Jeopardy!

The Final Jeopardy! round features a single clue. At the end of the Double Jeopardy! round, the host announces the Final Jeopardy! category and 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.[22] Contestants write their wagers using a light pen on an electronic display on their lectern, and are limited to five minutes (although the limit may be adjusted if production issues delay the resumption of taping). During this time, contestants also phrase the question, which is pre-written during the wager. [23] 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 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.[17][18]

Contestants' responses are revealed in order of their pre-Final Jeopardy! scores from lowest to highest. Once 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 his/her 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.[9]

The contestant with 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 $0, 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 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.[24]^: 269 Otherwise, according to Jeopardy! College Champion Keith Williams, the leader usually wagers an amount that would be a dollar greater than twice the second place contestant's score, guaranteeing a win with a correct response.[25] Writing about Jeopardy! wagering in the 1990s, Gilbert and Hatcher said that "most players wager aggressively.”[24]^: 269

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 the game. As of May 16, 2002, consolation prizes have been $2,000 for the second-place contestant(s) and $1,000 for the third-place contestant.[26] 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 the cost of travel if a tournament travels (does not stay in Los Angeles) on the second week.[27]

During Art Fleming's hosting run, all three contestants received their winnings in cash where applicable. This was changed at 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.[28] 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, a presenting sponsor has provided cash prizes to the losing contestants. As of 2019, GEICO serves as the presenting sponsor of the consolation prizes, except for the Tournaments, which are sponsored by Consumer Cellular.[29]

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.[30]

In rare instances, contestants tie for first place. The rules related to ties have changed over time. Since November 2014,[31] ties for first place following Final Jeopardy! are broken with a tie-breaker clue, resulting in only a single 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. The contestant must give a correct question to win the game. If neither player gives the correct question, another clue is given.[32] 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 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.[33][34] A three-way tie for first place has only occurred once on the Trebek version, on March 16, 2007, when Scott Weiss, Jamey Kirby, and Anders Martinson all ended the game with $16,000.[35] Until March 1, 2018,[31][36] 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.[37][38][39]

A winner unable to return as champion because of a change in personal circumstances – for example, illness or a job offer – may be allowed to appear as a co-champion in a later episode.[40][41][42]

Throughout each season, Jeopardy! features various special tournaments for particular groups, including among others college students, teenagers, and teachers. Each year at the Tournament of Champions, the players who had won 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 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 the removal of the five-game limit in regular gameplay, 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' aggregate Double Jeopardy! and (if still tied) Jeopardy! round scores.

The winners of the five quarterfinal games and the four highest-scoring non-winners ("wild cards") advance to 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 the overall standings. This format has been used since the first Tournament of Champions in 1985 and was devised by Trebek himself.[43]

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".[44]

If none of the contestants in a quarterfinal end with a positive score, no contestant automatically qualifies from that game, and an additional wild card contestant advances instead.[45] 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.[45]

As the players are not isolated during the semifinals the way they are during the quarterfinals, show management have since changed the rules in tournament semifinals. Starting with the 2013 Tournament of Champions, semifinal games, like 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 best-of-seven tournament format where a player must win three games to win the tournament, such as the 2020 Greatest of All Time or 2022 Tournament of Champions, the tie-breaker will be used regardless of the score being zero or positive for players to win the game and receive the point.

In the standard tournament finals format, contestants who finish Double Jeopardy! with a $0 or negative score on either day do not play Final Jeopardy! that day. Their score for that leg is recorded as $0.

• 
  Original host Art Fleming, who hosted versions that aired from 1964 to 1979.
• 
  Alex Trebek hosted the show from 1984 until his death in 2020.
• 
  Mike Richards was the host of the show for one week in 2021 before resigning the position amid controversy.
• 
  Mayim Bialik has hosted prime-time versions and split hosting duties on the syndicated version since 2021.
• 
  Ken Jennings has shared hosting duties on the syndicated version since 2021.

Art Fleming 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,[52] except when he switched places with Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak as an April Fool's joke on April 1, 1997.[53]

On a Fox News program in July 2018, Trebek said the odds of his retirement in 2020 were 50/50 "and a little less". He added that he might continue if he's "not making too many mistakes" but would make an "intelligent decision" as to when he should give up the emcee role.[54] In November 2018, Trebek renewed his contract as host through 2022,[55] stating in January 2019 that the work schedule consisting of 46 taping sessions each year was still manageable for a man of his age.[56] On March 6, 2019, Trebek announced he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer (a disease from which Fleming also died on April 25, 1995). In a prepared video statement announcing his diagnosis, Trebek noted that his prognosis was poor but that he would aggressively fight the cancer in hopes of beating the odds and would continue hosting Jeopardy! for as long as he was able, joking that his contract obligated him to do so for three more years regardless of health.[57]

Trebek was still serving as host when he died on November 8, 2020. His last episodes were taped on October 29, 2020. At the time, producers 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.[58]

On November 9, 2020, the first episode after Trebek's death, executive producer Mike Richards paid tribute to Trebek, after a few seconds of silence where the lights on the Jeopardy! set slowly dimmed.[59] That episode, as well as subsequent episodes that aired after Trebek's death, also included a dedication screen at the end of the credits through the remainder of the season.[60]

To compensate for the delay caused by cancellation of most November production dates and pre-emptions caused by holiday week specials and sports, Sony announced on November 23, 2020, that the air dates of Trebek's final week were postponed, with episodes scheduled for the week of December 21–25 being postponed to January 4–8, 2021. Reruns of episodes in which Trebek recorded clues on location aired from December 21, 2020, to January 1, 2021, before his final episodes aired January 4–8, 2021.[61]

Production resumed on November 30, 2020, with a planned group of guest hosts from the staff, with those episodes commencing January 11, 2021. Sony announced the hosts would come from "within the Jeopardy! family," with Ken Jennings announced as the first interim host.[62][3] Between January and February 2021, additional guest hosts were announced, including executive producer Mike Richards; television news personalities Katie Couric, Bill Whitaker, Savannah Guthrie, Sanjay Gupta, and Anderson Cooper; athlete Aaron Rodgers; talk show host Mehmet Oz; and actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik.[63][64] An April 2021 announcement listed the final group of guest hosts, including: television news personalities George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts; Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton; Squawk on the Street co-host David Faber; and Fox Sports broadcaster Joe Buck.[65] In addition, Buzzy Cohen, the 2017 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner, hosted the 2021 Tournament of Champions.[66]

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.[67][68] On August 20, 2021, 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 the first week of episodes while remaining executive producer, before being dismissed from the latter role on August 31. Richards' five episodes as host aired in September 2021,[69][70] then Bialik and Jennings alternated hosting the show for the rest of season 38, through the end of July 2022. Bialik also hosted the season's various tournaments and primetime specials.[71]

In July 2022, it was announced that Bialik and Jennings would continuing splitting hosting duties for the 39th season of the syndicated version. Jennings would also host the Tournament of Champions and the new Second Chance Tournament, while Bialik would also again host primetime specials and spinoffs, including a new celebrity edition of Jeopardy!, which premiered in September 2022.[72][73]

Don Pardo held the role of announcer on the NBC version and weekly syndicated version,[6] while John Harlan replaced him for The All-New Jeopardy![74] In 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.[75]

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.[76] Explaining why the Clue Crew 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."[77]

Following the initial announcement of auditions for the team, over 5,000 people applied for Clue Crew posts.[77] The original Clue Crew members were Cheryl Farrell, Jimmy McGuire, Sofia Lidskog, and Sarah Whitcomb Foss.[76] Lidskog departed the Clue Crew in 2004 to become an anchor on the high school news program Channel One News, and a search was held to replace her in early 2005.[78] The winners were Jon Cannon and Kelly Miyahara, who formally joined the crew starting in 2005.[79] Farrell continued to record clues for episodes aired until October 2008,[80] and Cannon continued to appear until July 2009.[81] Miyahara left in 2019, although Foss and McGuire continued to serve as Clue Crew members until 2022.[82] Foss also serves as in-studio announcer if Johnny Gilbert is unable to attend a taping. In such cases, her voice is replaced with Gilbert's in post-production.[52][83]

The Clue Crew has traveled to over 300 cities worldwide, spanning all 50 of the United States and 46 other countries. Occasionally, they visit schools to showcase the educational game Classroom Jeopardy![84] Miyahara also served as announcer for the Sports Jeopardy! spin-off series.[85]

The Clue Crew was removed from the show starting with the 39th season in September 2022. Although they no longer deliver video clues, Foss became a producer for the show and McGuire a stage manager.[82]

Merv Griffin created the show and was executive producer from 1984 to 2000.

Harry Friedman was executive producer from 1999 to 2020.

Robert Rubin served as the producer of the original Jeopardy! series for most of its run and later became its executive producer.[86] Following Rubin's promotion, the line producer was Lynette Williams.[86]

Griffin was the daily syndicated version's executive producer until his retirement in 2000.[87] Trebek served as producer as well as host until 1987, when he began hosting NBC's Classic Concentration for the next four years.[87] At that time, he handed producer duties to George Vosburgh, who had formerly produced The All-New Jeopardy! In 1997, Harry Friedman, Lisa Finneran, and Rocky Schmidt succeeded Vosburgh as producers of the show. Beginning in 1999, Friedman became executive producer,[88] and Gary Johnson became the third producer. In 2006, Deb Dittmann and Brett Schneider became producers, while Finneran, Schmidt, and Johnson became supervising producers.[86]

The original Jeopardy! series was directed at different times by Bob Hultgren, Eleanor Tarshis, and Jeff Goldstein.[86] Dick Schneider, who directed episodes of The All-New Jeopardy!, returned as director from 1984 to 1992. From 1992 to 2018, Kevin McCarthy served as director, who had previously served as associate director under Schneider.[87] McCarthy announced his retirement after 26 years on June 26, 2018, and was succeeded as director by Clay Jacobsen.[89]

As of 2012, Jeopardy! employs nine writers and five researchers to create and assemble the categories and clues.[90] Billy Wisse is the editorial producer and Michele Loud is the editorial supervisor[91] Previous writing and editorial supervisors have included Jules Minton, Terrence McDonnell, Harry Eisenberg, and Gary Johnson.[86] Trebek himself also contributed to writing clues and categories.[92]

Naomi Slodki is the production designer for the program.[91] Previous art directors have included Henry Lickel, Dennis Roof,[93] Bob Rang,[86] and Ed Flesh (who also designed sets for other game shows such as The $25,000 Pyramid, Name That Tune, and Wheel of Fortune).[94]

On August 1, 2019, Sony Pictures Television announced that Friedman would retire as executive producer of both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune at the end of the 2019–20 season.[95] On August 29, 2019, it was announced that Mike Richards replaced Friedman in 2020.[96] On August 31, 2021, after Richards had resigned as permanent host earlier in the month, he was fired from his executive producer position at both Jeopardy! and Wheel, with Sony executives citing continued internal turmoil that Richards's resignation as host had failed to quell as they had hoped. Michael Davies from Embassy Row, which also produces Sony game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, was selected as interim executive producer[97] through the 2021–22 season.[71] On April 14, 2022, Davies accepted the role on a permanent basis.[98]

Various sets used by the syndicated version over the years. From top to bottom: 1984–85, 1985–91, 1991–96, 1996–2002, 2002–06, and 2009–13.

Various technological and aesthetic changes have been made to the Jeopardy! set over the years. The original game board was exposed from behind a curtain and featured clues printed on cardboard pull cards which were revealed as contestants selected them.[6] The All-New Jeopardy!'s game board was exposed from behind double-slide panels and featured pull cards with the dollar amount in front and the clue behind it. When the Trebek version premiered in 1984, the game board used individual television monitors for each clue within categories. The original monitors were replaced with larger and sleeker ones in 1991.[106] In 2006, these monitors were discarded in favor of a nearly seamless projection video wall,[107] which was replaced in 2009 with 36 high-definition flat-panel monitors manufactured by Sony Electronics.[108]

From 1985 to 1997, the sets were designed to have a background color of blue for the Jeopardy! round and red for the Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy! rounds. In 1991 a brand new set was introduced that resembled a grid.[106] On the episode aired November 11, 1996, Jeopardy! introduced the first of several sets designed by Naomi Slodki, who intended the set to resemble "the foyer of a very contemporary library, with wood and sandblasted glass and blue granite".[109]

In 2002, another new set was introduced,[110] which was given slight modifications when Jeopardy! and sister show Wheel of Fortune transitioned to high-definition broadcasting in 2006.[107] During this time, virtual tours of the set began to be featured on the official web site.[111] The various HD improvements for Jeopardy! and Wheel represented a combined investment of approximately $4 million, 5,000 hours of labor, and 6 miles (9.7 km) of cable.[107] Both programs had been shot using HD cameras for several years before beginning to broadcast in HD. On standard-definition television broadcasts, episodes continue displaying with an aspect ratio of 4:3.

In 2009, Jeopardy! updated its set once again. The new set debuted with special episodes taped at the 42nd annual International CES technology trade show, hosted at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester (Las Vegas Valley), Nevada, and became the primary set for Jeopardy! when the 2009–2010 season began.[108]

In 2013, Jeopardy! introduced another new set.[112] This set underwent several modifications in 2020, with a wider studio without any studio audience (the last episodes of the 2019–2020 season were also taped without an audience), and new lecterns for contestants and the host. The lecterns are spaced considerably apart to comply with California state regulations imposed when filming resumed after the coronavirus pandemic ended the 2020 season early.[113] Although the modified COVID-era set from the previous two seasons was kept, the live studio audience fully returned for season 39, which began airing on September 12, 2022.[114]

Since the debut of Jeopardy! in 1964, several songs and arrangements have been used as the theme music, most of which were composed by Griffin. The main theme for the original Jeopardy! series was "Take Ten",[115] composed by Griffin's wife Julann.[116] The All-New Jeopardy! opened with "January, February, March" and closed with "Frisco Disco", both of which were composed by Griffin himself.[117]

The best-known theme song on Jeopardy! is "Think!", originally composed by Griffin under the title "A Time for Tony", as a lullaby for his son.[118] "Think!" has always been used for the 30-second period in Final Jeopardy! when the contestants write down their responses, and since the syndicated version debuted in 1984, a rendition of that tune has been used as the main theme song.[119] "Think!" has become so popular that it has been used in many different contexts, from sporting events to weddings;[120] "its 30-second countdown has become synonymous with any deadline pressure".[121] Griffin estimated that the use of "Think!" had earned him royalties of over $70 million throughout his lifetime.[122] "Think!" led Griffin to win the Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) President's Award in 2003,[123] and during GSN's 2009 Game Show Awards special, it was named "Best Game Show Theme Song".[124] In 1997, the main theme (later rearranged in 2001) and Final Jeopardy! recordings of "Think!" were rearranged by Steve Kaplan, who served as music director until his December 2003 death.[125] In 2008, Chris Bell Music and Sound Design overhauled the Jeopardy! music package.[126] The newest version of the main theme, which draws elements from the 2008 arrangement, was composed by Bleeding Fingers Music and has been used since season 38.[127]

For the original Jeopardy! series, prospective contestants contacted the production office in New York to arrange an appointment and to preliminarily determine eligibility. They were briefed and auditioned together in groups of ten to thirty individuals, participating in both a written test and mock games. Individuals who were successful at the audition were invited to appear on the program within approximately six weeks.[128]

Since 1984, prospective contestants begin with a written exam comprising 50 questions.[129] This exam is administered online periodically, as well as being offered at regional contestant search events. Since 1998, a Winnebago recreational vehicle dubbed the "Jeopardy! Brain Bus" travels to conduct regional events throughout the United States and Canada.[130] Participants who correctly answer at least 35 out of 50 questions advance in the audition process and are invited to attend in-person group auditions throughout the country. At these auditions, a second written exam is administered, followed by a mock game and interviews. Those who are approved are notified at a later time and invited to appear as contestants. Eligibility is limited to people who have not previously appeared as contestants, and have not been to an in-person audition for at least 18 months.[131]

Many of the contestants who appear on the series, including a majority of Teen Tournament contestants and nearly half of all College Tournament contestants, participated in quiz bowl competitions during their time in high school. The National Academic Quiz Tournaments has been described by Ken Jennings as a de facto "minor league" for game shows such as Jeopardy![132]

Only a small number of episodes of the first three Jeopardy! versions survive. From the original NBC daytime version, archived episodes mostly consist of black-and-white kinescopes of the original color videotapes.[156] Various episodes from 1967, 1971, 1973, and 1974 are listed among the holdings of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.[157] The 1964 "test episode", Episode No. 2,000 (from February 21, 1972, in color), and a June 1975 episode of the weekly syndicated edition exist at the Paley Center for Media.[158] The test episode, of which only a few limited clips had been released, was released to the public in full on the Jeopardy! YouTube account March 30, 2022, and an audiotape containing approximately five minutes (including introductions and Final Jeopardy!) from the first aired episode was also released to the public; both episodes were released to celebrate the 58th anniversary of the show's debut.[159][160] The 1975 series finale, also in color and containing two short clips from the 1967 "College Scholarship Tournament" and Gene Shalit's appearance on an early version of Celebrity Jeopardy! also exists in its entirety. Incomplete paper records of the NBC-era games exist on microfilm at the Library of Congress. GSN holds The All-New Jeopardy!'s premiere and finale in broadcast quality, and aired the latter on December 31, 1999, as part of its "Y2Play" marathon.[138] The UCLA Archive holds a copy of a pilot taped for CBS in 1977,[157] and the premiere exists among the Paley Center's holdings.[158]

GSN, which, like Jeopardy!, is an affiliate of Sony Pictures Television, has rerun episodes since the channel's launch in 1994. Copies of 43 Trebek-hosted syndicated Jeopardy! episodes aired between 1989 and 2004 have been collected by the UCLA Archive,[157] and the premiere and various other episodes are included in the Paley Center's collection.[158] In July 2022, Vulture reported that vintage episodes of the daily syndicated version would air on a dedicated channel on Pluto TV beginning in August.[161] The channel, named Jeopardy! Hosted by Alex Trebek, launched on August 1.[162]

Starting in 1985, the show has held an annual Tournament of Champions featuring the top fifteen champions who have appeared on the show since the last tournament. The top prize awarded to the winner was originally valued at $100,000,[143] and increased to $250,000 in 2003.[176] Other regular tournaments include the Teen Tournament, with a $100,000 top prize;[144] the College Championship, in which undergraduate students from American colleges and universities compete for a $100,000 top prize; and the Teachers Tournament, where educators compete for a $100,000 top prize.[177] Each tournament runs for ten consecutive episodes in a format devised by Trebek himself, consisting of five quarter-final games, three semi-finals, and a final consisting of two games with the scores totaled.[43] Winners of the College Championship and Teachers Tournament are invited to participate in the Tournament of Champions.

Non-tournament events held regularly on the show include Celebrity Jeopardy!, in which celebrities and other notable individuals compete for charitable organizations of their choice,[178] and Kids Week, a special competition for school-age children aged 10 through 12.[179]

Three International Tournaments, held in 1996, 1997, and 2001, featured one-week competitions among champions from each of the international versions of Jeopardy! Each of the countries that aired their own version of the show in those years could nominate a contestant. The format was identical to the semi-finals and finals of other Jeopardy! tournaments.[109][143] In 1996 and 1997, the winner received $25,000. In 2001, the top prize was doubled to $50,000. The 1997 tournament was recorded in Stockholm on the set of the Swedish version of Jeopardy!, and is significant for being the first week of Jeopardy! episodes taped in a foreign country.[109] Magnus Härenstam, the host of the Swedish version of Jeopardy! at the time, introduced the first episode of the 1997 tournament, including Trebek. In addition, prior to Final Jeopardy! each day, a video clip of Härenstam with Trebek in Stockholm was shown.

There have been several special tournaments featuring the greatest contestants in Jeopardy! history. The first of these "all-time best" tournaments, Super Jeopardy!, aired in the summer of 1990 on ABC, and featured 35 top contestants from the previous seasons of the Trebek version and one notable champion from the original Jeopardy! series competing for a top prize of $250,000.[136] In 1993, that year's Tournament of Champions was followed by a Tenth Anniversary Tournament conducted over five episodes.[180] In May 2002, to commemorate the Trebek version's 4,000th episode, the show invited fifteen champions to play for a $1 million prize in the Million Dollar Masters tournament, which took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.[181] The Ultimate Tournament of Champions aired in 2005 and pitted 145 former Jeopardy! champions against each other, with two winners moving on to face Ken Jennings in a three-game final for $2,000,000, the largest prize in the show's history.[136] Overall, the tournament spanned 15 weeks and 76 episodes, starting on February 9 and ending on May 25.[182] In 2014, Jeopardy! commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Trebek version with a Battle of the Decades tournament, in which 15 champions apiece from the first, second, and third decades of Jeopardy!'s daily syndicated history competed for a grand prize of $1,000,000.[183] On November 18, 2019, an announcement of Jeopardy! returning to ABC for a primetime "Greatest of All Time" tournament was made beginning January 7, 2020, which was to include Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhauer. The event used a multi-night format, with each episode featuring a two-game match. The contestant with the higher cumulative point total across both games was declared the winner of the match. The first to win three matches received a $1,000,000 prize.[184] The tournament concluded on January 14, 2020, after four matches, with Ken Jennings winning three matches to Holzhauer's one and Rutter's zero wins.[185] Rutter and Holzhauer each received $250,000 for their participation.

In November 1998, Jeopardy! traveled to Boston to reassemble 12 past Teen Tournament contestants for a special Teen Reunion Tournament.[130] In 2008, fifteen contestants from the first two Kids Weeks competed in a special reunion tournament.[186] During 2009–2010, a special edition of Celebrity Jeopardy!, called the Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational, was played in which twenty-seven contestants from past celebrity episodes competed for a grand prize of $1,000,000 for charity. The grand prize was won by Michael McKean.[187]

The IBM Challenge aired February 14–16, 2011, and featured IBM's Watson computer facing off against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a two-game match played over three shows.[188] This was the first man-vs.-machine competition in Jeopardy!'s history.[189] Watson won both the first game and the overall match to win the grand prize of $1 million, which IBM divided between two charities (World Vision International and World Community Grid).[190] Jennings, who won $300,000 for second place, and Rutter, who won the $200,000 third-place prize, both pledged to donate half of their winnings to charity.[191] The competition brought the show its highest ratings since the Ultimate Tournament of Champions.[192]

In 2019, The All-Star Games had six teams with three former champions each. Each team member played one of the three rounds in each game played. Rutter, David Madden and Larissa Kelly won the tournament.[193]

Jeopardy! has been featured in several films, television shows, and books over the years, mostly with one or more characters participating as contestants, or viewing and interacting with the game show from their own homes. The sitcoms The Golden Girls,[218] Mama's Family,[219] and Cheers are among the shows which have featured primary characters participating in a fictionalized version of the show (the latter in the episode "What Is... Cliff Clavin?").[220] The animated television shows Family Guy, The Simpsons, and Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? have done likewise, all three times with Trebek providing his own voice.[221][222] On the series The Conners, Jackie Harris plays on a fictionalized version of the show during the guest host run of Aaron Rodgers.

From 1996 to 2015, Saturday Night Live featured a recurring Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch in which Trebek, portrayed by Will Ferrell, has to deal with the exasperating ineptitude of the show's celebrity guests and the constant taunts of antagonists Sean Connery (played by Darrell Hammond) and Burt Reynolds (Norm Macdonald).[223] The show has also parodied Jeopardy! by way of the recurring sketch Black Jeopardy!, in which the host and two of the three contestants are stereotypical black Americans and the categories and clues likewise reflect black American culture. The third contestant in Black Jeopardy! provides a contrast to the others.[224]

The 1992 film White Men Can't Jump features a subplot in which Gloria Clemente (played by Rosie Perez) attempts to pass the show's auditions.[225] In the David Foster Wallace short story "Little Expressionless Animals", first published in The Paris Review and later reprinted in Wallace's collection Girl with Curious Hair, the character Julie Smith competes and wins on every Jeopardy! game for three years (a total of 700 episodes)[226] and then uses her winnings to pay for the care of her brother, who has autism.[227] American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic satirized the Art Fleming incarnation of the show with his 1984 single "I Lost on Jeopardy", a parody of Greg Kihn's 1983 hit song "Jeopardy". Released months before the Trebek version of the show, the song's accompanying music video featured a re-creation of the 1960s-era set, along with cameos from Fleming, Pardo and, at the end of the video, Kihn himself.[228]

At the DEF CON hacker conference in Las Vegas, a variant called 'Hacker Jeopardy' has been organized.[229] In 2004, it was won by Kevin Mitnick.[230]

Over the years, the Jeopardy! brand has been licensed for various products. From 1964 through 1976, with one release in 1982, Milton Bradley issued annual board games based on the original Fleming version. The Trebek version has been adapted into board games released by Pressman Toy Corporation, Tyco Toys, and Parker Brothers.[231] In addition, Jeopardy! has been adapted into a number of video games released on various consoles and handhelds spanning multiple hardware generations, starting with a Nintendo Entertainment System game released in 1987.[232] The show has also been adapted for personal computers (starting in 1987 with Apple II, Commodore 64, and DOS versions[233]), Facebook,[234] Twitter, Android, and the Roku Channel Store.[235]

A DVD titled Jeopardy!: An Inside Look at America's Favorite Quiz Show, released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on November 8, 2005, features five curated episodes of the Trebek version (the 1984 premiere, Jennings' final game, and the three-game finals of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions)[236] and three featurettes discussing the show's history and question selection process.[237] Other products featuring the Jeopardy! brand include a collectible watch, a series of daily desktop calendars, and various slot machine games for casinos and the Internet.

Jeopardy!'s official website, active as early as 1998,[238] receives over 400,000 monthly visitors.[239] The website features videos, photographs, and other information related to each week's contestants, as well as mini-sites promoting remote tapings and special tournaments. The Jeopardy! website is regularly updated to align with producers' priorities for the show.[240] In its 2012 "Readers Choice Awards", About.com praised the official Jeopardy! website for featuring "everything [visitors] need to know about the show, as well as some fun interactive elements", and for having a humorous error page.[241]

In November 2009, Jeopardy! launched a viewer loyalty program called the "Jeopardy! Premier Club", which allowed home viewers to identify Final Jeopardy! categories from episodes for a chance to earn points, and play a weekly Jeopardy! game featuring categories and clues from the previous week's episodes. Every three months, contestants were selected randomly to advance to one of three quarterly online tournaments; after these tournaments were played, the three highest-scoring contestants would play one final online tournament for the chance to win $5,000 and a trip to Los Angeles to attend a taping of Jeopardy![242] The Premier Club was discontinued by July 2011.[243]