jeopardy

[jep-er-dee]

jeopardy, in law, condition of a person charged with a crime and thus in danger of punishment. At common law a defendant could be exposed to jeopardy for the same offense only once; exposing a person twice is known as double jeopardy. Double jeopardy is prohibited in federal and state courts by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The concept refers to an offense, not to an act giving rise to an offense; therefore, it is possible to try a person for multiple violations arising from a single act (e.g., assault, attempted murder, and carrying a deadly weapon). Jeopardy does not exist until the jury is sworn in, or, if there is no jury, until evidence is introduced. The prohibition of double jeopardy does not preclude a second trial if the first court lacked jurisdiction (authority), if there was error in the proceedings, or if the jury could not reach a verdict. A similar principle, known as res judicata, operates in civil suits. It holds that once a civil case has been finally decided on the merits the same parties can not litigate it again. In England and Wales, revisions to criminal law that took effect in 2005 now permit the Court of Appeal to order a person acquitted of a crime to be retried if there is "new and compelling" evidence.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

double jeopardy

In law, the prosecution of a person for an offense for which he or she already has been prosecuted. In U.S. law, double jeopardy is prohibited by the 5th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which states that no person shall “be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life and limb.” The clause bars second prosecutions after acquittal or conviction and prohibits multiple convictions for the same offense. Thus a person cannot be guilty of both murder and manslaughter for the same homicide, nor can a person be retried for the same crime after the case has been resolved. A person can, however, be convicted of both murder and robbery if the murder arose from the robbery. The prohibition against double jeopardy is not violated when an individual is charged for behaviour stemming from an offense for which he has been charged in a different jurisdiction or in a different court (e.g., a civil court as opposed to a criminal court). Seealso rights of the accused; due process.

Learn more about double jeopardy with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Jeopardy!

Jeopardy! is a popular quiz show featuring trivia in topics such as history, literature, pop culture, and science. The show has a decades-long broadcast history in the United States since its creation by Merv Griffin in the early 1960s. It first ran on NBC from March 30, 1964 until January 3, 1975, concurrently ran in a weekly syndicated version from September 9, 1974 to September 7, 1975, and subsequently ran in a revival from October 2, 1978 to March 2, 1979. Its most successful incarnation is the Alex Trebek-hosted syndicated version, which has aired continuously since September 10, 1984. It has also been adapted internationally.

During the game, three competing contestants select clues from a game board of 30 clues divided into six categories, each clue in the form of an answer to which they must supply correct responses, each response in the form of a question. The concept of "questioning answers" is original to Jeopardy! and, along with its theme music, remains a distinctive element of the show.

Since the 1980s, the Trebek version has consistently placed weekly among the top-rated shows in syndication. In January 2001, TV Guide ranked it #2 among the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time. Esquire magazine readers named it their "favorite game show", and in the summer of 2006, it was also ranked #2 by GSN on their list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time. The show holds the record for number of Emmy Awards in the category of Best Game Show, with 11.

Gameplay

Three contestants, one of whom is typically a defending champion, play the game in three rounds: the Jeopardy! Round, the Double Jeopardy! Round, and the Final Jeopardy! Round. (In the special case of a tie in tournament play, a fourth round, the Tiebreaker Round, is added.) The three contestants stand behind podiums which display their scores (updated as the game proceeds) and their names.

Jeopardy! Round

Six categories are announced, each with a column of five trivia clues (phrased in answer form), each one valued, in dollars, incrementally more than the previous, ostensibly by difficulty. Each category is a topical category, and the categories change on each show; the category names are frequently puns or collectively build upon a theme. Upon the show's 1964 premiere, dollar values were $10, $20, $30, $40, and $50. These values were increased to $25, $50, $75, $100, $125 with the revival of the show in 1978, and successively doubled with the second pilot for the Alex Trebek version in 1984, with the premiere of the Trebek-hosted version in 1984, and during its 18th season in 2001 for present values of $200, $400, $600, $800, and $1,000. (The 1990 Super Jeopardy! tournament used a point value scale that incremented from 200 to 1,000.)

The returning champion or the newcomer in the first (leftmost to the home viewer) position begins the game by selecting a category and monetary value (e.g. "PRESIDENTS for $200"). Contestants are free to choose any unselected clue, although contestants usually select lower-valued clues before higher-valued clues in any given category. The host then reads the clue ("He was the father of our country; he didn't really chop down a cherry tree"), after which any of the three contestants may ring in using a hand-held signaling device. The first contestant to successfully ring in following the host's reading of the clue must then respond generally in the form of a question ("Who was/Who is/Who's George Washington?"). (See Phrasing below.)

A correct response earns the dollar value of the clue and the opportunity to select the next clue from the board. An incorrect response or a failure to respond within a 5-second time limit (shown by the red lights on the contestant's podium) deducts the dollar value of the clue from the player's score and gives any remaining opponents the opportunity to ring in and respond. If none of the contestants give a correct response, the correct response is read, and the player who has most recently given a correct response to a clue chooses the next clue.

Daily Doubles

One clue hidden on the Jeopardy! Round game board is designated a "Daily Double" (a name taken from horse racing). Only the contestant who selects a Daily Double may respond to its clue. The player may wager as much as the maximum amount of a clue on the board (currently $1,000 in the Jeopardy! Round and $2,000 in the Double Jeopardy! Round) or as much as he or she has accumulated, whichever is greater, but must wager at least $5. Players may also indicate that they wish to make it a "True Daily Double", meaning that they are risking all the money that they have accumulated up to that point. Daily Doubles are sometimes designated with special tags, such as "Audio Daily Double" (in which a sound clip is played as part of the clue), "Video Daily Double" (in which a video clip is played as part of the clue), "Celebrity Daily Double" (in which a celebrity delivers the clue), etc. Such a tag is displayed as soon as the Daily Double has been selected.

Ringing in

Before the 1985–86 season, contestants could ring in any time after the clue was revealed. Since that season, players are required to wait until the host finishes reading the clue before they may ring in. Lights surrounding the game board, invisible to the television audience, illuminate to indicate that contestants may ring in. Pressing the signaling button prior to the lights' illumination locks the player out for approximately one quarter of a second.

Phrasing

In the Jeopardy! Round, players are not penalized for forgetting to phrase a response in the form of a question; the host will give a reminder to contestants who do not correct themselves before their time runs out. In the Double Jeopardy! Round, adherence to the phrasing rule is followed more strictly, but players are still permitted to correct themselves before their time runs out if they are not immediately ruled against. On occasion, players have couched their phrasing in creative ways or in languages other than standard English without penalty.

In the Final Jeopardy! Round, some contestants have gotten away with omitting a form of the word "be" in their responses.

Double Jeopardy! Round

The second round, Double Jeopardy!, works like the first round, with the following exceptions:

Six new categories are used.
There are two Daily Doubles in this round.
The value of each clue is double what it was in the first round (except in the case of the 1990 Super Jeopardy! tournament, where values were 500, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, and 2,500 points).
The contestant with the lowest amount of money at the end of the Jeopardy! Round makes the first selection in Double Jeopardy! If there is a tie for the trailing position, the player to the host's left selects first.
From 1985 to 1997, the set would change from blue to red starting with this round.
In the 1978–1979 version, only the two highest-scoring players at the end of Round 1 played Double Jeopardy!; the third-place player was eliminated before the start of the round.
The response must be phrased in question form (see Phrasing above).

Finishing Double Jeopardy! with $0 or less

Contestants who finish Double Jeopardy! with a $0 or negative score are automatically eliminated from the game and not allowed to participate in the game's final round, Final Jeopardy! In this case, the contestants still receive consolation prizes, which (beginning with Show #4089, aired May 16, 2002) are $1,000 for third place and $2,000 for second place. On rare occasions, two contestants have been in the red, leaving the first-place player to play the Final Jeopardy! Round alone.

On Celebrity Jeopardy!, which is played for charity, contestants are allowed to participate in Final Jeopardy! under all circumstances, and such contestants are granted nominal scores with which to wager for Final Jeopardy!

In the original Art Fleming version, no money was awarded if a contestant finished with $0 or in the red (with a negative score), but he/she did receive parting gifts. If a returning champion finished in the red, it did not count against their previously accumulated winnings; any cash they had previously won was theirs to keep. At least once during the Fleming era, all three contestants finished Double Jeopardy! with $0 or less, thereby disqualifying everyone from Final Jeopardy! The time normally used for the final round was filled with chitchat between Fleming and the contestants. For the following telecast, three new contestants were featured.

Final Jeopardy! Round

In the Final Jeopardy! Round, the host first announces the category, then the show goes into a commercial break (during which the staff comes on stage and advises the contestants while barriers are placed between the players to discourage cheating). The contestants then risk as little as $0 or up to as much money as they have accumulated, by writing it on a card (in the 1964-1975 version) or computer screen with a light pen or touchscreen with a capacitive stylus (since 1984).

After the final commercial break, the Final Jeopardy! clue is revealed and read by the host, following which contestants have 30 seconds to write a response on a card/electronic drawing board, again phrased in the form of a question. The light pen is automatically cut off at the end of the 30 seconds. With rare exception, the "Think!" music is played during this 30-second period.

Other Final Jeopardy! response methods are occasionally used:

Blind contestants (including 5-time champion Eddie Timanus and 2005 Teen Tournament quarterfinalist Kerri Regan) utilize a keyboard with Braille keys. Entered text will be displayed in a typed font rather than the contestant's handwriting.
In the event of a malfunction of the handwriting input, contestants respond using a marker and paper card.

Cash prizes

The top money-winner at the end of Final Jeopardy! is the day's champion and returns to the next show. During the 1964 and 1978 NBC and 1974 syndicated versions, all three contestants kept whatever cash they won. On the 1974 syndicated version, the winner also received a bonus prize or cash (see entry in "Other versions" for more information).

Starting with the 1984 revival, rather than receiving their scores in cash, runners-up are awarded consolation prizes; the second-place finisher is awarded $2,000 and the third place finisher is awarded $1,000. Prior to May 16,2002, the second-place player typically received a vacation package and the third-place player received merchandise.

Since the show does not provide airfare or lodging for most contestants (airfare was provided for returning champions' subsequent flights to L.A.), these cash consolation prizes alleviated the financial burden of appearing on the show.

The greatest amount won by an individual in a day was $75,000, by Ken Jennings, on July 23, 2004.

Special cases

If no contestant finishes Final Jeopardy! with a positive total (i.e., at least $1), then nobody wins and three new contestants appear on the following show; in such cases the three new players will participate in a backstage draw to determine player position. The three-way loss has happened three times since 1984, the first occasion being on the second episode; the number of times this occurred during the 1964 NBC version is undetermined. If two or more contestants tie for first place, they each win the money and come back, assuming that they each have at least $1. Three players have held the co-champ title twice.

Ties in non-regular-play games are broken via a special Tiebreaker Round; this has only happened on five occasions, most recently on November 13, 2007 during the second semifinal game of the Tournament of Champions. An additional tiebreaker category with a single clue is given after the Final Jeopardy! Round, and the first player to ring in with the correct response wins. In case of a three-way loss in a tournament, none of the three players advance, and an additional wildcard is added in the tournament. Scores coming to Double Jeopardy! break ties for a wildcard position.

A three-way tie for first place has only occurred once during the Alex Trebek era of Jeopardy!, and only one contestant in the Trebek era has won a game with only $1.

Recurring categories

Some categories have special rules pertaining to them. In each case, contestants and viewers are told the specific format required to get the clue correct.

Other versions

The 1974-75 weekly syndicated version was essentially the same as the NBC version, but with several changes. Host Art Fleming always wore a tuxedo with a check-patterned jacket and a number of flashing light bulbs were added to the set. Most contestants were previous winners from the daytime show. As well, any player who correctly answered all five questions in a category received a bonus prize, originally a Chevrolet Vega, later a trip to London (as opposed to a cash bonus on the daytime edition).

Originally, the winning contestant picked a number from 1-30 off the Jeopardy Jackpot Board; possible prizes included a new car, a luxury vacation, or bonus money, with the grand prize being $25,000 (though the latter took up two spaces, each corresponding one half, and could only be won if the contestant found the second half on an additional pick). Later in the show's one-season run, the Jackpot Board was dropped, and the champion's bonus prize or cash was based on his or her final score (it was also at this point that the aforementioned "maingame category sweep" prize was changed from the car to the London holiday, since the Chevy Vega was now one of the bonus prizes).

However, this version failed to catch on in the ratings or garner enough stations, mainly due to a glut of other weekly versions of network daytime games that stations ran in their Prime Time Access early-evening timeslots, such as Price is Right and Let's Make a Deal. The show was cancelled after only one season. During the previous season, packagers of Dating Game and Sale of the Century had tried to keep their shows alive in syndication as well; neither of those games were successful either.

The All-New Jeopardy! was a short-lived 1978–1979 series with significantly different rules than the 1964-75 versions. The lowest-scoring contestant was eliminated after the Jeopardy! Round; whoever was ahead at the end of the Double Jeopardy! Round became the champion.

Instead of Final Jeopardy!, the winner then got to play a bonus round called Super Jeopardy! (no relation to the special summer 1990 tournament of all-time champions as aired on ABC). This round featured a new board of five categories with five clues in each, numbered 1–5 (and unlike the main game, not necessarily increasing in difficulty down the column). The object was for the contestant to provide any five correct responses in a straight line in a Bingo-like fashion (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally).

Giving an incorrect response, or a pass, earned the player a "strike," and blocked off that space on the board; three strikes ended the round. Super Jeopardy! was worth $5,000 to a first-day champion, with the jackpot increasing by $2,500 each day that champion successfully defended his/her title; with the five-day limit in place, that meant a potential total of $50,000 in just Super Jeopardy! earnings ($5,000 + $7,500 + $10,000 + $12,500 + $15,000). If a player struck out, he/she still received $100 for each correct response given. In the pilot, the player had a time limit of 90 seconds to get five in a row.

This bonus game proved rather unpopular among long-time fans of the show, and some critics allege that its inclusion, and the gameplay's elimination structure, doomed the revival to failure. Two sound effects from this version carried over to Sale of the Century in the 1980s: the correct response bell in Super Jeopardy! (a high-pitched e-note ding) and the Daily Double bell, a Family Feud-esque series of dings.

Rock & Roll Jeopardy! was a music-intensive version of Jeopardy! that aired on VH1 from 1998 to 2001. Hosted by future Survivor host Jeff Probst, clues on this version of the show highlighted post-1950s popular music trivia. Though the host was somewhat looser with the "phrase in the form of a question" requirement, the gameplay was basically identical to Jeopardy! The first two seasons used points, with $5,000 to the winner; subsequent seasons were played for cash with a $5,000 house minimum.

Jep! was the children's version of Jeopardy!, hosted by cartoon voice artist Bob Bergen. The show aired in 1998 on Game Show Network (now GSN), and up to late 2004 on Discovery Kids. It did not fare well with either critics or viewers and the show was cancelled after one season. Starting in 1999, just after Jep!'s cancellation, Jeopardy! began a "Back-to-School Week", which has easier clues and more accessible material for the younger contestants, but is otherwise identical to the adult version.

Returning champions

For the first six seasons, winning contestants kept all winnings, with a cap of $75,000. Anything won above $75,000 went to the champion's favorite charity. The cap was increased to $100,000 starting in Season 7 after Bob Blake ($82,501) and Frank Spangenberg ($102,597) exceeded the $75,000 cap. In Seasons 14-19 the cap was raised to $200,000. The cap was eliminated altogether at the beginning of Season 20. Until Season 20 of the Trebek version of the show, a contestant who won five days in a row would be retired undefeated, with a guaranteed spot in the next Tournament of Champions.

From Season 14 to Season 17, an undefeated champion would also be awarded a choice of Chevrolet cars or trucks (Corvette, Tahoe, or two Camaros). From Season 18 to Season 19, the winner won a Jaguar X-Type. Similarly, as part of the deal with Ford Motor Company for the 2001–02 season, Ford also added a Volvo to the Teen Tournament prize package.

To mark the start of the current version's 20th season, in September 2003, the show changed its rules so there is no winnings limit, and champions' reigns became indefinite; a champion keeps coming back as long as (s)he keeps winning (although automobiles were no longer awarded for five wins). This rule change led to the remarkable winning streak of Ken Jennings, who currently holds most of the winning records on the show, including greatest number of appearances and regular season highest total dollar amounts won (excluding tournaments).

Tournaments

Beginning with the 2nd season of the Alex Trebek syndicated version, a Tournament of Champions (ToC) has been held more or less annually, featuring five-time undefeated champions and other biggest winners to have appeared on the show since the last ToC. The ToC format was devised by Alex Trebek, and was as follows: Fifteen players—five-time champions, and, if there are fewer than 15 five-time champions who have not yet played in a ToC, the highest scorers among the other game winners are invited to participate.

The ToC lasts two weeks (10 shows), in the following manner.

Shows 1–5: The quarterfinals, with three new contestants participating each day. The five winners advance to the semi-finals. Four wild card spots are available to the highest-scoring non-winners, with ties broken by the scores after the Double Jeopardy! Round.

Shows 6–8: The semifinals. At this point, the game becomes a single-elimination affair, with each winner advancing to the finals. If at any point in the quarterfinals or semifinals there is a tie for first place, one or more successive Tiebreaker Rounds are played, with the first player to answer correctly advancing to the next round. (Tiebreaker Rounds have appeared on the show only five times, four times in tournaments. In the event of more than one Tiebreaker Round being played in a game, only the deciding Tiebreaker Round is aired as part of the show broadcast; the others are edited out.)

Shows 9–10: The two-day finals. Players begin the second final game with their scores reset to $0, and contestants' totals from both days are added together to determine their final scores. The contestant with the highest cumulative score wins the grand prize ($100,000 from 1985-2001; $250,000 since 2003). All other players, including the second- and third-place players in the finals, receive a guaranteed amount based on their finishing positions. In addition, the runners-up in the finals receive additional cash equal to their score if it exceeds the guaranteed amount.

First aired in 1987, the Teen Tournament features high school students, with the winner receiving a cash prize ($75,000 in the most recent years), and, in some years, a new car. Until 2001, the winner was also invited to participate in the Tournament of Champions. One of the most notable Teen Tournament champions was Eric Newhouse, who advanced to the finals of the 1989 Tournament of Champions, was a finalist in the Million Dollar Masters tournament, and participated in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions.

Beginning in 1989 the College Championship uses college students as contestants. The College Championship pits 15 full-time undergraduate students from colleges and universities in the US against each other in a two-week tournament, identical to the ToC in format. Beginning in 1997, the College Championship has been taped at host college campus using the show's traveling set. The winner earns $100,000, a trophy, and a spot in the next Tournament of Champions. (Tom Cubbage, the very first Jeopardy! college champion, also won his Tournament of Champions the following season.)

Between 1987 and 1995, ten Seniors Tournaments were held for contestants over the age of 50. This tournament was discontinued after December 1995, purportedly due to advertisers wanting to pull in younger demographics.

Special non-tournament play

Usually once a year, Celebrity Jeopardy! weeks are held with celebrity contestants. Each celebrity chooses a charity (or two) to sponsor, and that charity is the recipient of the particular celebrity's winnings. Typically, each charity is guaranteed a certain amount (e.g., $20,000), with the winner's charity receiving a larger amount (e.g., $50,000). Contestants ending the Double Jeopardy! Round with a zero or negative score, who in regular play games would be disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy!, are given a nominal score with which to wager (e.g. $100).

At least once per season since 1999, the show holds a special week of shows collectively known as Kids Week, Holiday Kids Week, or Back to School Week, featuring children ages 10 through 12 as contestants. These games are usually recorded at the show's main studio in Culver City. These weeks comprise five independent shows, with three new contestants in each. Unlike the regular Jeopardy! format, the winner of each game does not return to play another game. The third place winner receives $1,000, second place receives $2,000, and first place wins the amount of his or her score, with some minimum guarantee (typically $10,000). Additional prizes for all players, such as computers, gift certificates, and trips to local theme parks have been awarded in the past.

Special tournaments

There have been a number of special tournaments featuring the greatest players during the history of Jeopardy! These are listed below.

Super Jeopardy!

The first of these "all-time best" tournaments, Super Jeopardy! aired in Summer 1990 on ABC. It featured top players during the first six years of the 1984 syndicated run, plus a notable champion from the original Fleming era. The tournament was similar to the Million Dollar Masters and Ultimate Tournament of Champions (see below), although it was on a much smaller scale than that tournament. The Super Jeopardy! tournament also featured 4 contestants per game (in the first round of the tournament) as opposed to the standard three, and the games were played for points instead of dollars. Bruce Seymour won the tournament and $250,000.

Tenth Anniversary Tournament

The Tenth Anniversary Tournament was a five-day tournament aired in 1993 following the conclusion of the regular Tournament of Champions. The winner of that tournament, Tom Nosek, received a bye into the Tenth Anniversary Tournament; the other eight spots were awarded by lottery from among Tournament of Champions finalists and semifinalists of the previous decade (one chosen from each of the eight years the tournament was played). Frank Spangenberg won the tournament with a two-game score of $16,800 plus a $25,000 bonus for a total of $41,800.

Teen Reunion Tournament

In November 1998, players from the 1987, 1988, and 1989 Teen Tournaments (including the champions) were invited to Boston to play in a special Teen Reunion Tournament. 1989 Teen Tournament winner Eric Newhouse won the tournament.

Million Dollar Masters

In May 2002, to commemorate the Trebek version's 4,000th episode, the show invited fifteen champions to play for a $1 million bonus, under the standard 2-week tournament format. Tapings took place at Radio City Music Hall. The tournament was won by Brad Rutter.

Ultimate Tournament of Champions

Jeopardy! televised the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005. This tournament, which was the largest (and longest) in Jeopardy!'s history, pitted 144 former Jeopardy! champions against each other, with two winners moving on to face Ken Jennings in a 3-game final.

The final winner was Brad Rutter ($62,000 for the tournament final), winning $2 million, the second-largest single-game prize in game show history. Jennings placed second (with $34,599) and took home $500,000. Jerome Vered finished third ($20,600), collecting $250,000. As a result, Rutter is the all-time highest winner of any game show with $3,270,102 (plus two Camaros), with Jennings a close second with $3,022,700.

Kids Week Reunion

Jeopardy! will celebrate its landmark 25th anniversary season by holding a special Kids Week Reunion tournament featuring 15 former Kids Week alumni from the 1999 and 2000 Kids Weeks competing against each other. The format will be the same as the Kids Week, with the winners keeping whatever they win with a minimum guarantee of $25,000. The cash prizes for second and third place have also increased to $5,000 for second place and $2,500 for third place.

Audition process

Unlike the audition process for many game shows, the Jeopardy! contestant audition process is in part merit-based, with 50-question contestant tests administered at local audition sites and, as of 2006, over the Internet.

Theme music

Since the debut of Jeopardy! in 1964, there have been many different iterations of the theme music for the show, a majority of which has been composed by Merv Griffin.

Set

Like the theme music, the Jeopardy! set has also changed over the years. The set currently in use is as of September 11, 2006.

International adaptations

Since the early days of Jeopardy!, versions of the show have been produced in foreign countries worldwide.

Episode status

Fleming era

1964-1975

It is believed that only a small number of the 2,753 episodes from the original NBC Daytime version of Jeopardy! survive, mostly as black-and-white kinescopes of the original color videotapes. In all likelihood, the original tapes were wiped as they were recorded over by NBC with new programming in an era when videotape was an expensive commodity.

Some episodes from 1967, 1971, and 1973-1974 exist in the UCLA Film and Television Archive while various episodes are in the Paley Center for Media (including the 1964 "test" episode) and incomplete paper records of the NBC-era games exist on microfilm at the Library of Congress.

1978-1979 Revival

The status of the 1978 version is unknown. The Premiere and Finale are known to exist in broadcast quality; GSN holds the broadcast rights to these two episodes (and presumably any in between, although only the two mentioned have been rebroadcast on the channel). Additionally, UCLA has a copy of the 1977 Pilot, which featured a "sub-Round 1".

Trebek era

The Trebek version is completely intact. GSN—which like Jeopardy! is an affiliate of Sony Pictures Television—has rerun 9 seasons to date, and since July 28, 2008, GSN is airing the 2003-2004 season (season 20).

There is a 66 game disparity between the show numbers assigned new Jeopardy! episodes and the actual number of Trebek-era games played. To assist subscribing affiliate stations in airing episodes in the correct order, a show number is read by announcer Johnny Gilbert just prior to the taping of each game; this number is audible on the episodes as received by the affiliates, and visible on the slate attached to them, but the slate is trimmed from the show prior to broadcast. Each new episode receives an integer show number 1 greater than the previous episode. However, all 65 reruns in Season 1 (1984-1985) were given new show numbers despite not being new games, and a retrospective clip show that aired May 15, 2002 was also given a show number (#4088). As such, the game with show number #5000 aired on May 12, 2006, but the 5,000th game hosted by Alex Trebek did not air until September 25,2006.

In popular culture

The show has been portrayed or parodied in numerous television shows, films, and works of literature over the years, frequently with one or more characters participating as contestants, or as a television show the character(s) watch and play along with. A few cultural references stand out among the most popular, having been referenced, in turn, in categories, clues, or interview segments on Jeopardy! itself.

In an episode of the series Cheers, trivia buff Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) appeared as a contestant on Jeopardy! Clavin reached the Final Jeopardy! Round all but assured to win, but lost due to a foolish bet.
Saturday Night Live has parodied Celebrity Jeopardy! matches, frequently with a twisted version of Sean Connery as a contestant.
"Weird Al" Yankovic wrote a parody of Greg Kihn's song "Jeopardy" called "I Lost on Jeopardy" set in the original Art Fleming version of the game show.
In the Family Guy episode "I Take Thee Quagmire" Mayor Adam West banishes Trebek "back to the fifth dimension where he belongs" by writing down "Kebert Xela" (Alex Trebek backwards) during the Final Jeopardy! round; the banishment itself is a reference to longtime DC Comics character Mr. Mxyzptlk, who is sent back to the fifth dimension by heroes including Batman, the hero once played by the real-life Adam West.This also caused a real life jeopardy! player to write kebert xela as there final jeopardy answer,whilst betting $1

Awards and honors

Jeopardy! has won a record 28 Daytime Emmy Awards since 1984. 11 of these have been for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show. Another 5 awards have been won by host Alex Trebek for Outstanding Game Show Host. The remainder of the Emmy Awards have been won by the show's directors and writers in separate categories until 2006, when the Emmy Awards for Outstanding Direction for a Game/Audience Participation Show (for the directors) and Outstanding Special Class Writing (which the show's writers competed for and won the award perennially) were merged into the Outstanding Game/Audience Participation show category.