Contestants Are Forbidden From Bidding $69, Plus 25 Other Behind-The-Scenes "Jeopardy!" Facts
1.The show was originally pitched with the title What's The Question? due to its unique formatting. However, when a network executive claimed there weren't enough "jeopardies" in the program, the name was changed.
2.Jeopardy! first aired in 1964 with Art Fleming as the host.
NBC cancelled the program in 1975 due to lack of daytime viewers.
3.Alex Trebek took over hosting duties when the daily syndicated version of the show debuted in 1984.
Trebek was no stranger to hosting game shows. Prior to Jeopardy!, he hosted The Wizard of Odds, Double Dare (no, not the Nickelodeon version), The $128,000 Question, and The New High Rollers.
4.Both Jeopardy! hosts died from pancreatic cancer. Art Fleming passed away from the disease in 1995. Alex Trebek died in 2020, nearly two years after he announced his stage IV diagnosis.
5.The creator of Jeopardy!, Merv Griffin, also created Wheel of Fortune.
The sister shows are both filmed on the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City.
6.Merv Griffin also composed the Jeopardy! theme music titled "Think." He created the 30-second jingle in less than a minute as a lullaby to help his five-year-old son fall asleep. Griffin told the New York Times he made anywhere from $70-80 million from the tune!
7.Griffin died in 2007 and his tombstone reads "I will not be right back after this message," a funny nod to his legendary game show history.
8.Alex Trebek and Wheel of Fortune's Pat Sajak swapped hosting duties on their shows for April Fools' Day in 1997.
Pat Sajak hosted a regular episode of Jeopardy! with three unsuspecting contestants. Meanwhile, Sajak and Vanna White spun the wheel on Trebek's episode, both playing for charity.
You can watch the full episode of Pat Sajak hosting Jeopardy! here:
And watch Alex Trebek's full episode of Wheel of Fortune here:
9.Thousands apply every year to appear on the show, but only 400 people are chosen. With a 0.4% acceptance rate, it's easier to get accepted to an ivy league university than land a spot on the Jeopardy! stage.
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10.Each player films a "hometown howdy." These bite-sized introductory videos air on local affiliate stations to promote the contestant's upcoming appearance.
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You can watch some "hometown howdies" here:
11.The production team films five episodes in just one day!
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12.Contestants and game boards are chosen at random to ensure there is no cheating.
There are six game boards to choose from for each shooting day and the show's compliance officer picks five at random.
13.Trebek rarely missed a beat, likely because he spent an hour and half reading show scripts and mastering pronunciations before the show.
14.During commercial breaks, Trebek would answer questions from the audience since he was not permitted to interact with the players.
15.Contestants never knew which of their personal stories the late Trebek would highlight during the episode.
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Prior to competing on the show, all players fill out a questionnaire about their hobbies and interests. Trebek would choose which topic he wished to discuss while taping.
16.Players are instructed to arrive to the studio with three different outfits because the returning champion will be required to change before filming more games.
17.If you buzz too early, the game will lock you out for multiple seconds. Ken Jennings told Cracked the game is more about reflexes than speed as each contestant needs to wait for the question to be finished before jumping in with an answer.
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18.The show forbids contestants from bidding $69 for its sexual connections, $666 for its satanic connections, as well as $14, $88, and $1488 due to their white supremacist associations.
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19.Fans can blame the pen and tablet behind each podium for the bad handwriting, which flashes on screen during Final Jeopardy.
20.James Holzhauer holds the record for the highest single-game score recorded in Jeopardy! history winning $131,127.
The highest score a contestant can earn for an individual game is $566,400, however to this day no player has ever come close.
21.And Patrick Pearce holds the record for the lowest single-game score of -$7,400.
22.Regardless of their score, losing contestants don’t ever owe money to the show. In fact, the second place winner walks away with $2000 and the third place winner earns $1000 for participating.
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23.The show has earned four Guinness World Records: announcer John Gilbert holds the longest career as a game show announcer for a single show, Alex Trebek holds the most game show episodes hosted by the same presenter, and the series holds the most Emmy Award wins of any game show in addition to the record for the longest-running quiz show of all time.
Jeopardy! has earned a whopping 41 Emmy Awards!
24.Out of 9,200 episodes, only seven had no winner.
No win games occur when all contestants finish with $0 or miss Final Jeopardy.
25.The Clue Crew, established in 2001, travels to locations around to world in order to provide exclusive visuals for entire categories or individual clues. Sarah Whitcomb Foss and Jimmy McGuire have recorded clues in 300 cities, 46 countries, and on all seven continents.
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26.And finally, there are eight writers for the show who produce 230 games a season. For those keeping score at home that's 14,030 clues!
