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.The US show is currently hosted by Alex Trebek. The current version debuted in 1984; the original version from the 1960s and 1970s was hosted by Art Fleming, as was the short-lived The All-New Jeopardy! in the late '70s.
| Table of contents |
|
2 Tournaments 3 Auditions 4 Miscellaneous Trivia 5 External links |
Each day, there are three contestants, one of whom is usually the winner from the previous show. (Before 2003, five-time winners were retired; now, there is no winnings limit.)
The show consists of three rounds. The first one is called just Jeopardy!, or rarely Single Jeopardy!. 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. Each category has five questions, which are worth certain amounts:
The second round, Double Jeopardy!, works like the first round, with the following exceptions:
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, if that is more; 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, the may risk up to that amount.
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 (and possibly second-place) prize. Alex 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. If more than one contestant ties for first place, they all win the money and come back. If there is a tie in a tournament, a tiebreaker question is played, but this is extremely rare. The most it is theoretically possible to win on the show in one day is $566,400 with the clues at their present value. However, that would involve getting each question correct, picking the daily doubles last in each round, having all the Daily Doubles be under the lowest-valued spaces (which they almost never are), wagering everything for each Daily Double, and again wagering everything in Final Jeopardy!.
In previous seasons, if a contestant won 5 days in a row, they retired undefeated, won a car, and were guaranteed a spot in the next Tournament of Champions.
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 money winners who were not undefeated. (Since 2001, the Teen champion has not been invited.) 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, which was supposedly devised by Alex Trebek himself during his tenure as executive producer:
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, 7 contenstants scored $0 in the first round, causing this tiebreaker to be applied. [If any of those contestants had saved $1, they would have advanced; 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 winning. The winner receives a guaranteed amount ($250,000 for the 2003 ToC, $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.
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, www.jeopardy.com, or call (310) 244-5367.)
Tryouts are given to many people at one time. There are two parts to the auditioning process. 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 considered passing; 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 are placed into the "contestant pool" and eligible to be called to compete for the next year.
You must wait one year after taking the contestant exam before you can try out again.
The
The main theme song to the original 1960s version is called Take Ten and created by Julann Griffin.
Celebrity weeks are held every so often, featuring well-known people playing the game for charity.
There are versions of Jeopardy! in many languages and countries around the world, as well as board games and computer games.
In October 1999, a blind contestant named Eddie Timanus was a five-day undefeated champion, winning $69,700 and two cars. He finished second in the Tournament of Champions that season.
"Weird Al" Yankovic has written a song called "I Lost on Jeopardy!".
The show has been portrayed (or parodied) on many television shows over the years, usually with one of that show's regular characters appearing as a contestant. Jay Leno often hosts such 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 contestants such as Sean Connery, Burt Reynolds, and French Stewart being very stupid.
The plot of the movie White Men Can't Jump revolved in part on the character played by Rosie Perez trying out for Jeopardy!.
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.Game play
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 a second or so. 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....?" but 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.
(A note about the "answers" and responses: The "answer" is usually a phrase or statement describing the intended response, which is often a proper noun or familiar expression. For example, if the clue was, "This city is the Capital of the United States", the correct response would be, "What is Washington?")Tournaments
Auditions
Miscellaneous Trivia
