List of Jeopardy! tournaments and events
Encyclopedia
Jeopardy!
is a game show
that has tournaments.
The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions is an annual tournament featuring the longest-reigning champions from the past season(s). The tournament began in the show's first season in 1964 during Art Fleming
's tenure as host, and continued into the current version of the show. Since 1984, there have been three years in which the Tournament was skipped altogether, 1984 (at which point it would have been too early), 1997 and 2008.
In the current version of the show, the Tournament of Champions field consists of the fourteen champions who have won the most games (with a minimum of three games to qualify) since the previous Tournament of Champions, as well as the winner(s) of any College Championship
s that occurred in the period since the last Tournaments of Champions. The Tournament of Champions lasts two weeks over ten episodes in a format devised by Trebek himself in 1985. The first week consists of five quarterfinal matches featuring three different champions each day. The winners of those five games, plus the four highest-scoring non-winners in the tournament, advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals, the three winners of the three semifinal games advance to the finals and compete for the championship in a two-game final.
During the Art Fleming hosted tournaments, in addition to their game winnings, Grand Champions won a tropical vacation and were presented with a trophy called the Griffin Award, named for show creator Merv Griffin
. In many years they also received a $1,000 bonus. In 2006, schools selected by each contestant received the Classroom Jeopardy! electronic game in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week.
Prior to the availability of online testing, contestants were drawn at random from those who had sent in postcards and were invited to qualify at regional testing centers (traveling at their own expense). Since 2000, contestants complete registration and, since 2006, a 50-question test online, from which qualifying contestants are selected and invited to again take part in auditions at regional locations. Hopeful contestants complete an additional 50-question test and participate in an interview and mock games at the regional locations.
1From 1987–2000, the winner of the Teen Tournament also received a bye into the annual Tournament of Champions.
In addition to the cash awards, winners have also received merchandise at various points. The winners of the tournament in November 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2003 also received a new car. The winner of the 2005 tournament received a computer package.
From 1993–2004, the winner of the tournament also received a new car (Dodge from 1993–1994, Volvo from 1995–2003, and Volkswagen in 2004), and the company who manufactured the car matched each finalists' totals and set up scholarships in those amounts for the finalists' schools.
The tradition of celebrity matches dates back to the Art Fleming
days of Jeopardy! in the 1960s, with appearances by such notable names as Rod Serling
. Other notables known to have played the game during the NBC era included game show hosts Bill Cullen
, Art James
, and Peter Marshall
(sometime in the early 1970s).
Unlike during regular play, in which a player finishing the Double Jeopardy! Round with a zero or negative score is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy!, any such player in a celebrity match is granted a nominal score with which to wager for Final Jeopardy!
Over 200 celebrities have appeared over the course of many tournaments. Celebrities who have made multiple appearances include Cheech Marin
, Carol Burnett
, Regis Philbin
, Sam Waterston
, Rosie O'Donnell
, Dave Mustaine
, Pat Sajak
, Jason Alexander
, Andy Richter
, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
, David Duchovny
, Bill Maher
, Charles Shaughnessy
, Layne Staley
, Stephen King
, Tony Danza
, and Tim Russert
.
sketches, with Will Ferrell
appearing as Trebek, and SNL cast members and guest hosts impersonating various celebrities. Sean Connery
, as portrayed by Darrell Hammond
, appeared recurringly, functioning as Trebek's nemesis. In 2001, Jeopardy! acknowledged the spoof by selecting a set of references to the skit, including "Therapists" (which Connery interpreted as "the rapists") and "Things You Shouldn't Put in Your Mouth" as Double Jeopardy! categories. Ferrell's final episode as an SNL cast member featured a Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch in which Trebek himself appeared. When Ferrell hosted SNL in 2005 and 2009, he reprised his portrayal of Trebek.
A Celebrity Jeopardy! parody with impersonated celebrities has also been a recurring skit on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. These skits usually include an impersonator playing President George W. Bush
as a contestant. In a twist on the SNL parody, even when celebrity contestants supply accurate responses, they are judged incorrect, with the given correct response being the punchline of a joke, in the fashion of the answer-and-question format of Johnny Carson
's Carnac the Magnificent
character.
Three new contestants compete each day. As in the regular games, the winners of each game keep whatever they win, with minimum guarantees of $15,000 ($10,000 from 2000 to 2009, and $5,000 for the first two events in 1999 and 2000). Unlike in regular games, winners do not return to play another game. However, tiebreakers are held if there is a tie for first place after Final Jeopardy! round. The second- and third-place contestants receive consolation prizes, which, as of the third event held in 2001, have been $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. The first four times the event was held, the player who had the highest winning score during the week was also awarded a bonus of $5,000.
The tournament is similar in format to other tournaments, with the winner receiving a guaranteed minimum of $100,000 and a berth in the Tournament of Champions
. The first runner-up collects $50,000 and the second runner-up wins $25,000 (or their combined scores from the two-game final, whichever are higher). Semifinalists who are eliminated collect $10,000 while those eliminated in the quarterfinals pocket $5,000.
Charles Temple, a high school English teacher from Ocracoke, North Carolina, was the winner of the first tournament and received $100,000. The tournament is featured annually during each season of Jeopardy!
, Senior, College
, and Tournament of Champions
winners competed in the tournament, as well as other former contestants who participated in a Tournament of Champions. Also included in the mix was Burns Cameron, a former champion from the 1960s/Art Fleming era of Jeopardy!.
Unlike Jeopardy!, Super Jeopardy! had four contestants per episode in the quarterfinal games, while the semifinal games and the final game had the usual three contestants. The clue values were also modified for the tournament, with values of 200–1000 points (rather than dollars) in the Jeopardy! Round and 500–2500 points in Double Jeopardy!, in which this was the only time in the show's history in which the second round values were not double that of the first round. As in Jeopardy!, one Daily Double was hidden on the board during the Jeopardy! round and two were hidden in Double Jeopardy!, and each match ended with Final Jeopardy! to determine who moved on. Unlike the other tournaments there were no wild card spots for the non-winners.
Bruce Seymour won the final game and claimed the $250,000 top prize. Bob Verini placed second and claimed $50,000. Dave Traini, whose score was below zero at the end of Double Jeopardy!, won $25,000. Semifinalists received $10,000, and contestants who did not advance to the semifinals received $5,000.
GameTek
produced a Talking Super Jeopardy! video game for the NES
, released in 1990.
Super Jeopardy! was paired with Monopoly
, which was hosted by former Jeopardy!
contestant Mike Reilly.
competed for a winner's prize of a combined two-day final score total plus a $25,000 bonus.
Starting with the regular play game aired November 1, 1993, the game's winner drew one name from each of two bowls on stage. Each bowl was filled with the names of Tournament of Champions semifinalists and finalists from a single past season. The winner of the 1993 Tournament of Champions, which ended the week before the Tenth Anniversary Tournament, was given a bye
into the Tenth Anniversary Tournament.
The tournament lasted one week, with three qualifying round matches to determine three finalists who would then go up against each other in a two-game total point match. Eliminated semifinalists received consolation prizes of $5,000, while the second runner-up received a guaranteed minimum of $7,500, the first runner-up received a guaranteed minimum of $10,000, and the winner would earn his or her two-game total plus a $25,000 bonus.
Roy Holliday, Steve Rogitz, Mark McDermott, Doug Molitor, Robert Slaven, and Lionel Goldbart each received $5,000.
Spangenberg won the tournament with a two-game score of $16,800 plus a $25,000 bonus for a total of $41,800. Tom Nosek, the 1993 Tournament of Champions winner, finished second with $13,600; and Leslie Frates won the $7,500 guaranteed third place prize, which exceeded her score of $4,499.
tournament televised in May 2002. Fifteen former champions participated in the event, which was taped at Radio City Music Hall
. The tournament, which commemorated the 4,000th episode of the Alex Trebek
-hosted version of the show, was won by Brad Rutter
(who would go on to win the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005). As the title suggests, contestants competed for a top prize of $1,000,000. At the time, this was the largest prize ever offered on Jeopardy!.
The fifteen contestants invited were: Tournament of Champions
winners Chuck Forrest
(1986), Bob Verini (1987), Rachael Schwartz (1994), Robin Carroll (2000), and Brad Rutter
(2001), Tournament of Champions finalist Bob Harris
(1997), Tournament of Champions semifinalists Kate Waits (1988), Eric Newhouse (1989), Frank Spangenberg
(1990), Leslie Frates (1991), India Cooper (1992), Leslie Shannon (1993), Claudia Perry (1998), Eddie Timanus
(2000), and Babu Srinivasan (2001). Jeremy Bate, the first runner-up in the 2000 Tournament of Champions, was the alternate for this tournament, but he did not enter the competition.
This tournament had the same two-week, three-round format as the traditional tournaments on Jeopardy!: the Tournament of Champions
, the Teen Tournament
, the College Championship
, and the Teachers Tournament, as well as the now-defunct Seniors Tournament.
The event's first round ran from May 1 to May 7. After the first round, the champions of all five games, as well as four "wild card" non-winners with the highest scores, moved on to the semi-finals. Bob Harris
, Brad Rutter
, Chuck Forrest, Bob Verini, and India Cooper won their games, while Claudia Perry, Leslie Frates, Eric Newhouse, and Leslie Shannon were the wild card semifinalists.
In three semifinal matches, televised on May 8–10, Eric Newhouse, Brad Rutter, and Bob Verini won, advancing to face each other in the two-day final of May 13 and 14. Rutter took a strong lead in the first final game, answering as many questions as both opponents combined, while Newhouse's aggressive all-in wager in Final Jeopardy! on day one reduced him to zero, putting him in a distant trailing position for the rest of the match. In the second game, Verini tried to make up ground with aggressive wagers on both Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy!, only to lose money and fall further behind, and allowing Rutter to expand his overall lead despite a relatively unexceptional second game. Indeed, Rutter was only $201 away from a lock match which would have rendered the last Final Jeopardy! meaningless.
In the end, all three contestants questioned the Final Jeopardy! answer correctly, and Rutter won the million-dollar grand prize—with a $201 wager. Newhouse came in second, and Verini third.
Other prizes included $10,000 for each contestant eliminated during the first week, $25,000 for each defeated semifinalist, $50,000 for third place in the finals with second place receiving $100,000.
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. The tournament involved 145 contestants, all of whom were winners of past tournaments or past five-time champions, and was designed to produce two contestants who would face off in a three-game, cumulative-score final against Ken Jennings
, who had won the most money in Jeopardy! regular play history and who (entering the tournament) had set a new all-time game show winnings record with US
$2,522,700. Those three contestants would then play in a three-game final for a grand prize of US
$2,000,000, which was and still is the largest prize the show has ever offered.
After four rounds, the tournament's field of 144 past champions was winnowed to two: Brad Rutter
and Jerome Vered
. Rutter had set the previous all-time Jeopardy! prize money record in the 2002 Million Dollar Masters tournament, while Vered had set a single-day winnings record in 1992 that (if adjusted for the doubling of clue values) stood for twelve years until Jennings (in his 38th game) broke it.
Rutter decisively won the three-game final, claiming the tournament title and the $2,000,000 prize. Contestants in the tournament won a grand total of $5,604,413 (US).
Standard Jeopardy! scoring and rules applied, with one exception related to negative scores. As is the tradition on Celebrity Jeopardy! tournaments, any player who had a score at or below $0 after the Double Jeopardy! round had their score adjusted to $1,000, to allow all three celebrities to participate in Final Jeopardy!
The winner of each qualifying game won a minimum of $50,000 for their charity (more if their post-Final Jeopardy! score exceeded $50,000), and the two runners-up each received $25,000 for their charities.
Jane Curtin
, Michael McKean
and Cheech Marin
advanced to the two-game final. McKean won the tournament, earning $1 million for his charity, the International Myeloma Foundation
.
's Watson
software facing off against the two most successful former Jeopardy! champions, Ken Jennings
and Brad Rutter
, in two matches played over three days. Watson won the competition and received $1 million for IBM, while $300,000 was awarded to second-place finisher Jennings, and Rutter was awarded $200,000. Jennings and Rutter pledged to donate half their winnings to charity, and IBM donated 100% of Watson's winnings to charity. This was the first ever man-vs.-machine competition in Jeopardy!s history.
The format of the tournament was structured similarly to the Tournament of Champions, the Teen Tournament, and the College Championship. Fifteen contestants competed in groups of three over the first five days of competition. The five one-game champions, plus the four highest-scoring non-winners, advanced to the semifinals again in groups of three. The three semifinal winners advanced to the two-game final match for a top prize of at least $25,000.
Contestants defeated in the quarterfinal matches received $1,000. Each semifinalist who did not move to the finals received $5,000. The third-place contestant received $7,500, the second-place contestant received $10,000 and the champion received $25,000. The prizes in the final match were guaranteed minimums; if a contestant achieving first, second or third place finished with a combined two-game score that exceeded the minimum award, the contestant won the higher amount.
.
In the 1997 International Tournament held in Stockholm, Mälte, the Swedish version's announcer at that time, from the Magnus Harenstam era, was the announcer during the tournament for a few episodes instead of Johnny Gilbert.
The Olympic Games Tournament in 1996 commemorated the 1996 Summer Olympics
in Atlanta, Georgia
. The tournament was held in four days, with the final round lasting one day instead of two.
Only five countries took part in all three tournaments: the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Turkey. The 1997 contest also featured a contestant from Canada
. Since Canada does not have its own version of Jeopardy! (instead simulcasting the American version, on which the Canadian contestant had originally appeared), the 1997 tournament was the only to feature two contestants from the American show.
Jeopardy!
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...
is a game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
that has tournaments.
Tournament of Champions
Art Fleming
Art Fleming was an American television host, most notably the original host of the TV game show Jeopardy!.-Early life:...
's tenure as host, and continued into the current version of the show. Since 1984, there have been three years in which the Tournament was skipped altogether, 1984 (at which point it would have been too early), 1997 and 2008.
In the current version of the show, the Tournament of Champions field consists of the fourteen champions who have won the most games (with a minimum of three games to qualify) since the previous Tournament of Champions, as well as the winner(s) of any 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...
s that occurred in the period since the last Tournaments of Champions. The Tournament of Champions lasts two weeks over ten episodes in a format devised by Trebek himself in 1985. The first week consists of five quarterfinal matches featuring three different champions each day. The winners of those five games, plus the four highest-scoring non-winners in the tournament, advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals, the three winners of the three semifinal games advance to the finals and compete for the championship in a two-game final.
Prizes
| Period | Finalists (minimum guarantees) | Semifinalists | Quarterfinalists | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1st runner-up | 2nd runner-up | |||
| 1964–1974 | All players kept their scores in cash at the end of each game | none, except in 1969 | |||
| 1985 | $100,000 | Kept two day total winnings | $5,000 | $1,000 | |
| 1986 | $5,000 | ||||
| 1987–1997 | $10,000 | $7,500 | |||
| 1998–2002 | $15,000 | $10,000 | $2,500 | ||
| 2003–2004 | $250,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | $10,000 | $5,000 |
| 2006–present | $100,000 | $50,000 | |||
During the Art Fleming hosted tournaments, in addition to their game winnings, Grand Champions won a tropical vacation and were presented with a trophy called the Griffin Award, named for show creator Merv Griffin
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show on Group W Broadcasting...
. In many years they also received a $1,000 bonus. In 2006, schools selected by each contestant received the Classroom Jeopardy! electronic game in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week.
Teen Tournament
The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament is an annual tournament featuring high school students between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. Fifteen contestants compete in a single-elimination tournament similar in structure to the Tournament of Champions and the College Championship. Teenage contestants appeared sporadically on the Art Fleming-hosted version beginning in 1967, dubbed the "Jeopardy! National College Scholarship Contest". The current syndicated version's Teen Tournament began in 1987.Prior to the availability of online testing, contestants were drawn at random from those who had sent in postcards and were invited to qualify at regional testing centers (traveling at their own expense). Since 2000, contestants complete registration and, since 2006, a 50-question test online, from which qualifying contestants are selected and invited to again take part in auditions at regional locations. Hopeful contestants complete an additional 50-question test and participate in an interview and mock games at the regional locations.
Prizes
| Period | Finalists (minimum guarantees) | Semifinalists | Quarterfinalists | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1st runner-up | 2nd runner-up | |||
| 1987–1997 (Feb.) | $25,0001 | $10,000 | $7,500 | $5,000 | $1,000 |
| 1997 (Nov.)–2000 | $15,000 | $10,000 | $2,500 | ||
| 2001 | $50,000 | ||||
| 2002–2003 | $20,000 | $15,000 | |||
| 2004–2005 | $75,000 | $25,000 | |||
| 2006–present | $10,000 | $5,000 | |||
1From 1987–2000, the winner of the Teen Tournament also received a bye into the annual Tournament of Champions.
In addition to the cash awards, winners have also received merchandise at various points. The winners of the tournament in November 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2003 also received a new car. The winner of the 2005 tournament received a computer package.
College Championship
The Jeopardy! College Championship has been held annually since 1989 and uses a ten game format similar to that used for the Tournament of Champions and the Teen Tournament. Fifteen contestants, all of whom are full-time undergraduate college students with no prior degrees, compete in a single elimination tournament over the course of ten episodes. The five quarterfinal champions, plus the four highest-scoring non-winners in the tournament, advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals, the three winners of the three semifinal games advance to the finals and compete for the championship in a two game final. The winner of the tournament also earns an automatic position in the next Tournament of Champions.Prizes
| Period | Finalists (minimum guarantees) | Semifinalists | Quarterfinalists | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1st runner-up | 2nd runner-up | |||
| 1989–1997 | $25,000 | $10,000 | $7,500 | $5,000 | $1,000 |
| 1998–2000 (Feb.) | $15,000 | $10,000 | $2,500 | ||
| 2000 (Nov.)–2002 | $50,000 | ||||
| 2003 | $25,000 | $15,000 | |||
| 2004–present | $100,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | $10,000 | $5,000 |
From 1993–2004, the winner of the tournament also received a new car (Dodge from 1993–1994, Volvo from 1995–2003, and Volkswagen in 2004), and the company who manufactured the car matched each finalists' totals and set up scholarships in those amounts for the finalists' schools.
Celebrity Jeopardy!
Special editions of Jeopardy! featuring celebrities as contestants playing for charitable organizations of their choosing (or, in the cases of public officials, relevant charities chosen by Jeopardy!). Celebrity games have traditionally been broadcast annually as a weeklong event, and on occasion have been called Power Players Week, featuring personalities in politics and journalism.The tradition of celebrity matches dates back to the Art Fleming
Art Fleming
Art Fleming was an American television host, most notably the original host of the TV game show Jeopardy!.-Early life:...
days of Jeopardy! in the 1960s, with appearances by such notable names as Rod Serling
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
. Other notables known to have played the game during the NBC era included game show hosts Bill Cullen
Bill Cullen
William Lawrence Francis "Bill" Cullen was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades...
, Art James
Art James
Art James was an American game show host, best known for shows such as The Who, What, or Where Game and Pay Cards!. He was also the announcer on the game show Concentration....
, and Peter Marshall
Peter Marshall (game show host)
Peter Marshall is an American television and radio personality, singer, and actor.He was the original host of The Hollywood Squares, from 1966 to 1981. He has almost fifty television, movie, and Broadway credits...
(sometime in the early 1970s).
Unlike during regular play, in which a player finishing the Double Jeopardy! Round with a zero or negative score is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy!, any such player in a celebrity match is granted a nominal score with which to wager for Final Jeopardy!
Over 200 celebrities have appeared over the course of many tournaments. Celebrities who have made multiple appearances include Cheech Marin
Cheech Marin
Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marin is an American comedian, actor and writer who gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech & Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s, and as Don Johnson's partner, Insp. Joe Dominguez on Nash Bridges...
, Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...
, Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin is an American media personality, actor and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Philbin is often called "the hardest working man in show business" and holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera...
, Sam Waterston
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...
, Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell
Roseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American stand-up comedian, actress, author and television personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family...
, Dave Mustaine
Dave Mustaine
David Scott "Dave" Mustaine is the founder, main songwriter, guitarist, and lead vocalist for the American heavy metal band Megadeth. Prior to Megadeth, Mustaine was the first lead guitarist and a co-songwriter of the heavy metal band Metallica until he was fired from the band in 1983. In 2009, he...
, Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak is a television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.-Early life:...
, Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...
, Andy Richter
Andy Richter
Paul Andrew "Andy" Richter is an American actor, writer, comedian, and late night talk show announcer. He is best known for his role as the sidekick of Conan O'Brien on each of the host's programs: Late Night and The Tonight Show on NBC, and Conan on TBS...
, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season...
, David Duchovny
David Duchovny
David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...
, Bill Maher
Bill Maher
William "Bill" Maher, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator, author and actor. Before his current role as the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher hosted a similar late-night talk show called Politically Incorrect originally on Comedy Central and...
, Charles Shaughnessy
Charles Shaughnessy
Charles George Patrick Shaughnessy, 5th Baron Shaughnessy , simply known as Charles Shaughnessy, is a British peer, and television, theatre and film actor. He is known for his roles on American television, as Shane Donovan on the soap opera Days of our Lives and as Maxwell Sheffield on the sitcom...
, Layne Staley
Layne Staley
Layne Thomas Staley was an American musician who served as the lead singer and co-lyricist of the rock group Alice in Chains, which was formed in Seattle, Washington in 1987 by Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell. Alice in Chains rose to international fame as part of the grunge movement of the...
, Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
, Tony Danza
Tony Danza
Tony Danza is an American actor best known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Who's the Boss?, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards...
, and Tim Russert
Tim Russert
Timothy John "Tim" Russert was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's Meet the Press. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Washington bureau chief and also hosted the eponymous CNBC/MSNBC weekend interview...
.
Parodies
Celebrity Jeopardy! has been spoofed numerous times in Saturday Night LiveSaturday 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...
sketches, with 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...
appearing as Trebek, and SNL cast members and guest hosts impersonating various celebrities. 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...
, as portrayed by 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...
, appeared recurringly, functioning as Trebek's nemesis. In 2001, Jeopardy! acknowledged the spoof by selecting a set of references to the skit, including "Therapists" (which Connery interpreted as "the rapists") and "Things You Shouldn't Put in Your Mouth" as Double Jeopardy! categories. Ferrell's final episode as an SNL cast member featured a Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch in which Trebek himself appeared. When Ferrell hosted SNL in 2005 and 2009, he reprised his portrayal of Trebek.
A Celebrity Jeopardy! parody with impersonated celebrities has also been a recurring skit on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. These skits usually include an impersonator playing President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
as a contestant. In a twist on the SNL parody, even when celebrity contestants supply accurate responses, they are judged incorrect, with the given correct response being the punchline of a joke, in the fashion of the answer-and-question format of Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
's Carnac the Magnificent
Carnac the Magnificent
Carnac the Magnificent was a recurring comedic role played by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. One of Carson's most well known characters, Carnac was a "mystic from the east" who could psychically "divine" unseen answers to unknown questions...
character.
Kids Week
A week of five special non-tournament games featuring children aged 10 to 12 has aired at least once per year since 1999. The special week has been called "Kids Week", "Back to School Week" and "Holiday Kids Week" depending on the time frame during the year in which it airs.Three new contestants compete each day. As in the regular games, the winners of each game keep whatever they win, with minimum guarantees of $15,000 ($10,000 from 2000 to 2009, and $5,000 for the first two events in 1999 and 2000). Unlike in regular games, winners do not return to play another game. However, tiebreakers are held if there is a tie for first place after Final Jeopardy! round. The second- and third-place contestants receive consolation prizes, which, as of the third event held in 2001, have been $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. The first four times the event was held, the player who had the highest winning score during the week was also awarded a bonus of $5,000.
Kids Week Reunion
The Jeopardy! Kids Week Reunion brought back 15 Kids Week alumni from the 1999 and 2000 Kids Week games to compete for a minimum $25,000 each game. The special week of programming was taped on August 12, 2008 and was broadcast from September 15, 2008 to September 19, 2008. The format for the Kids Week Reunion was the same as the Kids Week format, with three different players playing in each game. The winner kept whatever he or she won, with a minimum guarantee of $25,000. Each second-place finisher went away with $5,000, and each third-place finisher received $2,500.Teachers Tournament
The inaugural Jeopardy! Teachers Tournament was held May 2–13, 2011 and featured fifteen full-time teachers of students in grades kindergarten through twelve.The tournament is similar in format to other tournaments, with the winner receiving a guaranteed minimum of $100,000 and a berth in the Tournament of Champions
Jeopardy! 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...
. The first runner-up collects $50,000 and the second runner-up wins $25,000 (or their combined scores from the two-game final, whichever are higher). Semifinalists who are eliminated collect $10,000 while those eliminated in the quarterfinals pocket $5,000.
Charles Temple, a high school English teacher from Ocracoke, North Carolina, was the winner of the first tournament and received $100,000. The tournament is featured annually during each season of Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
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...
Super Jeopardy!
Super Jeopardy! was a special single-elimination tournament that aired weekly on Saturday nights on ABC from June 16 to September 8, 1990 and featured past champions of the show competing for a prize of $250,000. Thirty-six contestants were invited to participate in the tournament. Some TeenJeopardy! 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...
, Senior, College
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...
, and Tournament of Champions
Jeopardy! 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...
winners competed in the tournament, as well as other former contestants who participated in a Tournament of Champions. Also included in the mix was Burns Cameron, a former champion from the 1960s/Art Fleming era of Jeopardy!.
Unlike Jeopardy!, Super Jeopardy! had four contestants per episode in the quarterfinal games, while the semifinal games and the final game had the usual three contestants. The clue values were also modified for the tournament, with values of 200–1000 points (rather than dollars) in the Jeopardy! Round and 500–2500 points in Double Jeopardy!, in which this was the only time in the show's history in which the second round values were not double that of the first round. As in Jeopardy!, one Daily Double was hidden on the board during the Jeopardy! round and two were hidden in Double Jeopardy!, and each match ended with Final Jeopardy! to determine who moved on. Unlike the other tournaments there were no wild card spots for the non-winners.
Bruce Seymour won the final game and claimed the $250,000 top prize. Bob Verini placed second and claimed $50,000. Dave Traini, whose score was below zero at the end of Double Jeopardy!, won $25,000. Semifinalists received $10,000, and contestants who did not advance to the semifinals received $5,000.
GameTek
GameTek
GameTek was a video game publisher based in North Miami Beach, Florida well known for publishing video game adaptations of game shows in the early 1990s. GameTek was a trade name for IJE, the owner of electronic publishing rights to Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune...
produced a Talking Super Jeopardy! video game for the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
, released in 1990.
Super Jeopardy! was paired with Monopoly
Monopoly (game show)
Monopoly is an American television game show based on the board game of the same name. It aired on ABC from June 16 to September 1, 1990. Mike Reilly, a former Jeopardy! contestant, hosted while Charlie O'Donnell announced....
, which was hosted by former Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
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...
contestant Mike Reilly.
Tenth Anniversary Tournament
The Jeopardy! Tenth Anniversary Tournament was a special one-week tournament held in 1993 in honor of the tenth anniversary of the Alex Trebek-hosted version of the show. Semifinalists and finalists of past Tournaments 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...
competed for a winner's prize of a combined two-day final score total plus a $25,000 bonus.
Starting with the regular play game aired November 1, 1993, the game's winner drew one name from each of two bowls on stage. Each bowl was filled with the names of Tournament of Champions semifinalists and finalists from a single past season. The winner of the 1993 Tournament of Champions, which ended the week before the Tenth Anniversary Tournament, was given a bye
Bye (sports)
A bye, in sports and other competitive activities, most commonly refers to the practice of allowing a player or team to advance to the next round of a playoff tournament without playing...
into the Tenth Anniversary Tournament.
The tournament lasted one week, with three qualifying round matches to determine three finalists who would then go up against each other in a two-game total point match. Eliminated semifinalists received consolation prizes of $5,000, while the second runner-up received a guaranteed minimum of $7,500, the first runner-up received a guaranteed minimum of $10,000, and the winner would earn his or her two-game total plus a $25,000 bonus.
Roy Holliday, Steve Rogitz, Mark McDermott, Doug Molitor, Robert Slaven, and Lionel Goldbart each received $5,000.
Spangenberg won the tournament with a two-game score of $16,800 plus a $25,000 bonus for a total of $41,800. Tom Nosek, the 1993 Tournament of Champions winner, finished second with $13,600; and Leslie Frates won the $7,500 guaranteed third place prize, which exceeded her score of $4,499.
Teen Reunion Tournament
A special one-week tournament held in November 1998 invited back twelve former Teen Tournament contestants to compete in a single-elimination tournament. The three highest-scoring winners of the four semifinal matches competed in a one-game final where the champion received $50,000; the second and third-place players received $15,000 and $10,000, respectively. The semifinal winner who did not participate in the finals received $7,500, and the other contestants each received $5,000.Million Dollar Masters
The Jeopardy! Million Dollar Masters tournament was a two-week Jeopardy!Jeopardy!
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...
tournament televised in May 2002. Fifteen former champions participated in the event, which was taped 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 tournament, which commemorated the 4,000th episode of the Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek
George Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...
-hosted version of the show, was won by 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....
(who would go on to win the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005). As the title suggests, contestants competed for a top prize of $1,000,000. At the time, this was the largest prize ever offered on Jeopardy!.
The fifteen contestants invited were: Tournament of Champions
Jeopardy! 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...
winners Chuck Forrest
Chuck Forrest
Chuck Forrest is an American game show contestant who at one time held the record for the largest non-tournament cash winnings total on the syndicated game show Jeopardy! The Los Angeles Times called him "the Alexander the Great of Jeopardy! players." The producers of the show regarded him as one...
(1986), Bob Verini (1987), Rachael Schwartz (1994), Robin Carroll (2000), 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....
(2001), Tournament of Champions finalist Bob Harris
Bob Harris (writer)
Bob Harris is an American radio commentator, writer, stand-up comedian, and thirteen-time Jeopardy! contestant.From 1998–2002, his daily political commentaries aired on an average of 75 radio stations across the U.S., winning awards from the and the Associated Press...
(1997), Tournament of Champions semifinalists Kate Waits (1988), Eric Newhouse (1989), 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...
(1990), Leslie Frates (1991), India Cooper (1992), Leslie Shannon (1993), Claudia Perry (1998), Eddie Timanus
Eddie Timanus
Eddie Timanus is a Jeopardy! champion and USA Today sportswriter who grew up in Reston, Virginia, then graduated from Wake Forest University. He met his wife through a Yahoo! Groups discussion group on game shows; the couple now has a son...
(2000), and Babu Srinivasan (2001). Jeremy Bate, the first runner-up in the 2000 Tournament of Champions, was the alternate for this tournament, but he did not enter the competition.
This tournament had the same two-week, three-round format as the traditional tournaments on Jeopardy!: the Tournament of Champions
Jeopardy! 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...
, 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...
, 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...
, and the Teachers Tournament, as well as the now-defunct Seniors Tournament.
The event's first round ran from May 1 to May 7. After the first round, the champions of all five games, as well as four "wild card" non-winners with the highest scores, moved on to the semi-finals. Bob Harris
Bob Harris (writer)
Bob Harris is an American radio commentator, writer, stand-up comedian, and thirteen-time Jeopardy! contestant.From 1998–2002, his daily political commentaries aired on an average of 75 radio stations across the U.S., winning awards from the and the Associated Press...
, 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....
, Chuck Forrest, Bob Verini, and India Cooper won their games, while Claudia Perry, Leslie Frates, Eric Newhouse, and Leslie Shannon were the wild card semifinalists.
In three semifinal matches, televised on May 8–10, Eric Newhouse, Brad Rutter, and Bob Verini won, advancing to face each other in the two-day final of May 13 and 14. Rutter took a strong lead in the first final game, answering as many questions as both opponents combined, while Newhouse's aggressive all-in wager in Final Jeopardy! on day one reduced him to zero, putting him in a distant trailing position for the rest of the match. In the second game, Verini tried to make up ground with aggressive wagers on both Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy!, only to lose money and fall further behind, and allowing Rutter to expand his overall lead despite a relatively unexceptional second game. Indeed, Rutter was only $201 away from a lock match which would have rendered the last Final Jeopardy! meaningless.
In the end, all three contestants questioned the Final Jeopardy! answer correctly, and Rutter won the million-dollar grand prize—with a $201 wager. Newhouse came in second, and Verini third.
Other prizes included $10,000 for each contestant eliminated during the first week, $25,000 for each defeated semifinalist, $50,000 for third place in the finals with second place receiving $100,000.
Ultimate Tournament of Champions
The Ultimate Tournament of Champions was a special fifteen-week single-elimination tournamentSingle-elimination tournament
A single-elimination tournament, also called a knockout, cup or sudden death tournament, is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match or bracket is immediately eliminated from winning the championship or first prize in the event...
that aired during the twenty-first season of the syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
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...
that began airing on February 9, 2005 and concluded on May 25, 2005, covering 76 shows in all. The tournament involved 145 contestants, all of whom were winners of past tournaments or past five-time champions, and was designed to produce two contestants who would face off in a three-game, cumulative-score final against 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 had won the most money in Jeopardy! regular play history and who (entering the tournament) had set a new all-time game show winnings record with US
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$2,522,700. Those three contestants would then play in a three-game final for a grand prize of US
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$2,000,000, which was and still is the largest prize the show has ever offered.
After four rounds, the tournament's field of 144 past champions was winnowed to two: 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....
and Jerome Vered
Jerome Vered
Jerome Vered is a Studio City, California writer, publicly known for his record-setting success as a contestant on the U.S. television game show Jeopardy!-Biography:...
. Rutter had set the previous all-time Jeopardy! prize money record in the 2002 Million Dollar Masters tournament, while Vered had set a single-day winnings record in 1992 that (if adjusted for the doubling of clue values) stood for twelve years until Jennings (in his 38th game) broke it.
Rutter decisively won the three-game final, claiming the tournament title and the $2,000,000 prize. Contestants in the tournament won a grand total of $5,604,413 (US).
Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational
The Jeopardy! Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational began on September 17, 2009, and subsequent games aired on the third Thursday of every month from September 2009 to April 2010, with an additional quarter-final on the third Friday of April 2010. The semi-final and final rounds aired during the first full week of May 2010. A total of 27 celebrities—three per game for the nine semifinal episodes—competed for a grand prize of $1,000,000 for their charity. The nine winners of each qualifying game returned in May 2010 for three semi-final games, and the semi-final winners competed in a two-day "total point" final to determine the grand champion in a format similar to other annual Jeopardy! tournaments.Standard Jeopardy! scoring and rules applied, with one exception related to negative scores. As is the tradition on Celebrity Jeopardy! tournaments, any player who had a score at or below $0 after the Double Jeopardy! round had their score adjusted to $1,000, to allow all three celebrities to participate in Final Jeopardy!
The winner of each qualifying game won a minimum of $50,000 for their charity (more if their post-Final Jeopardy! score exceeded $50,000), and the two runners-up each received $25,000 for their charities.
Jane Curtin
Jane Curtin
Jane Therese Curtin is an American actress and comedienne. She is commonly referred to as Queen of the Deadpan.First coming to prominence as an original cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1975, she went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series on the 1980s...
, Michael McKean
Michael McKean
Michael John McKean is an American actor, comedian, writer, composer and musician, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Squiggy's friend, Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski, on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley; and for his work in the Christopher Guest ensemble films, particularly as David St...
and Cheech Marin
Cheech Marin
Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marin is an American comedian, actor and writer who gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech & Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s, and as Don Johnson's partner, Insp. Joe Dominguez on Nash Bridges...
advanced to the two-game final. McKean won the tournament, earning $1 million for his charity, the International Myeloma Foundation
International Myeloma Foundation
The International Myeloma Foundation is a non-profit organization serving patients with myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells in the bone marrow. The IMF also provides support and information for family members, caregivers of myeloma patients, physicians and nurses. The organization focuses on...
.
Celebrities
- Aisha TylerAisha TylerAisha N. Tyler is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and author, known for her regular role as Andrea Marino in the first season of Ghost Whisperer and voicing Lana Kane in Archer, as well as her recurring roles in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Talk Soup, and on Friends as Charlie...
- Anderson CooperAnderson CooperAnderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...
- Andy RichterAndy RichterPaul Andrew "Andy" Richter is an American actor, writer, comedian, and late night talk show announcer. He is best known for his role as the sidekick of Conan O'Brien on each of the host's programs: Late Night and The Tonight Show on NBC, and Conan on TBS...
- CCH PounderCCH PounderCarol Christine Hilaria Pounder , known professionally as C. C. H. Pounder , is a Guyanese-American film and television actress...
- Charles ShaughnessyCharles ShaughnessyCharles George Patrick Shaughnessy, 5th Baron Shaughnessy , simply known as Charles Shaughnessy, is a British peer, and television, theatre and film actor. He is known for his roles on American television, as Shane Donovan on the soap opera Days of our Lives and as Maxwell Sheffield on the sitcom...
- Cheech MarinCheech MarinRichard Anthony "Cheech" Marin is an American comedian, actor and writer who gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech & Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s, and as Don Johnson's partner, Insp. Joe Dominguez on Nash Bridges...
- Chris MatthewsChris MatthewsChristopher John "Chris" Matthews is an American news anchor and political commentator, known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC...
- Christopher MeloniChristopher MeloniChristopher Peter Meloni is an American actor. He is best known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Elliot Stabler on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and as inmate Chris Keller on the HBO prison drama Oz.-Early life:Meloni was born the youngest of three children in...
- Dana DelanyDana DelanyDana Welles Delany is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, host and health activist.After various roles in the early career, Delany garnered her first leading role in 1987 in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender and achieved wider fame in 1988–1991 as Colleen McMurphy...
- David DuchovnyDavid DuchovnyDavid William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...
- Doug SavantDoug SavantDouglas Peter "Doug" Savant is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Matt Fielding on Melrose Place and Tom Scavo on the ABC dramedy series Desperate Housewives.-Career:...
- Elizabeth PerkinsElizabeth PerkinsElizabeth Ann Perkins is an American actress. Her film roles have included Big, The Flintstones, Miracle on 34th Street, About Last Night..., and Avalon...
- Harry ShearerHarry ShearerHarry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
- Hill HarperHill HarperFrancis Harper , known professionally as Hill Harper, is an American film, television and stage actor, and author. An alumnus of Harvard Law School, he is best known for his portrayal of Dr...
- Isaac MizrahiIsaac MizrahiIsaac Mizrahi is an American TV presenter, fashion designer, and was the creative director of Liz Claiborne. He is best known for his eponymous fashion lines.-Early life:...
- Jane CurtinJane CurtinJane Therese Curtin is an American actress and comedienne. She is commonly referred to as Queen of the Deadpan.First coming to prominence as an original cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1975, she went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series on the 1980s...
- Jane KaczmarekJane KaczmarekJane Frances Kaczmarek is an American actress. She is best known for playing the character of Lois on the television series Malcolm in the Middle. Kaczmarek is a three-time Golden Globe and seven-time Emmy Award nominee...
- Joshua MalinaJoshua MalinaJoshua Charles Malina is an American film and stage actor. He is perhaps most famous for portraying Will Bailey on the NBC drama The West Wing and Jeremy Goodwin on Sports Night.-Personal life:...
- Julie BowenJulie BowenJulie Bowen is an American film and television actress. She played Carol Vessey on Ed and Denise Bauer on Boston Legal. She is best known for playing Claire Dunphy on the sitcom Modern Family, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2011...
- Kareem Abdul-JabbarKareem Abdul-JabbarKareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season...
- Michael McKeanMichael McKeanMichael John McKean is an American actor, comedian, writer, composer and musician, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Squiggy's friend, Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski, on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley; and for his work in the Christopher Guest ensemble films, particularly as David St...
- Neil Patrick HarrisNeil Patrick HarrisNeil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...
- Pat SajakPat SajakPat Sajak is a television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.-Early life:...
- Rebecca LoboRebecca LoboRebecca Rose Lobo-Rushin is an American television basketball analyst and a former player in the professional Women's National Basketball Association from 1997 to 2003...
- Robin QuiversRobin QuiversRobin Ophelia Quivers is an American radio personality, most notable for being the long-running news anchor and co-host of The Howard Stern Show. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Quivers graduated from the University of Maryland with a major in nursing. In 1975, she joined the United States Air Force...
- Soledad O'BrienSoledad O'BrienMaría de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien is an American Broadcast journalist. She is currently the host of the "In America" documentary unit on CNN, and is best known for anchoring the CNN marquee morning newscast American Morning from July 2003 to April 2007, with Miles O'Brien...
- Wolf BlitzerWolf BlitzerWolf Isaac Blitzer is an American journalist who has been a CNN reporter since 1990. Blitzer is currently the host of the newscast The Situation Room and was the host of the Sunday talk show Late Edition until it was discontinued on January 11, 2009...
IBM Challenge
From February 14–16, 2011, the IBM Challenge featured IBMIBM
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...
software facing off against the two most successful 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 two matches played over three days. Watson won the competition and received $1 million for IBM, while $300,000 was awarded to second-place finisher Jennings, and Rutter was awarded $200,000. Jennings and Rutter pledged to donate half their winnings to charity, and IBM donated 100% of Watson's winnings to charity. This was the first ever man-vs.-machine competition in Jeopardy!s history.
Seniors Tournament
From 1987 through 1995, the Jeopardy! Seniors Tournament featured fifteen contestants all over the age of 50. Since the last tournament in December 1995, contestants over the age of 50 regularly appear on the program in non-tournament games.The format of the tournament was structured similarly to the Tournament of Champions, the Teen Tournament, and the College Championship. Fifteen contestants competed in groups of three over the first five days of competition. The five one-game champions, plus the four highest-scoring non-winners, advanced to the semifinals again in groups of three. The three semifinal winners advanced to the two-game final match for a top prize of at least $25,000.
Contestants defeated in the quarterfinal matches received $1,000. Each semifinalist who did not move to the finals received $5,000. The third-place contestant received $7,500, the second-place contestant received $10,000 and the champion received $25,000. The prizes in the final match were guaranteed minimums; if a contestant achieving first, second or third place finished with a combined two-game score that exceeded the minimum award, the contestant won the higher amount.
International Tournaments
One-week tournaments featuring champions from each of the international versions of Jeopardy! were held in 1996, 1997, and 2001. Each of the countries that aired their own version of the show in those years could nominate a contestant. The format was identical to the semifinals and finals of the 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...
.
Prizes
The prize amounts for all contestants are as follows:| Period | Finalists (minimum guarantees) | Semifinalists | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1st runner-up | 2nd runner-up | ||
| 1996 | $25,000 | $10,000 | $7,500 | $5,000 |
| 1997 | ||||
| 2001 | $50,000 | $15,000 | $10,000 | |
List of contestants
Winners who earned more than the minimum guarantee are as indicated.| Finalists | Semifinalists | |
|---|---|---|
| Alex Trebek Alex Trebek George Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself... Era (1984–present) |
||
| Olympic Games Tournament: Season 12 (July 15, 1996 to July 18, 1996), in Culver City, California | ||
Winner: Ulf Jensen ( SwedenSweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... , $25,000) 1st runner-up: Mandi Hale (  United KingdomUnited Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... , $10,000) 2nd runner-up: Jan Mertens (  BelgiumBelgium Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... , $7,500) |
Steinar Madsen ( NorwayNorway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... ) Elena Kislenkova (  RussiaRussia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects... ) Søren Wedderkopp (  DenmarkDenmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... ) Thomas (Tom) Kinne (  GermanyGermany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... ) Hasib Yildirim (  TurkeyTurkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... ) Ryan Holznagel (  United StatesUnited States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... ) |
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| International Tournament: Season 13 (May 5, 1997 to May 9, 1997), in Stockholm Stockholm Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area... , Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
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Winner: Michael Daunt ( CanadaCanada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... , $35,000) 1st runner-up: Per Gunnar Hillesoy ( NorwayNorway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... , $22,000) 2nd runner-up: Boris Levit (  IsraelIsrael The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... , $7,500) |
Anatoly Belkine ( Russia Russia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects... ) Dana Pernille Hansen ( DenmarkDenmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... ) Tobias Herzig ( GermanyGermany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... ) Eva Holmberg ( SwedenSweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... ) Gay Mollette ( United StatesUnited States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... ) Murat Sen ( TurkeyTurkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... ) |
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| International Championship: Season 17 (February 12, 2001 to February 16, 2001), in Las Vegas, Nevada 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... , United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
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| Winner: Robin Carroll ( United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... , $50,000) 1st runner-up: Frederik Gildea ( SwedenSweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... , $15,000) 2nd runner-up: Carsten Weidermann ( DenmarkDenmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... , $10,000) |
Yuri Bershidski ( Russia Russia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects... ) Gosia Czepek (  PolandPoland Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north... ) Sharon Eshel ( IsraelIsrael The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... ) Firat Isbecer ( TurkeyTurkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... ) Laszlo Mero (  HungaryHungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The... ) Ott Sandrak (  EstoniaEstonia Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies... ) |
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In the 1997 International Tournament held in Stockholm, Mälte, the Swedish version's announcer at that time, from the Magnus Harenstam era, was the announcer during the tournament for a few episodes instead of Johnny Gilbert.
The Olympic Games Tournament in 1996 commemorated the 1996 Summer Olympics
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and unofficially known as the Centennial Olympics, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States....
in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. The tournament was held in four days, with the final round lasting one day instead of two.
Only five countries took part in all three tournaments: the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Turkey. The 1997 contest also featured a contestant from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Since Canada does not have its own version of Jeopardy! (instead simulcasting the American version, on which the Canadian contestant had originally appeared), the 1997 tournament was the only to feature two contestants from the American show.
External links
- Official Jeopardy! website
- Official Celebrity Jeopardy! 2009 website
- Official Jeopardy! Million Dollar Invitational website
- Official Jeopardy! Kids Week websites: 2009, 2010, 2011
- Official Jeopardy! IBM Challenge website
- Official Jeopardy! Teachers Tournament website
- J! Archive, an archive of Jeopardy! games past and present