Jeopardy! (seasons 1-19)

♥	"I'll take "PAYING YOUR RESPECTS" for 200, please." THE FIRST TWO HOSTS OF THIS SHOW (MAY 1, 1924 - APRIL 25, 1995 AND JULY 22, 1940 - NOVEMBER 8, 2020), BOTH OF WHOM THIS ARTICLE IS DEDICATED TO; MAY THEY BOTH REST IN PEACE "Who were Art Fleming and Alex Trebek?" That's correct.

Jeoprady!
This! Is! Jeopardy!
Genre: Game Show Trivia Running Time: 22–26 minutes Country: United States Release Date: March 30, 1964 – present Network(s): NBC (1964-75; 1978-79) Syndication (1974-75; 1984-present) ABC (primetime specials) Created by: Merv Griffin Distributed by: CBS Media Ventures Sony Pictures Television Distribution Starring: Art Fleming (1964-1975; 1978-1979) Alex Trebek (1984-2021) Ken Jennings (2021-present) Mayim Bialik (2021-2023) Seasons: 38 (1984-present) Episodes: 8,000+

Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. It aired on NBC from 1964 to 1975 (with a nighttime syndicated version from 1974 to 1975) and again from 1978 to 1979, and the current version has aired on syndication since 1984 (with various primetime tournaments airing on ABC in 1990 (Super Jeopardy!), and in 2020 (Jeopardy!: The Greatest of All Time) with a third one (Jeopardy! National College Championship) set to air in 2022).

Gameplay

The First Two Rounds

In the first two rounds, the three contestants face a game board of six categories each with five clues behind money amounts (30 in total). Each round lasts for 6½ minutes.

On a player's turn, he/she selects a category and an amount, then a clue is read. The first player to ring in with a correct question wins the value of the answer, but if he/she rings in and is wrong, the value of the answer is deducted from that player's score and the other player(s) have a chance at it. From 1964 to 1985, contestants could ring in at any time while the host was reading a clue; starting in the second season of the current version, contestants were/are forced to wait out until after the clue was/is read. The player who gets the question right or was the last to choose if nobody got the question right gets to choose another clue. The round continues until time runs out or if all the clues are played.

By the end of the original run (debuting no later than April 24, 1974), a cash jackpot ($500 + $500 per show) would be awarded to the first player of the day to correctly answer every clue in a single category. Doing so on the nighttime edition originally won that player a Chevrolet Vega, which was later changed to a London vacation package.

In the 1978 revival, the two contestants with the highest scores moved on to Double Jeopardy!, while the third-place contestant was eliminated from the game but kept the cash he/she won.

Also, in the pilot for the 1978 version, the game started with each contestant having 30 seconds to answer as many clues as they could; the rest of the round played as normal.

Daily Double

At some point in the round(s), the contestant in control will uncover a very special clue hidden somewhere on the Jeopardy! board called the "Daily Double" (commonly in a high-value clue, but one occurrence happens on the second-lowest value clue)[1]. On a Daily Double, the contestant who picks it can wager any or all of his/her current score (wagering all is classified as a "True Daily Double") but must wager at least $5 (which was half of the lowest clue value in the original Fleming version, $10).

If the contestant's current score is less than the highest value of a clue in the round, or they have a non-positive score, he/she can risk up to the maximum clue value (which usually happens) on that clue. Either way, only the contestant who picked it can give the response. A correct response adds the wager, but an incorrect or improperly phrased response (even if correct and regardless of the round), or no response at all deducts the wager (It is not told how many seconds the limit is, but it seems to be 15 seconds). Either way, the contestant then chooses another clue afterward to continue the game. There is only one Daily Double in the Jeopardy! round, and two Daily Doubles in the Double Jeopardy! round (In the ABC version of Celebrity Jeopardy!, the TRIPLE JEOPARDY! round has three Daily Doubles).

Usually, it is often placed on the lower, higher amount, and rarely on the upper. There is also one in another category.

In recent years, the role of DD has become more important, as there are many cases of reversals due to DD. Therefore, even if you get a lot of questions right, there is no guarantee that you will win. Representative participants who benefited from the use of DD include Roger Craig, Alex Jacob, and James Holzhauer.

Special Daily Doubles

Sometimes a Daily Double clue appears differently. A Daily Double that had a sound clue after the main clue; this was called an Audio Daily Double. Another Daily Double shows the contestant a picture or a video clip. From Season 18 to Season 38, a video clip featured a member of the Clue Crew after the main clue; this is called a Video Daily Double (in the Art Fleming era it was called a Film Daily Double). One last type, called the Celebrity Daily Double, features a celebrity guest giving a clue about himself/herself.

Clue Crew

From September 24, 2001 to the end of Season 38, a group of correspondents were called the Clue Crew. On certain clues, one member (or multiple members) of the Clue Crew was (or were) at a certain location and gave a clue under the selected category.

When the group was first formed, they consisted of Cheryl Farrell, Sofia Lidskog, Jimmy McGuire, and Sarah Whitcomb (Foss). Sofia left in 2004, and in 2005, the group added two new members: Jon Cannon and Kelly Miyahara. Cheryl left in 2008 and Jon left in 2009. One decade later, Kelly left in 2019, with Jimmy and Sarah as the last members. The Clue Crew was disestablished in 2022 at the end of Season 38.

Kelly worked double duty not only as a Clue Crew member but also as the announcer of Sports Jeopardy!.

Final Jeopardy!

At the end of the Double Jeopardy! round, the contestants (minus the ones who ended the previous round with a non-positive score) play this final round. The round starts with one last category for that round revealed, and then during the final commercial break, the contestants write down how much they wish to wager based on that category and the scores to that point, from nothing to the total money they accumulated in the first two rounds. During this time, judges are on-stage to help with the wagering, and barriers are placed between the contestants' podiums to prevent cheating. When the break is over, the Final Jeopardy! clue under that category is revealed, and then the contestants have 30 seconds to write down the correct response, remembering to phrase it in the form of a question. During that time, the iconic "Think!" music plays in the background (since 1990 the lights dim during that time). When the time is up and the music ends, the questions are checked one by one and a correct response adds the wager but an incorrect response or an improperly-phrased response (even if correct) deducts the wager. The contestant with the least amount of money reveals his/her response first. If the score (prize) after FJ! is at least twice the score of other participants, the winner is confirmed even without betting points (money)[2].

If all three contestants finish Double Jeopardy! with a non-positive score, no Final Jeopardy! round is played that day, and three new players appear on the next show. This occurred at least once during the Art Fleming era, but not the Alex Trebek era or the post-Trebek era; however, there have been seven instances during the Alex Trebek era where all available players finished Final Jeopardy! with zero, which still meant that three new players appeared on the next show. Those events happened on September 11, 1984, April 5, 1985, July 9, 1991 (Seniors Tournament quarterfinal game 2), March 2, 1998 (1998 Celebrity Jeopardy! Ladies Night game), June 12, 1998, February 7, 2013 (Teen Tournament semifinal game 2), and January 18, 2016.

If a contestant is blind (like Eddie Timanus), the pen is replaced with a Braille keyboard to type his/her response and wager. If the pen and/or electronic pad malfunctions, contestants are provided with an index card and a marker to manually write their responses and wagers. Those events occurred on December 8, 1987, March 18, 1992, November 18, 2003 (2003 College Championship semifinal game 2), November 21, 2003 (2003 College Championship final game 2), May 1, 2008, July 15, 2009 (2009 Kids Week game 3), and May 21, 2010 (2010 Tournament of Champions final game 2).

On at least three occasions, only one person remained for Final Jeopardy!; in these instances, there was no change to the way the round was played.

Why These Seasons Rock

1. Great hosting from Art Fleming, and especially Alex Trebek.
2. Masterful announcing from Don Pardo (who later announced Saturday Night Live from 1975 to his 2014 death), John Harlan, and currently Johnny Gilbert.
3. Nice format, with the basic premise of "we provide the answers, you provide the questions".
4. Great theme songs, whether it's "Take Ten", "January, February, March" or especially all versions of "Think!".
5. Nice looking sets, especially those of the current version, with a giant flashing Jeopardy! logo (until November 1996) and wall of monitors.
6. Intelligent contestants, among those, include Chuck Forrest, Frank Spangenberg, Brad Rutter, Ken Jennings, Matt Amodio, Julia Collins, and James Holzhauer.

Bad Qualities

1. It's often thought that the decline in clue writing quality started when longtime clue writer Steven Dorfman died in January 2004, during Season 20, and before that, a proliferation of punny categories since Season 14.
2. The show has been going downhill since Season 20, due to the aforementioned death of longtime clue writer Steve Dorfman and the removal of the five-game rule for champions led to ridiculously long winning streaks (especially with Ken Jennings).

Trivia

• While regular Jeopardy! is already considered partially found/lost media (at least by online standards) and difficult to find on the internet, most special editions/weeks and tournaments (e.g. Celebrity Jeopardy!, only a few shows of which have surfaced online and/or are still available as of 2024, Sports Jeopardy!, Super Jeopardy!, Rock & Roll Jeopardy!, the National College Championship and Jeopardy! Masters) aside from the Tournament of Champions, Kids Week and Teen Tournament, are even more difficult to find and have never been released in any form for a variety of reasons:
  • A streaming, home video or (unofficial) YouTube release would be problematic from a licensing and rights perspective, more so than product-based game shows like The Price Is Right and Jeopardy!'s sister show Wheel of Fortune. A public release for more recent episodes (aside from the ones that were uploaded on YouTube, although Sony has been blocking Final Jeopardy! clips, even the more recent ones, in recent years) might also require permission from many celebrities, sports players and/or contestants who may have signed contracts approving rebroadcast, but not DVD or streaming/digital releases.
  • When reran on GSN, certain Trebek-era seasons were rarely seen there, especially from seasons prior to 1996. Just five episodes have been officially released on DVD via 2006's Jeopardy - An Inside Look at America's Favorite Quiz Show, those being the series premiere from 1984 and 4 Ken Jennings games (his 75th and final regular game from November 2004 and the final Ultimate Tournament of Champions games from 2005).
  • Rock & Roll Jeopardy! ran on VH1 for about 100 episodes, but only nine of them have been found online; the rest are considered lost media.
  • The original Art Fleming era is believed to have been destroyed by NBC, although about 20+ episodes are known to exist and four (plus the first five minutes of another) circulate/circulated.
    • The 1974-1975 syndicated run and 1978-1979 revival are intact; a single episode circulates of the former, while seven episodes circulate of the latter.
  • Although a rotating selection of Trebek-era episodes were available for streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Pluto TV starting in 2018 and 2022, they were removed from the former two in 2021 (and Pluto TV in 2024, alongside select episodes of Wheel of Fortune); there is no word if the show will ever return to any of the services.
  • Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time, a four-day ABC primetime event, was never rerun after its conclusion in its original hour-long form, although a repackaged version of the event (split into eight half-hour episodes), were rerun as part of the syndicated version in summer 2020 and again as part of the daytime rerun package in October 2021. The four hour-long episodes were available to stream on Hulu, but (as per their usual practice with ABC game shows) they were removed roughly a year after their original runs.
  • All of the 2021 guest hosts, except for Mayim and Ken, have not been acknowledged or had their episodes rerun since their stints.
    • While Jeopardy!'s daytime and weekend runs have almost always been episodes from the previous season (guaranteeing that nearly every episode would rerun at least once), they were forced to jump ahead to episodes from the current season in order to only feature games hosted by Mayim or Ken or special events (including the half-hour syndicated edits of Jeopardy!: Greatest of All Time, the only games hosted by Trebek to have aired in the daytime run this season). Daytime Jeopardy! can now be as recent as episodes from one month ago, rather than a year ago. Even the first 75 episodes of season 37 hosted by Alex Trebek before his death were not rerun in either rotation, though all but four of them were available on Pluto TV until 2024.

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