm MacDonald
Norman Gene "Norm" Macdonald is a Canadian stand-up comedian, writer and actor. He is best known for his five seasons as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, which included anchoring Weekend Update for three years...
portraying Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
in the first three, and Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond is an American actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist. He was a regular on Saturday Night Live from 1995 until 2009, the longest tenure of any cast member. Upon his departure, Hammond, at age 53, was the oldest cast member in the show's history...
playing Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
in all of the rest after Macdonald left the show, with Macdonald also making two return guest appearances as Reynolds.
The song "I Lost on Jeopardy
I Lost on Jeopardy
"I Lost On Jeopardy" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic from his second album, "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D. The song is a parody of "Jeopardy" by The Greg Kihn Band, and its refrain "Our love's in jeopardy"...
," a parody of Greg Kihn
Greg Kihn
Greg Kihn is an American rock musician, radio personality and novelist.-Music:Kihn is the front man for The Greg Kihn Band, which released several singles and albums that made the charts in the early 1980s...
's 1983 hit song "Jeopardy
Jeopardy (song)
"Jeopardy" is a hit song released in 1983 by The Greg Kihn Band on their album Kihnspiracy. It is the band's first and only Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, reaching #2 in March 1983 and also hitting #1 on the dance charts the following month. Composition/Chord Structure:The song...
," was created by "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
in 1984, shortly before Trebek's version debuted. Its music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
featured cameos from Art Fleming and Don Pardo.
The show is the setting for the David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California...
short story "Little Expressionless Animals
Little Expressionless Animals
"Little Expressionless Animals" is a 1988 short story by David Foster Wallace. It was first published in The Paris Review, and reprinted in his short story collection Girl with Curious Hair. The Village Voice described it as "riveting". -Plot:...
," which was first published in The Paris Review, and was later reprinted in Wallace's collection Girl with Curious Hair
Girl with Curious Hair
Girl with Curious Hair is a collection of short stories by David Foster Wallace first published in 1989. Though the stories are not related, many of them share the theme of society's fascination with celebrity, some using real celebrities, including Alex Trebek, David Letterman and Lyndon Johnson,...
. The story depicts the fictionalized three year Jeopardy! winning streak of Julie Smith.
In the Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult
Jodi Lynn Picoult is an American author. She was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003. Picoult currently has some 14 million copies of her books in print worldwide.-Early life and education:...
novel Salem Falls
Salem Falls
Salem Falls is a 2001 novel by Jodi Picoult about what happens to a person when he is given a label and not allowed to escape it.-Plot summary:Jack is a highly educated high school teacher at a private school for girls in New England...
, the game of Jeopardy! becomes part of a tense prison bet for protagonist Jack St. Bride, who is an avid watcher of the show. If he proves himself capable of supplying the correct answers before the contestants, he will be left alone by a fellow prisoner.
Clue Crew
The Clue Crew is a team of roving correspondents who tape videos from around the world to show alongside clues given during the show. The team currently comprises Jimmy McGuire, Kelly Miyahara, and Sarah Whitcomb. Formed in 2001, the team's goal is to showcase clues on the show that are accompanied by video. One of the show's executive producers, Harry Friedman, further explained their reasoning behind the formation of the team, noting "TV is a visual medium, and the more visual we can make our clues, the more we think it will enhance the experience for the viewer." Over 5,000 people applied within weeks of the announcement of auditions for the Clue Crew. Former members include Sofia Lidskog, Cheryl Farrell, and Jon Cannon.The Clue Crew has traveled to over 200 cities worldwide, through 45 states in the United States, and to 33 countries. In addition to presenting video clues for Jeopardy!, the Clue Crew also travels to meet fans of the show, as well as future contestants. Occasionally, they visit schools to showcase the educational game, Classroom Jeopardy!