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136-416: Jeopardy! is an American television game show. Its format is a quiz competition in which contestants are presented with general-knowledge clues in the form of answers and must phrase their responses as questions. Many contestants in the show's history have received significant media attention because of their success on Jeopardy! , particularly Brad Rutter , who has won the second highest total prize money on
272-403: A Jeopardy! Masters spinoff, indicating a change of arrangement. In May 2023, Bialik opted not to host the final episodes of the season in support of writers during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike , with Jennings stepping in to host the remaining episodes. Bialik formally went on strike with her union, SAG-AFTRA , shortly thereafter. It was later announced that Jennings would host
408-483: A U.S. senator and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee . Terry Thompson , a housewife and alumna of Swarthmore College , was the first Tournament of Champions winner. She won $ 8,590 over the course of her run on Jeopardy! , including $ 5,080 during her main run and $ 3,510 (plus a vacation to the Virgin Islands ) in the tournament. Thompson noted that her husband was initially wary of her participating in
544-464: A light pen on an electronic display on their lectern within a time limit of five minutes, during which they also phrase the question, which is pre-written during the wager. After the break, the Final Jeopardy! clue is revealed and read by the host. The contestants have 30 seconds to write their responses on the electronic display, while the show's "Think!" music plays. If either the display or
680-476: A lock-out device . The first contestant to successfully ring in is prompted to respond to the clue by stating a question containing the correct answer to the clue. Any grammatically coherent question with the correct answer within it counts as a correct response. If the contestant responds correctly, its dollar value is added to the contestant's score, and they may select a new clue from the board. An incorrect response or failure to respond within five seconds deducts
816-476: A "wild card" high scoring nonwinner.) In the semi-finals, Forrest defeated Jay Rosenberg and Gary Giardina. In the two-game final, Forrest defeated Paul Rouffa and Marvin Shinkman, adding another $ 100,000 to his total cash winnings. That final series was featured in a July 29, 1989, PBS documentary called Wise Guys , a behind-the scenes look at the program. In the 1990 Super Jeopardy! tournament, Forrest
952-730: A 5th Grader? in which he won $ 500,000. Rutter retained the Jeopardy! record by defeating Jennings in the finals of the Battle of the Decades tournament. After his success on Jeopardy! , Jennings wrote of his experience and explored American trivia history and culture in Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs , published in 2006. Jennings returned to Jeopardy! finishing runner-up to
1088-533: A bye into Round 2 in recognition of his former regular-play cash winnings record. However, Forrest came in third in his Round 2 game and received another $ 25,000 ($ 10,000 as a runner-up and another $ 15,000 for the 2nd round bye). The scores were $ 0 for Forrest, $ 28,200 for the winner Phil Yellman, and $ 12,999 for Lara Robillard. There were no "wild card" spots for nonwinners in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, meaning neither Robillard nor Forrest had
1224-513: A chance of advancing to Round 3. Yellman, coming in second in round 3, lost to Pam Mueller along with Brian Moore. At the end of Super Jeopardy, Forrest's total cash winnings totaled $ 227,800. Forrest returned for the Battle of the Decades tournament on February 3, 2014. He became a quarterfinalist, defeating India Cooper and Jim Scott. Cooper returned for the quarterfinals as a standby contestant. On May 9, Forrest competed against 1990s champion Mark Dawson and 2000s champion Colby Burnett. Forrest won
1360-399: A commercial break follows. Contestants who finish Double Jeopardy! with less than $ 1 do not participate in this round. During the break, partitions are placed between the contestant lecterns, and each contestant makes a final wager; they may wager any amount of their earnings, but may not wager certain numbers with connotations that are deemed inappropriate. Contestants write their wagers using
1496-564: A consulting producer for Jeopardy! , a role that included reading select on-air categories. When Trebek died in November 2020, Jennings was named the first interim guest host of the program. His episodes began airing in January 2021. In July 2022, Jennings became a permanent host of the show, along with Mayim Bialik . In January 2023, he was announced as the host of Jeopardy! Masters , which premiered on May 8, 2023. In December 2023, Jennings
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#17327808572611632-522: A contestant in 1997 and won $ 58,000 as an undefeated five-time champion. The next year, he finished third in the Tournament of Champions, behind Kim Worth and Dan Melia. In the first round of the Jeopardy! Million Dollar Masters tournament in 2002, Harris scored an upset victory over Rachael Schwartz and Frank Spangenberg . He lost in the semifinals to Eric Newhouse. In 2005, Harris competed again on
1768-425: A correct question to win the game. If neither player gives the correct question, another clue is given. Previously, if two or all three contestants tied for first place, they were declared "co-champions", and each retained his or her winnings and (unless one was a five-time champion who retired prior to 2003) returned on the following episode. A tie occurred on the January 29, 2014, episode when Arthur Chu , leading at
1904-441: A correct response is revealed the host confirms it. Otherwise, the host reveals the correct response if all contestants responded incorrectly. A correct response adds the amount of the contestant's wager to their score. A miss, failure to respond, insufficiently specific response, misspelling that affects the pronunciation of the answer, or failure to phrase the response as a question (even if correct) deducts it. The contestant with
2040-466: A different category instead of taking the clues in order. With Mark Lowenthal , Forrest co-wrote the 1992 book Secrets of the Jeopardy! Champions . Barbara Lowe, a writer and researcher from Anaheim, California , was a five-time undefeated champion during Trebek's second season, winning $ 35,192. However, she was disqualified from the show's second Tournament of Champions after it was revealed that she
2176-424: A dollar greater than twice the second place contestant's score, guaranteeing a win with a correct response. Writing about Jeopardy! wagering in the 1990s, mathematicians George Gilbert and Rhonda Hatcher said that "most players wager aggressively". The top scorer in each game is paid their winnings in cash and returns to play in the next match. Non-winners receive consolation prizes instead of their winnings in
2312-421: A few seconds of silence where the lights on the Jeopardy! set (which had been set up for Jennings to host before Trebek's death) slowly dimmed. That episode, as well as subsequent episodes that aired after Trebek's death, included a dedication screen at the end of the credits through the remainder of the season. To compensate for concerns over pre-emptions caused by holiday week specials and sports, SPT postponed
2448-686: A five-time champion in Season 4, co-wrote the 1992 book Secrets of the Jeopardy Champions . Like Forrest, Lowenthal won his Tournament of Champions. A revised edition of the book was released in 2017 as an Amazon Kindle book. In 1992, Forrest was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives , entering the Republican primary for Michigan's 9th congressional district , which at the time included his home town of Grand Blanc . He finished third, with 9,875 votes. As of 2014, Forrest
2584-399: A job offer – may be allowed to appear as a co-champion (now a rare occurrence since the co-champion rule was disestablished in early Season 31) in a later episode. Throughout each season, Jeopardy! features various special tournaments for particular groups (as named in " Tournaments and other events " below). Each year at the Tournament of Champions, the players who had won
2720-550: A million-dollar winning team on Greed , winning $ 200,000 for himself. He was also a successful $ 250,000 phone-a-friend for a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? . Eddie Timanus was the first blind contestant to compete on the show, appearing in October 1999. He won five consecutive games—the limit at that time—and earned $ 69,700 and two cars. He subsequently appeared in the Million Dollar Masters,
2856-481: A player is able to use the signaling device to ring in. Using this knowledge, he created a reaction time website and employed various methods, such as coffee and light exercise, to take his reaction time from an average 228 milliseconds to a superhuman 126 milliseconds. He published all his findings in a manifesto named Secrets of the Buzzer in 2015. Michael George Dupée originally appeared on Jeopardy! in 1996, and won
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#17327808572612992-411: A positive score, no contestant automatically qualifies from that game, and an additional wild card contestant advances instead. This occurred in the quarterfinals of the 1991 Seniors Tournament and the semifinals of the 2013 Teen Tournament, where the rule was in effect during the semifinals, but after that tournament the rule has changed for semifinals and finals. As the players are not isolated during
3128-549: A presenting sponsor has provided cash prizes to the losing contestants. The winner of each episode returns to compete against two new contestants on the next episode. Originally, a contestant who won five consecutive days retired undefeated and was guaranteed a spot in the Tournament of Champions. The five-day limit was eliminated September 8, 2003. In rare instances, contestants tie for first place. The rules related to ties have changed over time. Since November 24, 2014, ties for first place following Final Jeopardy! are broken with
3264-476: A result, no Final Jeopardy! round was played. This rule is still in place for the syndicated version, although staff has suggested that it is not set in stone and they may decide to display the clue for home viewers' play if such a situation were ever to occur. The Final Jeopardy! round features a single clue. At the end of the Double Jeopardy! round, the host announces the Final Jeopardy! category and
3400-531: A separate weekly prime time network version based on the Trebek version of Jeopardy! to air Saturday nights in the summer on ABC , he invited Cameron to compete as the only player from the Fleming era. Cameron competed in the fifth quarterfinal game, where he finished second (by one point) and won $ 5,000. U.S. senator and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain was a one-day champion in 1965 before serving in
3536-476: A sound accompanied a contestant ringing in. According to Trebek, the sound was eliminated because it was "distracting to the viewers" and presented a problem when contestants rang in while Trebek was still reading the clue. Contestants who are visually impaired or blind are given a card with the category names printed in Braille before each round begins. To ensure fairness in competition and accuracy in scores,
3672-656: A strategy known as the "Forrest Bounce" in his play to potentially confuse opponents. (Forrest referred to the technique as the "Rubin Bounce" after a law school friend, Donn Rubin, who first suggested it. ) The Forrest Bounce is applied in the Jeopardy! and Double Jeopardy! rounds with the player in control of the board "bouncing" between different categories rather than continuing through individual categories in sequence. According to Forrest, "The basic point is, you know where you're going next and [your competitors] don't." Host Alex Trebek has expressed aggravation with people who use
3808-416: A switch, and give the answers to the contestant and let them come up with the question? She fired a couple of answers to me: "5,280"—and the question of course was "How many feet in a mile?" Another was "79 Wistful Vista"; that was Fibber and Mollie McGee's address. I loved the idea, went straight to NBC with the idea, and they bought it without even looking at a pilot show. Griffin's first conception of
3944-464: A televised quiz show, as it had been only six years since the quiz show scandals had tarnished the medium's reputation. Burns Cameron , billed as "a businessman from Larchmont, New York " during his original run and "a realtor from Standish, Maine " on his 1990 appearance, won $ 11,110 in his appearances on Jeopardy! , including a then-record five-game total of $ 7,070 in December 1965. Cameron won
4080-679: A then-record $ 72,800 and qualifying for the 1986 Tournament of Champions, which he won, earning another $ 100,000. Forrest later played in the Super Jeopardy! tournament, the Million Dollar Masters tournament, the Ultimate Tournament of Champions , and the Battle of the Decades tournament. He implemented a strategy known as the "Forrest Bounce" to confuse opponents: the strategy involved picking each clue from
4216-417: A tie-breaker clue, resulting in only one champion being named, keeping their winnings, and returning to compete in the next show. The tied contestants are given the single clue, and the first contestant to buzz-in must give the correct question. A contestant cannot win by default if the opponent gives an incorrect question or forgets to phrase the response as a question (even if correct). The contestant must give
List of Jeopardy! contestants - Misplaced Pages Continue
4352-427: A total of $ 55,102. He subsequently won four Jeopardy! tournament titles: the 2001 Tournament of Champions, the 2002 Million Dollar Masters Tournament, the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions, and the 2014 Battle of the Decades. In 2020, his undefeated streak ended when he finished third in the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament, losing to Jennings and Holzhauer by a final score of 3–1–0. Pam Mueller
4488-476: A wager, from a minimum of $ 5 to a maximum of their entire score (known as a "true Daily Double") or the highest clue value available in the round, whichever is greater. Only the contestant who chooses the Daily Double is allowed to answer. A correct response adds the value of the wager to the contestant's score while an incorrect response or failure to provide a response deducts the same value. Whether or not
4624-430: A worldwide following with regional adaptations in many other countries. Each game of Jeopardy! features three contestants competing in three rounds: Jeopardy!, Double Jeopardy!, and Final Jeopardy! In each round, contestants are presented trivia clues phrased as answers, to which they must respond in the form of a question that correctly identifies whatever the clue is describing. For example, instead of asking, "Who
4760-575: Is a former winner of the College Championship. She participated in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, advancing all the way to the Sweet Six round before losing her match, finishing behind Frank Spangenberg and Jerome Vered . In 2014, Mueller competed in the show's Battle of the Decades . The story about her first match in this tournament, which saw her compete against fellow Jeopardy! champions Dan Melia and Ryan (Fritz) Holznagel,
4896-521: Is one of the longest-running game shows of all time. The show has consistently enjoyed a wide viewership and received many accolades from professional television critics. With over 9,000 episodes aired, the daily syndicated version of Jeopardy! has won a record 45 Emmy Awards as well as a Peabody Award . In 2013, the program was ranked No. 45 on TV Guide ' s list of the 60 greatest shows in American television history. Jeopardy! has also gained
5032-475: Is phrased properly in question form. A contestant who initially does not phrase a response in the form of a question must re-phrase it before the host rules against them. Contestants are encouraged to select the clues in order from lowest to highest value, as the clues are sometimes written in each category to flow from one to the next. Deviating from this is known as the "Forrest Bounce", a strategy in which contestants randomly pick clues to confuse opponents that
5168-436: Is the co-author (with Season 2 record-setting five-time champion and Tournament of Champions winner Chuck Forrest ) of the 1992 book Secrets of the Jeopardy! Champions , and has also written a college textbook on intelligence and national security. Eric Newhouse first appeared on Jeopardy! when he won the 1989 Teen Tournament. He was both a semifinalist in the 1989 Tournament of Champions and Super Jeopardy! After winning
5304-526: Is the only U.S. President to marry in the White House?" and the answer being " Grover Cleveland ", the clue is "He is the only U.S. president to marry in the White House" and the contestant would respond by asking "Who is Grover Cleveland?" The Jeopardy! and Double Jeopardy! rounds each feature game boards consisting of six categories with five clues each. The clues are valued by dollar amounts from lowest to highest, ostensibly by difficulty. The values of
5440-539: Is unable to attend a taping. In such cases, her voice is replaced with Gilbert's in post-production. The Clue Crew traveled to over 300 cities worldwide, spanning all 50 of the United States and 46 other countries. Occasionally, they visited schools to showcase the educational game Classroom Jeopardy! Robert Rubin served as the producer of the original Jeopardy! series for most of its run and later became its executive producer. Following Rubin's promotion,
5576-420: The Jeopardy! IBM Challenge . Toutant was better known for his appearance on another game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire , in which he won the show's grand prize, a progressive jackpot of $ 1,860,000. Lieutenant Frank Spangenberg garnered fame in 1990 when he set the five-day cumulative winnings record, becoming the first person to win more than $ 100,000 in five days on the show. He has been called one of
List of Jeopardy! contestants - Misplaced Pages Continue
5712-468: The Vietnam War , spending five and a half years as a POW , and later becoming a senator from Arizona . Hutton "Red" Gibson won the 1968 Tournament of Champions. Gibson later became a prominent sedevacantist and conspiracy theorist. One of his sons is actor, director and producer Mel Gibson . Jane Gschwend a high school dropout and homemaker from Lancaster, Pennsylvania , held the record for
5848-702: The "veritable legends" of the show. He was also the first to exceed $ 30,000 (winning $ 30,600) in a single day. At the time a member of the New York City Transit Police Department (now the Transit Bureau of the New York City Police Department ), Spangenberg won $ 102,597 in five days. Until 2003, winners were retired after five consecutive victories and due to a winnings cap in place at the time, Spangenberg kept $ 75,000 of his winnings and donated
5984-446: The 1990 Tournament of Champions and Super Jeopardy! earlier that year. He later competed in the 2002 Million Dollar Masters tournament, the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions and the 2014 Battle of the Decades tournament. Jerome Vered appeared on Jeopardy! in 1992 and won $ 96,801 as a five-day champion, retiring undefeated. His total winnings at the time were second only to Spangenberg's $ 102,597. During that run, he shattered
6120-443: The 1996 Tournament of Champions; $ 32,500 from the Ultimate Tournament of Champions; and $ 5,000 from the show's Battle of the Decades. Jennings praised Dupée's book, How to Get on Jeopardy! and Win! , claiming it was the best preparation for competing on Jeopardy! In the book, which he wrote after his success on Jeopardy! , Dupée wrote about his experience on the show and provided practice clues for aspiring contestants. Karl Coryat
6256-431: The 1998 Teen Reunion Tournament, Newhouse was invited to the Million Dollar Masters, where he placed second overall to Brad Rutter . Newhouse was one of nine players to advance directly to the second round of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, but lost his initial game. Tom Cubbage is the only contestant in Jeopardy! history to win both the show's College Championship and the Tournament of Champions. Cubbage became
6392-442: The 1998 Tournament of Champions, but lost his quarterfinal match to Teen Tournament winner Sahir Islam. In 2005, Phillips competed in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions. He won his first match, winning $ 8,800 (which was bumped to $ 15,000), and lost his second, finishing behind Eric Terzuolo and former College Championship winner Pam Mueller. Bob Harris is a multi-time contestant on Jeopardy! Harris first appeared as
6528-574: The 2006 Tournament of Champions , Madden won his first match (defeating the eventual winner of the Tournament, Michael Falk), but failed to win his second-round match, taking home a consolation prize of $ 10,000 and bringing his total to $ 442,400. Madden was invited to take part in 2014's Battle of the Decades Jeopardy! event, but declined to participate due to contractual issues. However, he was invited and able to take part in its 2019 All-Star Games tournament, featuring 18 past champions. Madden
6664-464: The 2014 Battle of the Decades, losing to Tom Cubbage. Ryan "Fritz" Holznagel is the editor-in-chief of Who2 Biographies and the winner of the 1995 Tournament of Champions. He also represented the U.S. at the show's first ever Olympic tournament in 1996. Holznagel later participated in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005, and in the Battle of the Decades in 2014. While not competing, he realized that Jeopardy success largely comes down to how well
6800-442: The 2019 Jeopardy! All-Star Games relay tournament with 2013 Teen Tournament champion Leonard Cooper on Rogers's team. Watson is a "deep question answering system" built by IBM to play Jeopardy! Watson was in a two-game, three-day exhibition match against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter that aired February 14–16, 2011. Watson won the match with a total of $ 77,147. Colby Burnett was the first Jeopardy! contestant to win both
6936-518: The Battle of the Decades Tournament, but lost in his first match and declined the prize money due to his office. Mark M. Lowenthal was an undefeated five-time champion in 1988 and won the 1988 Tournament of Champions . He also appeared on Super Jeopardy! , the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, winning $ 5,000 after losing his first game, and the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades , beating Frank Spangenberg in his initial game. Lowenthal
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#17327808572617072-649: The Clue Crew in 2004, and Jon Cannon and Kelly Miyahara took over her position in 2005. Farrell recorded clues until October 2008, and Cannon until July 2009. Miyahara, who also served as announcer for the Sports Jeopardy! spin-off series, left in 2019. The Clue Crew was eliminated beginning with the 39th season in September 2022; Foss became a producer for the show and McGuire a stage manager . Foss also serves as in-studio announcer when Johnny Gilbert
7208-585: The Forrest Bounce, noting that the show's writers purposely set up the clues in each category to flow when picked sequentially; he noted in a 2018 interview that Forrest failed to win the Tournament of Champions using the Forrest Bounce, vindicating Trebek's feelings on the topic and his suspicion that Forrest was "trying to disrupt" the game. Forrest is from Livonia, Michigan . He attended Birmingham Seaholm High School, Yale University , and University of Michigan Law School . Forrest and Mark Lowenthal ,
7344-564: The J! Archive. Richard Cordray was a five-time Jeopardy! champion in 1987, who appeared in the 1987 Tournament of Champions while still serving as a law clerk . Cordray parlayed his success on Jeopardy! into political office, serving as an Ohio State Legislator , the Attorney General of Ohio , and later the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau . He was a participant in
7480-625: The Teachers Tournament and the Tournament of Champions. A teacher at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois , Burnett won the Teachers Tournament in November 2012. In February 2013, he won the show's Tournament of Champions, taking home the $ 250,000 grand prize. He later appeared on season 3 of TBS 's reality game show King of the Nerds . Burnett is known for competing wearing oversized suits, sometimes with jackets that stretch all
7616-436: The Tournament of Champions that year. In 2005, Dupée participated in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions. He won his first match, but lost to Robert Slaven in the second. Nine years later, in 2014, Dupée competed in the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades tournament, where he was defeated by Brad Rutter . Dupée's total winnings on Jeopardy! are $ 203,901, including $ 66,401 won during his original five-day run; $ 100,000 for winning
7752-412: The Tournament of Champions, the quarterfinals are unseeded and contestants participate in a random draw to determine playing order and lectern positions over the course of the five games. The Tournament of Champions is seeded based on total winnings in regular games to determine playing order and lectern positions, with the top five players occupying the champion's lectern for the quarterfinal games. Since
7888-444: The Ultimate Tournament of Champions, and the Battle of the Decades. Brad Rutter is the biggest all-time money winner on Jeopardy! and briefly held the record for biggest cumulative game show winnings for any U.S. game show contestant. Rutter retained the record for Jeopardy! winnings with either $ 4,255,102 (or $ 4,270,102, including a pair of Chevrolet Camaros ). He became a five-day undefeated champion on Jeopardy! in 2000, with
8024-636: The Watson Supercomputer (splitting $ 300,000 with a charity) and again for the Battle of the Decades where he finished runner-up to Rutter again (winning $ 100,000). Jennings's total winnings amount to $ 3,422,700. His team finished runner-up in the 2019 Jeopardy! All-Star Games relay tournament. In 2020, he won the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time primetime event, which thus gave him his first Jeopardy tournament title and an additional $ 1,000,000 in winnings. In September 2020, as host Alex Trebek 's pancreatic cancer progressed, Jennings became
8160-474: The aforementioned Richards; news personalities Katie Couric , Bill Whitaker , Savannah Guthrie , Sanjay Gupta , Anderson Cooper , George Stephanopoulos , and Robin Roberts ; athlete Aaron Rodgers ; talk show host Mehmet Oz ; actress Mayim Bialik ; former children's show host LeVar Burton ; business journalist David Faber ; and sportscaster Joe Buck . In addition, the 2021 Tournament of Champions
8296-490: The air dates of Trebek's final week; the episodes scheduled for the week of December 21–25 were moved to January 4–8, 2021. Before Trebek's final episodes, reruns of episodes in which he recorded clues on location were shown from December 21, 2020, to January 1, 2021. Jennings took over hosting when production resumed on November 30, 2020; his six weeks of episodes aired between January 11 and February 19, 2021. The season went on to be completed by additional guest hosts, namely
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#17327808572618432-413: The bottom of the board. This strategy was regularly used by James Holzhauer during his winning streak between April and June 2019. From the premiere of the original Jeopardy! until the end of the 1984–85 syndicated season, contestants were allowed to ring in as soon as the clue was revealed. Since September 1985, contestants are required to wait until the clue is read before ringing in. To accommodate
8568-450: The categories and clues. Billy Wisse is the editorial producer and Michele Loud is the editorial supervisor. Previous writing and editorial supervisors have included Jules Minton, Terrence McDonnell, Harry Eisenberg, and Gary Johnson. Trebek himself also contributed to writing clues and categories. Chuck Forrest Charles “Chuck” Forrest (born June 3, 1961 ) is an American attorney and game show contestant who at one time held
8704-539: The changes. If an error that may have affected the result is not discovered until after taping of an episode is completed, the affected contestants are invited back to compete on a future show complying with federal quiz show regulations. Contestants who finish Double Jeopardy! with zero dollars or a negative score are automatically eliminated from the game at that point and awarded a consolation prize. On at least one episode hosted by Art Fleming, all three contestants finished Double Jeopardy! with zero dollars or less, and as
8840-543: The clue describes, phrasing each response in the form of a question. The original daytime version debuted on NBC on March 30, 1964, and aired until January 3, 1975. A nighttime syndicated edition aired weekly from September 1974 to September 1975, and a revival, The All-New Jeopardy! , ran on NBC from October 1978 to March 1979 on weekdays. The syndicated show familiar to modern viewers and aired daily (currently by Sony Pictures Television ) premiered on September 10, 1984. Art Fleming served as host for all versions of
8976-401: The clue's value from the contestant's score and allows the other contestants the opportunity to ring in and respond. If the response is not technically incorrect but otherwise judged too vague, the contestant is given additional time to provide a more specific response. Whenever none of the contestants ring in and respond correctly, the host gives the correct response, and the player who selected
9112-588: The clues increased over time, with those in the Double Jeopardy! round always being double the range of the Jeopardy! round. On the original Jeopardy! series, clue values in the first round ranged from $ 10 to $ 50 in the Jeopardy! round and $ 20 to $ 100 in Double Jeopardy! On The All-New Jeopardy! , they ranged from $ 25 to $ 125 and $ 50 to $ 250. The 1984 series' clue values originally ranged from $ 100 to $ 500 in Jeopardy! and $ 200 to $ 1,000 in Double Jeopardy! These ranges were increased to $ 200–$ 1,000 and $ 400–$ 2,000, respectively, on November 26, 2001. Gameplay begins when
9248-437: The contestant in third receives the third-place prize. Various researchers have studied Final Jeopardy! wagering strategies. If the leader's score is more than twice the second place contestant's score (a situation known as a "runaway game"), the leader can guarantee victory by making a sufficiently small wager. Otherwise, according to Jeopardy! College Champion Keith Williams, the leader usually wagers an amount that would be
9384-447: The contestant responds correctly, they choose the next clue. During the Jeopardy! round, contestants are not penalized for forgetting to phrase their response in the form of a question, although the host will remind them to watch their phrasing in future responses. In the Double Jeopardy! round and in the Daily Double in the Jeopardy! round, the phrasing rule is followed more strictly, with a response only able to be ruled as correct if it
9520-520: The cost of travel if a tournament travels (does not stay in Los Angeles) on the second week. Starting in Season 40, according to the official podcast in August 2023, as a result of inflation, consolation prizes were raised $ 1,000 each to $ 3,000 for second and $ 2,000 for third. During Art Fleming's hosting run, all three contestants received their winnings in cash where applicable. This was changed at
9656-409: The daily syndicated version's first pilot, from 1983, Jay Stewart served as the announcer, but Johnny Gilbert took over the role at Trebek's recommendation when that version was picked up as a series. The Jeopardy! Clue Crew, introduced on September 24, 2001, was a team of roving correspondents who appeared in videos, recorded around the world, to narrate some clues. Explaining why the Clue Crew
9792-416: The end of Double Jeopardy!, wagered to tie challenger Carolyn Collins rather than winning. Chu followed Jeopardy! College Champion Keith Williams's advice to wager for the tie to increase the leader's chances of winning. A three-way (non-zero) tie for first place has only occurred once on the syndicated version hosted by Trebek, on March 16, 2007, when Scott Weiss, Jamey Kirby, and Anders Martinson all ended
9928-541: The first ever winner of the College Championship in May 1989, winning $ 26,600. In November of that year, he was the $ 100,000 grand prize winner of the 1989 Tournament of Champions. He also appeared on Super Jeopardy! in 1990, and earned $ 5,000 for appearing as a quarterfinalist. 15 years later, in 2005, Cubbage competed in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions. In the first round, he lost his game, finishing second to Bob Harris . In 2014, Cubbage returned to Jeopardy! to compete in
10064-433: The game by $ 900, while Burnett in second place, moved on as a wildcard. Forrest competed against Ken Jennings and Russ Schumacher in the semi-finals on May 12 and briefly led in the Double Jeopardy! round, but ultimately finished in second place to Jennings, who moved on to the finals. Forrest earned $ 25,000 in that appearance bringing his all-time cash winnings on Jeopardy to a grand total of $ 252,800. Forrest implemented
10200-611: The game down, he decided to accept any correct response that was in question form. Griffin discarded his initial title of What's the Question? when skeptical network executive Ed Vane rejected his original concept of the game, claiming, "It doesn't have enough jeopardies ." The format of giving contestants the answers and requiring the questions had previously been used by the Gil Fates -hosted program CBS Television Quiz , which aired from July 1941 until May 1942. Art Fleming
10336-399: The game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not easily be shown on camera, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories. He originally intended requiring grammatically correct phrasing (e.g., only accepting "Who is..." for a person), but after finding that grammatical correction slowed
10472-447: The game with $ 16,000. Until March 1, 2018, no regular game had ended in a tie-breaker. If no contestant finishes Final Jeopardy! with a positive total, there is no winner and three new contestants compete on the next episode. This has happened on several episodes, including the second episode hosted by Trebek. A winner unable to return as champion because of a change in personal circumstances – for example, illness or
10608-440: The game. Jay Wolpert won the 1969 Tournament of Champions. He later became known as a game show producer, screenwriter, and occasional actor. Jerry Frankel , a musician and composer from Buffalo, New York , was a five-time undefeated champion during Trebek's first season, winning $ 32,650. He became that version's first Tournament of Champions winner, earning the $ 100,000 grand prize by defeating Bruce Fauman and Steve Rogitz in
10744-442: The game. Since May 16, 2002, consolation prizes have been awarded in cash—$ 2,000 for second-place contestants and $ 1,000 for third-place contestants. Since travel and lodging are generally not provided for contestants, cash consolation prizes offset these costs. Production covers the cost of travel for returning champions and players invited back because of errors who must make multiple trips to Los Angeles. Production also covers
10880-425: The highest score at the end of the round is that day's winner. If there is a tie for second place, consolation prizes are awarded based on the scores going into the Final Jeopardy! round. If all three contestants finish with zero dollars, no one returns as champion for the next show, and based on scores going into the Final Jeopardy! round, the two contestants who were first and second receive the second-place prize, and
11016-418: The judges double-check their own rulings throughout each episode. If it is determined at any point that a previous response was wrongly ruled correct or incorrect during the taping of an episode, the scores are adjusted at the first available opportunity, typically either at the start of the next round/segment or immediately after a Daily Double is found, with the host providing any necessary explanation regarding
11152-503: The line producer was Lynette Williams. Griffin was the daily syndicated version's executive producer until his retirement in 2000. Trebek served as producer as well as host until 1987, when he began hosting NBC's Classic Concentration for the next four years. At that time, he handed producer duties to George Vosburgh, who had formerly produced The All-New Jeopardy! In 1997, Harry Friedman , Lisa Finneran (now known as Lisa Broffman), and Rocky Schmidt succeeded Vosburgh as producers of
11288-445: The most games and money in the previous season come back to compete against each other for a large cash prize. Tournaments generally feature 15 contestants and run for 10 consecutive episodes. They generally take place across three rounds: the quarterfinal round (five games), the semifinal round (three games), and the final round (two games). The first five episodes, the quarterfinals, feature three new contestants each day. Other than in
11424-406: The most money won in regular Jeopardy! play for the original series with her $ 8,250 total over five days. She was upset in the semifinal round of the 1969 Tournament of Champions but returned as part of the all-time best charity game on the 2000th episode in 1972, winning that game. Host Art Fleming cited Gschwend as an example of how a common person without traditional credentials could succeed at
11560-436: The next taping, scheduled for November 9–10, 2020. In a New York magazine interview from 2022, then-consulting producer and former contestant Ken Jennings noted supervising producers Lisa Broffman and Rocky Schmidt had named him interim host for that taping and remembered his last conversation with Trebek days before rehearsal was to commence. In Sony Pictures Television's official Jeopardy! podcast in 2023, Broffman noted
11696-402: The one-day record for dollar winnings, earning $ 34,000 in one episode. After his run, Vered returned for the 1992 Tournament of Champions, finishing third. In the 2005 Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, Vered won five games to advance to a three-game final match against fellow Jeopardy! legends Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter . He finished in third place, earning $ 250,000. He competed in
11832-414: The original Jeopardy! series premiered, Merv Griffin offered the following account of how he created the quiz show: My wife Julann just came up with the idea one day when we were in a plane bringing us back to New York City from Duluth . I was mulling over game show ideas, when she noted that there had not been a successful "question and answer" game on the air since the quiz show scandals . Why not do
11968-423: The overall standings. This format has been used since the first Tournament of Champions in 1985 and was devised by Trebek himself. To prevent later contestants from playing to beat the earlier wild card scores instead of playing to win, contestants are "completely isolated from the studio until it is their time to compete". If none of the contestants in a standard 15-player tournament format quarterfinal end with
12104-421: The pen malfunctions, contestants can manually write their responses and wagers using an index card and marker, although the index card has the required phrasing pre-printed on each side ("Who/What"). Visually impaired or blind contestants typically type their responses and wagers with a computer keyboard. Contestants' responses are revealed in order of their pre-Final Jeopardy! scores from lowest to highest. Once
12240-399: The previous clue chooses the next clue. Gameplay continues until the board is cleared or the round's time length expires, which is typically indicated by a beeping sound. The contestant who has the lowest score selects the first clue to start the Double Jeopardy! round. Since 2021, if there is a tie for the contestant with the lowest score, the contestant with the last correct question among
12376-489: The prize was received, his all-time Jeopardy! earnings totaled $ 775,733.33, which as of March 2019 ranked third all-time behind Rutter and Jennings. Victoria Groce defeated 19-day winner David Madden in 2005, and returned to Jeopardy! in 2024, winning the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament and Jeopardy! Masters . Larissa Kelly won a total of $ 222,597 over six games and $ 1,000 third place consolation prize in her seventh game, with her last appearance airing May 28, 2008. At
12512-413: The program amount to $ 3,022,700, which includes $ 2,522,700 won in his initial appearances and an additional $ 500,000 for his second-place finish in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions. In addition, at the end of Season 20, he set a one-day record of $ 75,000, which was later broken by Roger Craig, and even later by James Holzhauer. During his first run of Jeopardy! appearances, Jennings earned
12648-521: The program thousands of dollars that the show was trying to recoup by withholding her winnings. Her episodes were then withdrawn from release and were never re-run following their original airings. On December 15, 2022, Lowe's episodes were found by the National Archives of Game Show History from a longtime Jeopardy! fan's collection of 108 VHS cassettes of 896 episodes from the shows first seven seasons, and her games were subsequently added to
12784-425: The record for the highest American game show winnings . His total was later surpassed by Brad Rutter , who defeated Jennings in the finals of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, adding $ 2,000,000 to his earlier Jeopardy! winnings. Jennings regained the record after appearing on several other game shows, including appearances on 1 vs. 100 and Grand Slam , culminating in an appearance on Are You Smarter Than
12920-541: 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 Forrest as one of the best and most memorable contestants of the 1980s. He is widely regarded by other elite Jeopardy! players to be one of the most formidable contestants ever to play. Forrest, who
13056-477: The rehearsal for Jennings was scheduled November 8, 2020, but canceled when Schmidt gave staff the news that Trebek had died that day. At the time of Trebek's death, producers publicly declined to discuss any plans to introduce his successor while stating that they had enough new episodes with Trebek as host to run through Christmas Day. On November 9, 2020, the first episode to air after Trebek's death, executive producer Mike Richards paid tribute to Trebek, after
13192-623: The remaining $ 27,597 to the Gift of Love Hospice, a facility operated by the Missionaries of Charity . Until 2019, the $ 102,597 record stood as the all-time net five-day record because of 2001 changes to clue values and the 2003 abolition of the five-day limit. The only contestant to date to beat Spangenberg's record is James Holzhauer , who won $ 298,687 in his first five games. Spangenberg also won Jeopardy! 's 10th Anniversary Tournament in 1993, winning $ 41,800, and previously appeared in
13328-403: The removal of the five-game limit in 2003, in the unlikely case of a tie in total winnings between two Tournament of Champions players, the player who won the most games receives the higher seed. If still tied, seeding is determined by comparing the tied players' previous aggregate scores. The winners of the five quarterfinal games and the four highest-scoring non-winners ("wild cards") advance to
13464-418: The returning champion selects a clue by indicating its category and dollar value. The two (or if there is no returning champion, three) challengers participate in a random draw prior to taping to determine contestant order, and if there is no returning champion, the contestant who drew the first lectern starts. The underlying clue is revealed and read aloud by the host, after which any contestant may ring in using
13600-407: The rule change, lights were added to the game board (unseen by home viewers) to signify when it is permissible for contestants to signal. Attempting to signal before the light goes on locks the contestant out for half of a second. The change was made to allow the home audience to play along more easily and to keep an extremely fast contestant from potentially dominating the game. In pre-1985 episodes,
13736-429: The season beginning with record-holding former contestant Ken Jennings , each hosting for a few weeks before passing the role onto someone else. Then- executive producer Mike Richards initially assumed the position of permanent host in September 2021, but relinquished the role within a week. Mayim Bialik and Jennings served as permanent rotating hosts of the syndicated series until December 2023, when Jennings became
13872-476: The second season of the new celebrity edition. In December 2023, after the strike was resolved, Sony announced that Jennings would remain the sole host of the syndicated series permanently, noting that it was still open to having Bialik host the prime time specials. Don Pardo held the role of announcer on the NBC version and weekly syndicated version, while John Harlan replaced him for The All-New Jeopardy! In
14008-404: The semifinals the way they are during the quarterfinals, show officials discovered a flaw after the 2013 Teen Tournament, because the triple zero loss happened in the second semifinal that allowed the third semifinal of the 2013 Teen Tournament to be played differently from the first (which was played before the triple zero loss). Starting with the 2013 Tournament of Champions, semifinal games, like
14144-451: The semifinals, which run for three days. The semifinals are seeded with the quarterfinal winners being seeded 1–5 based on their quarterfinal scores, and the wild cards being seeded 6–9. The winners of the quarterfinal games with the three highest scores occupy the champion's lectern for the semifinals. The winners of the three semifinal games advance to play in a two-game final match, in which the scores from both games are combined to determine
14280-401: The show (after Ken Jennings) and was undefeated by a human until 2011; James Holzhauer , who holds several of the show's highest overall daily scores; and Ken Jennings , Amy Schneider , and Matt Amodio , who have the top three longest winning streaks. Other contestants have been better known for their accomplishments elsewhere, such as John McCain , a one-day champion in 1965 who later became
14416-406: The show between 1964 and 1979. Don Pardo served as announcer until 1975, and John Harlan announced for the 1978–1979 season. The daily syndicated version premiered in 1984 with Alex Trebek as host and Johnny Gilbert as announcer. Trebek hosted until his death, with his last episode airing January 8, 2021, after over 36 years in the role. Following his death, a variety of guest hosts completed
14552-527: The show through the 2021–2022 season. Bialik also hosted the season's various tournaments and primetime specials. In July 2022, it was announced that Bialik and Jennings would return as co-hosts of the syndicated version. Jennings would host the Tournament of Champions and the new Second Chance Tournament, while Bialik would again host the primetime specials and spinoffs, including a new celebrity edition of Jeopardy! , which premiered in September 2022. However, in January 2023, ABC announced Jennings would host
14688-612: The show's Battle of the Decades. In his first game of the tournament, he defeated fellow Jeopardy! alumni Verini and Jerome Vered . Cubbage lost his second game to Ken Jennings , but he finished the game with $ 19,500, allowing him to secure a wild-card spot in the next round. In the semifinals, Cubbage lost again, finishing third behind Leszek Pawlowicz and eventual tournament winner Brad Rutter . Bob Blake , an actuary from Vancouver , British Columbia, appeared on Jeopardy in September 1989, won all five games, and broke Forrest's five-day record with $ 82,501. Because Blake's winnings exceeded
14824-614: The show, this time in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions. He won $ 24,400 and defeated fellow Jeopardy! alumni Frank Epstein and Tom Cubbage in Round 1, but lost in Round 2 to Bruce Borchardt and Michael Daunt. In 2014, Harris competed in the Battle of the Decades. In his match, he finished third, behind Shane Whitlock and Robin Carroll. Harris wrote a book about his experiences on Jeopardy! , Prisoner of Trebekistan. He has competed on other game shows. In 2000, he participated in
14960-446: The show. Beginning in 1999, Friedman became executive producer, and Gary Johnson became the third producer. In 2006, Deb Dittmann and Brett Schneider became producers, while Finneran, Schmidt, and Johnson were promoted to supervising producers. Johnson left the show in 2011, while the other producers remained until Sarah Whitcomb Foss took over all producer duties following the Clue Crew's 2022 disbanding. The original Jeopardy! series
15096-447: The show. It was reported that during her games, she argued with Alex Trebek over incorrect answers. In May 2023, Lowe would set the record straight on her appearance on the show, stating that during her second tape day, she developed a case of gastroenteritis which required the show to stop tape until she recovered. She also stated that Trebek told her she was costing the show time and money, and revealed that her stomach ailment had cost
15232-436: The sole syndicated host. While Bialik was originally arranged to host additional primetime specials on ABC , and spin-offs , the announcement of Jeopardy! Masters in 2023 meant these duties were shared as well. Following Bialik's withdrawal in part of supporting writers and actors due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes , Jennings assumed hosting duties for all forms of media. Currently in its 41st season, Jeopardy!
15368-551: The start of Trebek's hosting run to avoid the problem of contestants who stopped participating in the game, or avoided wagering in Final Jeopardy!, rather than risk losing the money they had already won. This also allowed the increase to clue values since only one contestant's score is paid instead of three. From 1984 to 2002, non-winning contestants on the Trebek version received vacation packages and merchandise, which were donated by manufacturers as promotional consideration. Since 2004,
15504-581: The then-limit of $ 75,000, $ 7,501 of his winnings were donated to his selected charity, Oxfam . He also competed in Super Jeopardy! , in which he was a semifinalist. He won the 1990 Tournament of Champions, earning $ 100,000. He also competed in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005. He was initially invited to compete in the Battle of the Decades tournament but declined because of conflicts with international travel. Ed Toutant appeared on Jeopardy! in October 1989, winning one episode and $ 11,401. He later assisted IBM in programming Watson to prepare for
15640-542: The third annual Tournament of Champions in 1966, in which he won $ 4,040. Cameron also appeared on the 2,000th episode in 1972, an all-time-best game in which he faced Elliot Shteir and Jane Gschwend, two 1969 contestants who had surpassed his total in their five-day runs. He finished second and won $ 700 for charity. Cameron is cited as one of the best players of the Art Fleming era of the show. In 1990, when Jeopardy! creator Merv Griffin produced Super Jeopardy! ,
15776-417: The tied players selects first. A "Daily Double" clue is hidden behind one clue in the Jeopardy! round, and two in Double Jeopardy! The name and inspiration were taken from a horse-racing term . Daily Double clues with a sound or video component are known as "Audio Daily Doubles" or "Video Daily Doubles", respectively. Before the clue is revealed, the contestant who has selected the Daily Double must declare
15912-426: The time of Forrest's victory, he retired undefeated. His record lasted until early in Season 6 of Jeopardy! , when Bob Blake won $ 82,501. Blake's record lasted until the middle of Season 6, when Frank Spangenberg accumulated a 5-day total of $ 102,597. Forrest went on to win the 1986 Tournament of Champions . In the quarterfinals, which was the first round, he defeated Guy Tonti and Gary Palmer. (Palmer advanced as
16048-763: The time of her run on the program, Kelly was the highest-winning female contestant and ranked fifth in all-time in Jeopardy! earnings (excluding tournament winnings). In addition to previously being the highest-winning female contestant in regular play, Kelly broke Ken Jennings 's record for most money won in five days by winning $ 179,797. Kelly is also the third-highest-winning female contestant in any single game in Jeopardy!' s history, as her $ 45,200 performance trails Maria Wenglinsky, who won $ 46,600 on November 1, 2005, and Emma Boettcher, who won $ 46,801 on June 3, 2019, after upsetting long-running champion James Holzhauer. Kelly's husband and sister were also contestants. Her husband fell to Jennings and her sister to Aaron Schroeder,
16184-407: The tournament, such as the 2020 Greatest of All Time or 2022 Tournament of Champions, or in the quarterfinals of tournaments without wild cards where a player must win the game to advance (21 or 27 players), the tie-breaker will be used regardless of the score being zero or positive for players to win the game and either advance to the next round or receive the point towards winning the tournament. This
16320-460: The two-game final. Chuck Forrest held the record for the largest non-tournament cash winnings total from 1985 to 1989, and the largest all-time winnings from 1986 to 1990. The show's producers regarded him as one of the best and most memorable contestants of the 1980s. Forrest is widely regarded by other elite Jeopardy! players as one of the most formidable contestants ever. He won five consecutive games from September 30 to October 4, 1985, winning
16456-401: The two-game finals, must have a winner. Players who participate in Final Jeopardy! will participate in the standard tie-breaker, regardless of the score being zero or a positive score. Similarly, if all three players have a zero score at the end of a two-game match, a normal tournament finals format will proceed to a tie-breaker. In a tournament format where a player must win multiple games to win
16592-489: The victors being later finalists in the 2009 Tournament of Champions. She appeared again in the 2019 Jeopardy! All-Star Games team tournament with Madden on Rutter's winning team. Roger Craig set a then one-day Jeopardy! winnings record of $ 77,000 during his second appearance on the show in September 2010. Craig won the Tournament of Champions the next year, and in the process set a then record for largest daily double (unadjusted) in Jeopardy! history. He appeared again in
16728-416: The way down to his knees. Jeopardy! Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin . The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given general knowledge clues in the form of answers and they must identify the person, place, thing, or idea that
16864-471: Was a two-day champion on the show in 1996. His name was given to the Coryat score , an analytics measurement of a contestant's ability to answer questions alone, without factoring in wagers on Daily Doubles or Final Jeopardy!. American novelist Arthur Phillips appeared on Jeopardy! in 1997. According to his biography, Phillips was a 5-time undefeated champion, winning $ 63,003 in the process. He competed in
17000-419: Was added, executive producer Harry Friedman said, "TV is a visual medium, and the more visual we can make our clues, the more we think it will enhance the experience for the viewer." Following the initial announcement of auditions for the team, over 5,000 people applied for Clue Crew posts. The original Clue Crew members were Cheryl Farrell, Jimmy McGuire, Sofia Lidskog, and Sarah Whitcomb Foss. Lidskog left
17136-428: Was confirmed by Ken Jennings in a post-match interview posted on the show's website during the Season 40 Champions Wildcard Tournament. In the standard tournament finals format, contestants who finish Double Jeopardy! with a zero dollars or negative score on either day do not play Final Jeopardy! that day. Their score for that leg is recorded as zero dollars. In a 1963 Associated Press profile released shortly before
17272-424: Was defeated in the quarterfinals, or the first round, by Dave Traini. That appearance added $ 5,000 to Forrest's total winnings. Traini would eventually become the third-place finalist. In the 2002 Million Dollar Masters tournament, Forrest lost his semi-final to Bob Verini, picking up another $ 25,000 in the process. Verini placed third in the finals. In the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions , Forrest received
17408-420: Was described at the time as a law student from Grand Blanc, Michigan , had a series of victories in Season 2 of Jeopardy! , starting on September 30, 1985. After four games, he set the regular play cash winnings record, with $ 60,000. When Forrest went on to play his fifth game on October 4, 1985, he broke his own cash winnings record, with 5-day cash winnings of $ 72,800. Under the Jeopardy! rules in effect at
17544-591: Was directed at different times by Bob Hultgren, Eleanor Tarshis, and Jeff Goldstein. Dick Schneider, who directed episodes of The All-New Jeopardy! , returned as director from 1984 to 1992. He was then succeeded by his associate director, Kevin McCarthy , who served until his retirement in 2018. After McCarthy's departure, he was succeeded by Clay Jacobsen, who served through 2021 and was later replaced by Russell Norman. As of 2022, Jeopardy! employs seven full-time writers and seven researchers to create and assemble
17680-455: Was featured on Who2 Biographies. Ken Jennings first appeared on Jeopardy! on June 2, 2004, shortly after producers of the show eliminated the five-show cap for contestants. Because the five-game limit was removed, Jennings continued to win and eventually broke the winnings record set by Tom Walsh, who had won $ 186,900 in 2004. Jennings set a record of 74 wins before he was defeated by Nancy Zerg in his 75th appearance. His total winnings from
17816-415: Was first used in 1985 by Chuck Forrest , who won over $ 70,000 in his initial run as champion. Trebek expressed that this strategy not only annoyed him but also the staff, since it disrupts the rhythm that develops when revealing the clues and increases the potential for error. Another strategy used by some contestants is to play all of the higher-valued clues first and build up a substantial lead, starting at
17952-671: Was hosted by Buzzy Cohen , winner of the 2017 tournament. On August 11, 2021, it was announced that Richards would succeed Trebek as host of the daily show and Bialik would host Jeopardy! primetime specials and spin-offs. On August 20, following a report from The Ringer exposing controversial remarks made on his podcast in the past, resurfaced controversies from Richards's time on The Price Is Right , and accusations of self-dealing regarding his executive producer position, Richards stepped down as host after taping only one week of episodes. Richards's five episodes as host aired in September 2021. Bialik and Jennings then alternated hosting
18088-502: Was ineligible and that she appeared on many different game shows (most notably Wheel of Fortune in 1976, It's Anybody's Guess in 1977, Bullseye in 1981, and later Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2003) and lied about her name. Her winnings were withheld, and she sued Merv Griffin Enterprises and King World Productions for it, ultimately receiving her winnings, but was banned from appearing on any future tournaments on
18224-643: Was named as the sole permanent host of Jeopardy! following Bialik's withdrawal. Nancy Zerg defeated 74-day champion Ken Jennings on November 30, 2004. She was the first contestant to be called "a giant killer" despite losing the next day. David Madden won the fourth-highest number of games on Jeopardy! in non-tournament gameplay, winning 19 games and $ 432,400 between July 5 and September 19, 2005. As of April 2019, Madden ranked fourth in consecutive game wins (James Holzhauer, Julia Collins, and Ken Jennings) and also fifth in dollar winnings from regular games (Jennings, Holzhauer, Matt Amodio, and Jason Zuffranieri). In
18360-527: Was the original host of the show throughout both NBC runs and its brief weekly syndicated run, between 1964 and 1979. Alex Trebek served as host of the daily syndicated version from its premiere in 1984 until his death in 2020, except when he switched places with Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak as an April Fool's joke on April 1, 1997. Trebek was still serving as host, having taped his last episode on October 29, 2020, for an intended Christmas Day broadcast, when contingency plans were made for him to miss
18496-595: Was the seventh out of 12 picks in the All-Star Games Draft in September 2018, thus becoming a member of "Team Brad " along with his former Princeton University Quiz Bowl teammate Larissa Kelly , the 6th pick in the draft. Team Brad won its first-round match and in the final episode, airing on March 5, 2019, won the All-Star Games Tournament grand prize of $ 1,000,000, which was split between the three team members. After Madden's share of
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