With a name like Jeopardy!, you can wager that the long-running quiz show has seen its fair share of controversies through the years.
Take the scandal that broke out at the end of season 41 in July, when some viewers accused reigning champion Scott Riccardi of deliberately losing in the final episode. Though the engineer was ahead of fellow competitors Jonathan Hugendubler and Charlotte Cooper going into the final round, he incorrectly guessed Howard Hughes to a 20th Century Names clue reading: “According to one obituary, in 1935 he owned 13 magazines, eight radio stations, two movie companies and $56 million in real estate.”
Both Hugendubler and Cooper provided the correct answer of William Randolph Hearst, increasing their overall scores to $23,601 and $15,600, respectively. Meanwhile, Riccardi’s total dropped from $23,600 to $18,600.
The bombshell loss marked the end of Ricardi’s 16-game winning streak, prompting conspiracies that he threw the game so he didn’t have to wait a whole summer before Jeopardy! returned for its 42nd season with host Ken Jennings.
But we’ll take Things That Never Happened for $200.
“My mind unfortunately went straight to Howard Hughes mostly due to overestimating the importance of the movie companies’ part of the clue,” New Jersey resident Riccardi wrote on Reddit July 25, explaining that he “trusted” his gut because it had worked out in his favor on past Final Jeopardy! rounds. “Hearst wasn’t on my mind at all until the moment Charlotte’s answer was revealed, and even then, it didn’t immediately strike me as correct until Ken confirmed it.”
Admitting that he was “especially unprepared to respond correctly to a clue about Hearst” at the time, Scott said a “poor understanding of the timeline in the clue really piled up to prevent me from getting what I now understand to be a very gettable clue.”
He added, “Congratulations to Jonathan for the amazing win! It’s truly deserved and I can’t wait to see him return next season.”
Come Sept. 8, Hugendubler will face two new Jeopardy! competitors. As for the rest of us, we can study up on these behind-the-scenes secrets about the beloved game show.
1. Jeopardy! was first conceived by media mogul Merv Griffin in the 1960s, when he and his then-wife Julann Wright were discussing the infamous quiz show scandals of the 1950s. She joked to Griffin about creating a game show in which the host would give contestants answers to let them come up with the question.
2. According to Griffin, he went straight to NBC with the idea and the network “bought it without even looking at a pilot show.”
3. How did they land on the name Jeopardy!? Answer: Griffin’s initial title of What’s the Question? was rejected, with network executives commenting that it sounded like a show without any “jeopardies” in the game.
4. Art Fleming served as the host of Jeopardy! when it first premiered in 1964. Alex Trebek took over the post when the show went into syndication in 1984.
5. During his 37-year tenure on the show, Trebek only missed one taping: When he and then-Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak swapped places as an April’s Fool joke in 1997.
6. Trebek taped his last episode on Oct. 29, 2020, 10 days before he died of pancreatic cancer at age 80. His daughter Nicky Trebek suspected that her father knew that would be his last taping.
“I remember driving [him] home and saying, ‘Are you gonna go back?'” she recalled in a 2023 episode of the official InsideJeopardy! podcast. “And he said, ‘I don’t think so, Nick.'”
7. Trebek died at his home on Nov. 8, 2020. According to his daughter Nicky, he spent his last days with loved ones, sitting on a “swing that he loved” and “looking at photos of old memories.”
8. Prior to Trebek’s death, the Jeopardy! crew already put a plan in place for him to miss several tapings due to a scheduled surgery, according to supervising producer Lisa Broffman. As a contingency, then-consulting producer and former contestant Ken Jennings was set to be his temporary replacement, but rehearsals were canceled when staffers received news of Trebek’s passing.
9. Jennings was one of the first guests to fill in Trebek’s vacant spot as execs looked for a permanent host. Other stars who served as guest hosts included Mayim Bialik, Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric, LeVar Burton, Robin Roberts and Savannah Guthrie.
10. In August 2021, Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards was named Trebek’s successor. However, he stepped down from the position weeks later amid controversy over sexist remarks he made earlier in his career.
11. Nearly one year after Richards’ exit, it was announced that Jennings and Bialik would permanently share hosting duties. Bialik exited from the show in 2023, leaving Jennings as the sole host.
12. Speaking of hosting, the perch which Jennings stands behind is called a lecturn—not a podium. The podium is actually where contestants stand.
13. Contestants can choose between standing or sitting at the podium during competition, with a chair provided upon request. As producer Sarah Whitcomb put it on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, “We don’t ask why, it’s not our business. If you want a chair, we’ll give it to you.”
14. Regardless if they choose to sit or stand, all contestants are positioned on adjustable risers hidden behind their podiums. This is so that players appear to be the same height on screen, reducing the “need for constant readjustment of the cameras,” according to the Jeopardy! website.
15. Other features hidden right by the players’ feet? A small white light in the lower left corner of each podium to let the host know who answered the last clue correctly.
16. The lectern is also filled with high-tech gadgets, including a monitor revealing all the clues on the gameboard. While guest-hosting Jeopardy! in 2021, Aaron Rodgers snapped a photo from his point of view, showing that he had surrounded the computer screen with sticky notes reminding him to “stand up straight” and “relax.”
17. But there are some things on the Jeopardy! set that still rely on the human touch. For example, a backstage crew member must manually activate each clue selected by the contestant to be shown on the gameboard.
18. Additionally, a panel of judges sit in the wings at every taping to monitor buzzer activation, clue readings and variations of acceptable answers. Should a technical or scoring issue arise, they notify the host using color-coded lights on the lectern to signify that a timeout is needed.
19. Buzzers are also manually activated by a stagehand. As soon as the host has finished reading the final syllable of the clue’s last word, a crew member presses a button to allow contestants to buzz in with their answers. In addition, the switch turns on a set of lights next to the gameboard to let players know that they can now use their signaling device.
20. Another device that viewers don’t often get to see on TV? A scoreboard hanging in the contestants’ direct line of sight, so they can calculate how much to wager during Daily Doubles.
21. But fast fingers may not always get you the win. As the Jeopardy! website notes, contestants who attempt to ring in before their buzzer is activated are locked out for a quarter of a second, which serves as what the show calls a “digital policeman” that keeps the game flowing.
22. So, who is Jeopardy!’s biggest winner? To date, Jennings holds the record for most consecutive games won with his 74-episode streak in 2004. He’s also the highest-winning player in regular season play, having earned $2,520,700 during his streak.
23. As for the player who’s won the most money in a single game? James Holzhauer came out on top during the April 17, 2019, episode with a whopping $131,127. In fact, the professional sport gambler—who won 32 consecutive games in 2019—holds the top 10 spots in Jeopardy!‘s records of single-game winnings.
24. And yes, there’s also a record for the lowest-scoring game. On the July 26, 2021, episiode, Patrick Pearce ended up with -$7,400.
25. Though uncommon, ties have occurred in the history of the show. If more than one contestant have the same score following Final Jeopardy!, they’re given a tie-breaker clue—with the first player to buzz in with the correct answer winning the entire game.
26. But what happens if all three players have $0 at the end of Final Jeopardy!? According to the Jeopardy! rulebook, the following episode will feature three new contestants with no returning champion.
27. Per the same rulebook, “In the event all three contestants have $0 (zero) or minus amounts at the end of Double Jeopardy!, no Final Jeopardy! round would be played.”
28. It’s forbidden to wager $69, according to Jennings. Former Jeopardy! contestants have also confirmed that it’s prohibited to wager $666, as well as $14, $88 and $1488 due to the numbers’ association with a white supremacy group.
29. Perhaps Jeopardy!‘s most famous rule, all contestant must respond in the form of a question. However, the phrasing does not need to be grammatically correct. In fact, if the answer itself is already in the form of a question—like the British rock band The Who—players technically do not need to worry about rephrasing it.
30. If a contestant fails to respond in the form of a question during the first round, they’ll receive a reminder about phrasing, according to the Jeopardy! website. However, responses that are incorrectly phrased during Double Jeopardy! or Final Jeopardy! rounds will not be accepted.
