Jeopardy!

Jeopardy! is a popular international television game show, originally devised by Merv Griffin, who also devised Wheel of Fortune. The show originated in the United States. Jeopardy! debuted on March 30, 1964. It is a game of trivia, during which three contestants compete by answering questions about topics that can range from history to literature to pop culture, with the twist that each response must be spoken in the form of a question to which the clue given is the answer. Its style of play is especially popular among audiences who like to see if they can answer the questions themselves, essentially allowing the viewer to feel as if he is part of the game.

The US show is currently hosted by Alex Trebek and Johnny Gilbert is the announcer. The current version debuted on September 17, 1984, and perenially ranks second to Wheel in the Nielsen ratings of syndicated programs. Art Fleming hosted and Don Pardo was the announcer on the original version, which ran from March 30, 1964, to January 3, 1975 on NBC. He also hosted a short-lived NBC revival, The All-New Jeopardy!, from October 2, 1978, to March 2, 1979.

Game play

Each day, there are three contestants, one of whom is the winner from the previous show.

The show consists of three rounds. The first one is simply called the Jeopardy! round. The game focuses on a game board (before 1979, it was a grid of pull cards; since 1984, it is a video wall) containing six columns and five rows of trivia "answers" or "clues". Each column is a topical category, and categories change on each show. Recently, it's become popular for the show's producers to make the six categories related in some fashion. Each category has five questions, which are worth certain amounts:

1963-1975: $10, $20, $30, $40, $50
1978-1979: $25, $50, $75, $100, $125
1984-2001: $100, $200, $300, $400, $500
2001-now: $200, $400, $600, $800, $1000

The returning champion starts the game by picking the category and the monetary value. The host reads off the "answer" (which also appears on the game board for that clue), and then any of the three contestants can ring in with a response. Before about 1985, contestants could ring in anytime after the clue was revealed; now, they must wait until the host finishes reading the question before they can ring in, and pressing the signaling button too soon locks it for two-tenths of a second. For easy questions, ringing in at the right moment is important.

The responses must be phrased in the form of a question (usually "What is...?" or "Who is....?" For example, if the clue was, "This city is the capital of the United States", the correct response would be, "What is Washington, DC?" Some contestants have been more creative in responding), and an answer that is itself a question may be given as-is ("What, me worry?" for example).

If the response is correct, the contestant wins the amount of money the question is worth; if it is wrong, he or she loses that amount (hence the "jeopardy") and the other two contestants regain the right to ring in. The current scores are shown on the front of each player's podium. (Negative scores can and do happen often).

The person with a correct response then has the right to choose the next "answer"; if no correct response is given, a buzzer sounds, and the host reads the correct response. Then, the next choice is given to the last person who gave a correct response.

The second round, Double Jeopardy! (a pun on double jeopardy), works like the first round, with the following exceptions:

The categories are different.
The value of each clue is double what it was in the first round:
- 1963-1975: $20, $40, $60, $80, $100
- 1978-1979: $50, $100, $150, $200, $250
- 1984-2001: $200, $400, $600, $800, $1000
- 2001-now: $400, $800, $1200, $1600, $2000
The contestant with the lowest amount of money at the end of the first round picks first in the second round.

Some spots on the board conceal Daily Doubles. There is one such spot in the Jeopardy! round and two in the Double Jeopardy! round. Only the contestant who selects a Daily Double is allowed to respond to its clue. They can wager as much as the maximum amount of a clue on the board or as much as they have accumulated, whichever is greater. The minimum wager is $5. In the first "Jeopardy!" round, if a player has less than $50, $125, $500, or $1000 (depending on the era), they may risk up to that amount. In "Double Jeopardy!" if a player has less than $100, $250, $1000, or $2000, they may risk up to that amount. A player may also indicate that they wish to make it a True Daily Double, meaning that they are wagering all the money that they have up to this point.

The third round is Final Jeopardy!. Contestants with zero or negative scores are not allowed to participate in Final Jeopardy! and automatically win the third-place (or possibly second-place) prize. The host first announces the category, and the contestants risk as little as $0 or as much money as they have accumulated, by writing it on a card (before 1979) or electronic drawing board (since 1984). Then the clue is revealed. Contestants have 30 seconds to write a response on a card/electronic drawing board, again phrased in the form of a question.

The contestant who wins the most money is the day's champion and usually returns the next day. Before 1979, all contestants won their winnings in cash; since 1984, only the champion wins the amount of money accumulated on the show, and the other two contestants win consolation prizes. In 2002, it was changed so that the second place finisher gets $2,000 and the third place finisher gets $1,000. If more than one contestant ties for first place, they all win the money and come back, assuming that they each have at least $1 (there have been few players who have held the co-champ title twice, but there was NEVER a 3-way tie). If all contestants finish at zero or less, then nobody wins and three new contestants appear (it has happened three times since 1984.) If there is a tie in a tournament, a tiebreaker question is played, but this has only ever happened on a few occasions.

During the short-lived 1978-79 series, Final Jeopardy! was not played; instead, whoever was ahead at the end of Double Jeopardy! became the champion. That contestant then got to play a bonus round called Super Jeopardy! (no relation to the special summer 1990 tournament of all-time champions as aired on ABC). This round featured a new board of five categories with five clues in each, numbered 1-5 (and unlike the main game, not necessarily increasing in difficulty down the line). The object was for the contestant to provide any five correct responses in a straight line, Bingo style (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally). Giving an incorrect response earned the player a "strike," and blocked off that space on the board; three strikes ended the round. Super Jeopardy! was worth $5,000 to a first-day champion, with the jackpot increasing by $2,500 each day that champion successfully defended his/her title; with the five-day limit in place, that meant a potential total of $50,000 in just Super Jeopardy! earnings ($5,000 + $7,500 + $10,000 + $12,500 + $15,000). If a player struck out, he/she still received $100 for each correct response given.

In previous seasons, a contestant who won five days in a row would be retired undefeated, with a guaranteed spot in the next Tournament of Champions. In the later years of this era, an undefeated champion would also be awarded an automobile. To mark the start of the current version's 20th season, in September, 2003, the quiz show changed its rules so there is no winnings limit; a contestant keeps coming back as long as that contestant keeps winning. This led to the remarkable winning streak of Ken Jennings, who currently holds several records on the show, including most money won cumulatively and number of appearances.

The theoretical maximum win for a single day of Jeopardy! is $566,400, but this requires choosing all of the Daily Doubles last and that they're all placed behind the lowest valued clues, which the odds are 3,288,600 to 1 against (assuming they are randomly placed [which they're not]), wagering everything for each Daily Double, and again wagering everything in Final Jeopardy!. Depending on placement and order of the Daily Doubles, a so-called "perfect game" (every question correct, always maximum wager when called to do so) can range from $208,000 to $566,400, with a mean of $374,400.

If you decide ahead of time that your strategy is to go for a perfect game, your chances become much better. In trying for a perfect game, you will not select the low questions ($200/$400) until the end of each round. In the first Jeopardy! round, there is a 1:5 chance of the board being set up to your advantage, and you have a 1:6 chance of choosing the Daily Double last, giving you a 1:30 chance of maxing the first round. In Double Jeopardy!, there is a 1:29 chance of the board being set up right, and a 1:15 chance of choosing the Daily Doubles last. So, if you decide ahead of time to try for a perfect game, and manage to get all the questions, then you have a 1:13050 chance.

Tournaments

Various tournaments are held each season, including the Teen Tournament, featuring high-school students; the college Tournament, featuring college students; and the Tournament of Champions (ToC), featuring all 5-time undefeated champions, the college champion, and the highest scoring four-time winners. (Before 2001, the Teen champion was invited to the ToC.) Since the 5-day rule was lifted in 2003, spots in the next ToC will be alloted in order of wins, with total winnings serving as the tiebreaker. All of the tournaments follow this format created by Trebek himself:

The tournament lasts 2 weeks (10 shows), and 15 contestants are invited. In the first week, there are 5 games. The 5 winners advance along with the 4 next highest non-winning totals (wild cards). In the event of a tie for first place in a game, tiebreaker questions are asked until one person correctly answers; a tie for a wild card spot is resolved by the highest score entering Final Jeopardy!. (In the 2003 Tournament of Champions, 6 contestants scored $0 in the first round, causing this tiebreaker to be applied. If any of those contestants had saved $1, they would have advanced, but they wagered everything hoping for a wildcard spot.) In the second week, there are 3 semifinal games, and those three winners play a 2-day final, with the highest combined score being the winner. The winner receives a guaranteed amount ($250,000 for the 2003 ToC (used to be $100,000), $50,000 for the 2003 College Championship, and $75,000 for the 2004 Teen Tournament) or his 2-day score, whichever is higher. The other participants receive an amount based on their finishing position, and even first-round losers receive an appearance fee.

Auditions

The Jeopardy! staff regularly offer auditions for potential contestants. Tryouts take place regularly at the Los Angeles Jeopardy! studio, and occasionally in other locations. In order to try out, you must be at least 18 years of age, unless you are auditioning for one of the "special" programs, such as the Teen Tournament and Kids' Week. (For latest audition news, visit the Jeopardy! website, or call (310) 244-5367.)

Tryouts are given to many people at one time. You begin by filling out paperwork regarding your eligibility and availability, and you also fill in five possibly stories you can use during the on-air interviews.

There are two parts to the auditioning process itself. In the first section, fifty Jeopardy!-style clues in fifty different categories are displayed on a big screen at the front of the room and read aloud by Johnny Gilbert, the show's announcer. You have eight seconds to write down your response (no need to phrase in the form of a question here) before the next clue is read.

At the end of the fifty questions, the contestant coordinators take the completed answer sheets and grade them. A score of 35 is believe to be a passing score, although this information is not disclosed during auditions. You will not know your exact score, only if you passed or not. Those who did not pass the test are dismissed, and those who did pass the test remain for the second phase of the audition.

Part two involves a mock Jeopardy! competition. A game board is presented, and potential contestants are placed in groups of three to play the game. The emphasis is not on scoring points, or even having correct answers; the contestant coordinators know that you possess the knowledge to compete on the show, as you have already passed the test, and are looking for TV-compatible qualities. Having a lot of energy and using a loud, confident voice are considered to be huge advantages.

After playing a few clues, you will be interviewed by the contestant coordinators in front of the rest of the group with various questions, such as, "How would you spend the money?"

After the end of the tryout, those who passed the test and who are considered potential contestants are placed into the "contestant pool" and are eligible to be called to compete for the next year. The contestant pool is passed on to a "third-party firm," believed to be an accounting firm, which selects contestants at random.

You must wait one year after taking the contestant exam before you can try out again. If you are in the contestant pool, you may be called at any time in that year, although the show has more potential contestants than it needs and you may not be called at all.

Miscellaneous trivia

The Jeopardy! theme song, which was composed by Merv Griffin, served as the "think music" of the Final Jeopardy! countdown, and is also the melody for the current theme. It has insinuated itself into everyday communication; the song applies to any situation in which someone is waiting for another to answer a question or make a decision. For example, the theme is often heard at baseball stadiums when the manager goes to the pitcher's mound to discuss a replacement.

A few years after composing the theme song, Griffin repeated it and added two timpani notes at the very end so that it would meet the thirty-second minimum length required to secure a copyright on the song.

The main theme song to the original 1960s version is called Take Ten and was composed by Merv Griffin's wife, Julann.

Celebrity weeks are held every so often, featuring well-known people playing the game for charity.

There are also special "Kids Weeks" during which contestants of 10, 11, and 12 years old compete, with age-appropriate questions.

There are versions of Jeopardy! in many languages and countries around the world, as well as board games and computer games.

On April Fool's Day 1997, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune pulled a switch - Trebek hosted Wheel, and Pat Sajak hosted Jeopardy!; both shows also switched announcers. (Trebek's Wheel contestants were Sajak and Vanna White, both of whom played for charity; the Jeopardy! contestants were those regularly scheduled.)

In October 1999, a blind contestant named Eddie Timanus was a five-day undefeated champion, winning $69,700 and two cars. He was a Semi-Finalist in the Tournament of Champions that season.

When a player answers every question in a particular category correctly, it is said that he "ran the category". The audience usually applauds when that occurs.

The reason that only the winner gets to keep his money in the current version actually has an interesting story behind it. The second pilot episode for the new version had already been taped, with dollar values from $50-$250 in the first round, and $100-$500 in the second, with everyone keeping their money at the end, as had been done for years prior. Afterward, somebody (probably Merv) suggested that the values should be double that even, going from $100-$500 in the first round and $200-$1000 in the second. The producer said that that would be way too much for them to afford; even when taking into account the rate of inflation, that would be triple what the values had been on the original series. Merv wanted it done, though. Someone else piped in and suggested that only the winner should keep his winnings. It wasn't a popular idea at first, but was eventually accepted as a good compromise.

Another interesting story involves tournaments on Jeopardy!: The first one was held in 1985, after the first season, because the producers wanted to have a special ratings-grabber for sweeps. Alex Trebek, who was also the executive producer those first few seasons, devised the tournament format himself. The reason he made it like that is because that first season, there were exactly fifteen five-time champions. Once they decided to make the ToC an annual event, for each tournament, they invited all the five-time champs, and then the four-time champs in order of amount won to make exactly fifteen participants. There were never again more than fifteen five-timers, but it can be assumed that if there were, they would take the top fifteen in order of amount won. The ToC format was later applied to the Teen, College, and Seniors tournaments. Tournaments continue to work well as ratings-grabbers during sweeps weeks.

There are even versions of Jeopardy! outside of the United States, including a UK version hosted by Paul Ross (with three other hosts before him), an Australian version with Sale of the Century legend Tony Barber, versions from Canada, Sweden, Germany, plus a version from Denmark with Soren Kaster (from 1995), Lasse Rimmer (from 2000), to Lars Daneskov (from 2003), and a version in Israel with Ronny Yovel. Israel's version is the most recent version of the A&Q show around the globe, starting in 2002.

Episode Status

GSN has aired one episode from the 1964-75 Fleming version, the 2000th episode. It is believed that is all that is left of the run, as the tapes were destroyed by NBC. The status of the 1979 version is unknown. The Trebek version is completely intact, though most do not air. GSN owns the rights to a few seasons of Jeopardy!, and sometimes broadcasts those.

Jeopardy! in popular culture

The show has been portrayed (or parodied) on many television shows, movies, and literature over the years, usually with one of the characters appearing as a contestant.

A notable portrayal was on the sitcom Cheers, in which the character Cliff Clavin (a noted trivia buff), makes it onto the show; he does very well, but in Final Jeopardy!, is forced to give an embarrassingly inexact response and lose the game. Trebek said "Cliff, unless you've done something incredibly stupid like wagering everything, you've won", at which point you could tell from the look on Cliff's face that he had done just that. Clavin actually would have won if he had wagered nothing in Final Jeopardy! because he had been in a "runaway" situation (having more than twice his nearest opponent's total, making it impossible for them to catch him). Instead, he wagered everything and lost. After this episode of Cheers aired, Trebek made several references on the show to the possibility that a contestant in a runaway situation might "pull a Cliff Clavin."
Jay Leno often hosts parodies on The Tonight Show.
Saturday Night Live has done several parodies of the show. One version, aired in 1976, posited a futuristic "Jeopardy! 1999", with Steve Martin appearing as the host, named Art F-114 (after Art Fleming). The series also aired numerous sketches based on Celebrity Jeopardy!, with Alex Trebek played by Will Ferrell and featuring depictions of contestants such as Sean Connery, Burt Reynolds, and French Stewart. SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy! parody centered around the perception (and sometime reality) that this special edition of the show is dumbed-down for celebrities.
"Weird Al" Yankovic wrote and performed a song called "I Lost on Jeopardy", a parody of "Jeopardy" by the Greg Kihn Band. The original was a love song unrelated to the show ("Our love's in jeopardy, baby"). The parody details Al's purported appearance on the Art Fleming edition of the show, including his extraordinarily poor performance and the resulting embarrassment. Don Pardo, the original announcer for the show, provided a voiceover explaining what Al didn't win.
The plot of the movie White Men Can't Jump revolved in part on the character played by Rosie Perez trying out for Jeopardy! and eventually winning.
On a 1992 episode of The Golden Girls entitled "Questions and Answers," Dorothy auditions for the show. In a dream sequence, she is a contestant on the show, and went up against naive roommate Rose and freeloading neighbor Charlie (from the spinoff series Empty Nest); the Final Jeopardy answer said "This man is buried in Grant's Tomb." Rose answers "Who is Cary Grant?", Charlie draws a stick figure of a man, and Dorothy answers it correctly. Rose wins, to which Dorothy objects. Merv Griffin comes onto the set to claim that he can say that Cary Grant is buried in Grant's Tomb if he wishes.
In the attraction "Ellen's Energy Adventure" at Epcot (in Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida), Ellen Degeneres dreams that she is a contestant on an episode of Jeopardy! where all the categories are about sources of energy. Ellen's co-contestants are Jamie Lee Curtis and Albert Einstein. After she gets trounced in the first round, Bill Nye intervenes and takes her on a tour of many different sources of energy while explaining their benefits and drawbacks, allowing her to rally in the second half of the game.
David Foster Wallace's short story Little Expressionless Animals revolves around a woman who wins Jeopardy! every day in succession for an entire year.
Animaniacs had a gameshow segment called Gyp-parody, in which the final question was to list all fifty US states, and their capitals. Wakko responds with Wakko's America (sung to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw"), but loses in the end, as it is not in the form of a question. In another episode, the mouse pair Pinky and the Brain go on Gyp-parody in an attempt to win enough money to do what they dream of in every episode, "Take over the world!". Like in every episode, they didn't succeed.
Mama's Family featured an episode called "Mama on Jeopardy!" in which Thelma Harper competed on the show. In her usual style, most of her screen time was spent criticizing the other contestants. After barely making it to the Final Jeopardy round and getting the question wrong, she came in second place with a score of $1. Her disappointment didn't last long, however: her consolation prize was a trip to Hawaii, a place she'd always wanted to visit.
The movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray as weatherman Phil Connors caught in a one-day time loop, featured a Jeopardy! scene. Phil, after reliving the same day (and watching the same Jeopardy! episode) numerous times, had memorized the questions and was able to amaze his fellow inn guests with his seemingly vast knowledge of trivia.
The Simpsons featured a parody in the episode "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace." In this episode, Marge Simpson goes on Jeopardy! to earn money for her struggling family, but loses in spectacular fashion (her final score: -$5,200). After the show, Alex Trebek has two "judges" attempt to collect the money from Marge, but the family is able to escape.
A television ad for Holiday Inn Express in 2004 features a very foolish-looking man competing on the show, and he tells Alex that he is starting the seventh grade. Nonetheless, he is winning hands down over the other two contestents, and remarks to Alex that "I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night," which Holiday Inn markets as something that "smart" people do. The 30-second ad was filmed in the Jeopardy! studio, with Alex Trebek hosting.
Rugrats had a parody of the show on an episode called "Game Show Didi." This episode was about Didi Pickles' experience on a game show called "Super Stumpers," which bore a resemblance to Jeopardy!. Alex Trebek guest-voiced on the episode as the show's host, humorously named Alan Quebec. The parody was most evident when Didi rang in with the answer, "What is a torque wrench?", to which Alan replied, "Very good. And Didi, you don't have to phrase your answer in the form of a question."
Futurama, set in the 31st century and regularly featuring 20th century celebrities as preserved heads, depicted Jeopardy! as a still-running television show, hosted by the head of Alex Trebek.
Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie Rain Man was an autistic man who always had to watch Jeopardy at 7:00 and got nervous if he thought he was going to miss it.
In an episode of Beavis and Butt-head, a spoof of a Jeopardy episode is seen. A clue is heard that says, Doctors say that people need one of these once a year, to which Beavis responds, What is a shower?.

Merchandising

The Jeopardy! brand has been used on products in several other formats.

There have been Jeopardy! video games made by Atari on almost every popular platform including Super Nintendo, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Apple Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows.
Several board game versions of the game have been produced by Pressman Toys, including a Simpsons version.

Ken Jennings

External links