Jeopardy! (game show)

Jeopardy! is a popular American game show best known for its unique answer-and-question format. Originally created by media mogul and game show mastermind Merv Griffin in 1964, Jeopardy! became a veritable television institution after legendary emcee Alex Trebek took over hosting duties on a revised version of the show that launched in 1984. Since that time, Jeopardy! has emerged as one of television’s highest-rated syndicated programs and earned a cult following among game show viewers and trivia enthusiasts alike. Jeopardy! is also one of television’s longest-running game shows, with a total of more than 9,000 aired episodes in its history. It is a highly decorated show as well, picking up more than forty-five Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award over the years. In addition to numerous international variants produced in countries around the world, Jeopardy! has also spawned several spinoff shows, including Rock & Roll Jeopardy!, Jep!, and Sports Jeopardy!

Background

Jeopardy! is essentially a trivia-based game show. The game’s core mechanic—and its most distinguishing feature—is its unusual answer-and-question format. Whereas most game shows simply require contestants to answer questions, contestants on Jeopardy! are given an answer and required to provide the question. The “answer” comes in the form of a prompt, to which contestants must respond in the form of a question. Within the game, these prompts are known as clues. To demonstrate the concept, a typical Jeopardy! clue might read as follows: “This fictional intelligence officer was created by British author and real-life spy Ian Fleming in 1952.” The correct response to this clue would be: “Who is James Bond?” While most clues are similar to this example, some may be more abstract, depending on the topic.

Gameplay on Jeopardy! is divided into three distinct rounds. The first round is referred to as the Jeopardy Round. In this round, six trivia categories are displayed on a large video screen. Each category title sits atop a column of five separate clues that are initially hidden by assigned dollar values. The dollar values and the difficulty of the associated clues increase from the top of the column to the bottom. When the round begins, the three contestants use buzzers to ring in, solve clues, and add to their individual winnings.

The second round is called Double Jeopardy. The game mechanics of Double Jeopardy are the same as in the first round, but the clues are more difficult, and the dollar values are doubled. Both of the opening rounds feature a special hidden bonus called the Daily Double. When a Daily Double is uncovered, the contestant is given an individual clue and required to place a wager on their ability to solve it. There is one Daily Double in the Jeopardy Round and two in Double Jeopardy. Any contestant who finishes Double Jeopardy with no money in their bank is automatically eliminated.

Final Jeopardy, the last segment of the show, features only a single clue. The contestants each make a secret wager based on the announced category. When the clue is subsequently revealed, they are given a short period to come up with a written response. The contestants’ responses are shown one by one, and the dollar amount they wagered is either added to or subtracted from their bank depending on whether their response was correct. The contestant who ends up with the largest bank total at the end of Final Jeopardy is declared the winner and invited back for the next episode.

Overview

Historically, the creation of Jeopardy! was closely tied to the quiz show scandal of the 1950s. At the time, several popular trivia-based game shows like Twenty-One and The $64,000 Question came under fire when accusations arose that producers were fixing outcomes by feeding contestants the correct answers. The scandal seriously impacted the public’s trust in quiz show-style game shows and led to a decline in the genre’s popularity. In the 1960s, renowned game show creator Merv Griffin developed a new program designed to help revive the struggling quiz show format. The new show was dubbed Jeopardy!, and its hook—invented by Griffin’s wife, Julann Wright—was that contestants would be given answers instead of questions.

The original version of Jeopardy! debuted on NBC on March 30, 1964. Hosted by actor Art Fleming, Jeopardy! initially garnered only modest ratings before it was switched to a noon Eastern time slot. This move immediately transformed Jeopardy! into one of television’s most successful game shows for much of the next decade. Unfortunately, NBC’s decision to occasionally place Jeopardy! in other time slots as part of an effort to broaden the network’s demographic appeal hurt the show’s ratings and ultimately led to its cancellation in 1975. After a brief 1978 revival that introduced the show’s modern format, Jeopardy! was canceled for a second time in 1979.

A new daily syndicated version of Jeopardy! was launched in 1984 after Griffin sold the show to King World Productions. Hosted by Canadian game show veteran Alex Trebek, the new Jeopardy! moved to prime time and featured updated technology. With Trebek at the helm, Jeopardy! was a smash success and remained one of television’s most beloved game shows for decades to come. The show’s popularity was so great, in fact, that it eventually spawned a number of spinoffs, including a music-themed variant called Rock & Roll Jeopardy!, a kid-friendly iteration known as Jep!, and a sports-centric version dubbed Sports Jeopardy! The main show also occasionally hosts special tournaments and theme weeks, including the Tournament of Champions, the College Championship, and Celebrity Jeopardy!

While Trebek was the undisputed face of Jeopardy!, the show’s contestants are often equally interesting characters. This due in no small part to the fact that prospective Jeopardy! contestants must survive a particularly grueling audition process just to earn a chance to appear on the show. Hopefuls must take an online test designed to measure their intellectual prowess. Of the hundreds of thousands of people who take the online test, only around 3,000 are invited to attend in-person auditions. After these auditions, which include a written test and a live round of Jeopardy!, 400 people are chosen to be contestants on the show’s next season. One of the most notable contestants in Jeopardy! history was Ken Jennings, a software engineer from Utah who won seventy-four consecutive games between 2004 and 2005 and took home a total of more than $2.5 million, the most a person has ever won on an American game show. Another of the show’s most famous contestants was Watson, an IBM supercomputer who competed on Jeopardy! in 2011 and defeated both Jennings and fellow former champion Brad Rutter.

On November 8, 2020, longtime host Trebek died from pancreatic cancer after serving on Jeopardy! for thirty-seven years. Initially, several hosts were trialed to replace Trebek. However, Jennings and actor Mayim Bialik emerged as front runners to host the show. After backlash from fans, Jennings became the main replacement for Trebek.

Bibliography

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