List of Jeopardy! tournaments and events
Jeopardy! is an American television quiz show created by Merv Griffin, in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers and must phrase their responses in the form of questions. Over the years, the show has featured many tournaments and special events.
Regular tournaments and events
Tournament of Champions
Jeopardy! has conducted a regular tournament called the "Tournament of Champions", featuring the most successful champions and other big winners who have appeared on the show since the last tournament. It was held every year during Art Fleming's hosting run and has been held roughly once a year, with some exceptions, since 1984.The current series' Tournament of Champions originally lasted two weeks over ten episodes in a format devised by then-host and producer Alex Trebek in 1985. The field consists of fifteen former champions, with automatic bids given to winners of any College Championships or Teachers Tournaments held since the previous Tournament of Champions. Since the 2004 tournament, the rest of the field has been set depending on how many games a champion was able to win during their reign, with a contestant needing to win at least three wins to be considered —later changed to four wins. Total winnings are also used if there are multiple champions with the same number of victories. The qualifying rules were changed after the show allowed contestants to continue playing until they were defeated during the twentieth season; prior to that, any champion who won a total of five games retired undefeated and automatically earned a slot in the Tournament of Champions.
The first week consisted of five quarterfinal matches featuring three different champions each day. The winners of those five games, plus the four highest-scoring non-winners in the tournament, advanced to the semifinals, where the three winners of the three semifinal matches advance to the finals and compete for the championship in a two-game final match. Each game in this match is scored separately from the other; if a finalist ends the Double Jeopardy! round with zero or a negative total, they will be eliminated from Final Jeopardy! and their score for that day is recorded as zero. The combined totals from both games are used to determine the overall standings.
The top prize for the Tournament of Champions on the current series was initially $100,000. Beginning with the 2003 Tournament of Champions, which was the first held after the clue values were doubled in 2001, the prize was increased to $250,000. After the initial tournament, where they were guaranteed to receive their cumulative total in cash, each runner-up has been guaranteed a minimum dollar amount depending on their placing. The current figures were established in 2025, $75,000 apiece for second and third place. For 2006-2024, the prizes were a minimum of $100,000 for second place and $50,000 for third. If the scores exceeded the minimum guarantees, they were awarded the higher score until 2024. Players eliminated before the finals win a fixed award of $5,000 for quarterfinalists or $10,000 for semifinalists.
On the Fleming-era tournaments, all players kept their scores in cash at the end of each game, and in addition to their game winnings, the Grand Champions also won a tropical vacation and were presented with a trophy called the Griffin Award, named for Merv Griffin.
The Season 37 tournament, which was when the show used various interim hosts, following the death of Alex Trebek, was hosted by Buzzy Cohen, who won the Season 34 tournament.
The Season 39 tournament featured a new format which provided an expanded field of 21 contestants. Three contestants who won 20+ games—Matt Amodio, Amy Schneider, and Mattea Roach—automatically qualified for the semifinal rounds as the top three seeds, while the remaining 18 contestants played six quarterfinal games. The six winners advanced to the semifinals and joined the top three seeds; there were no wild cards. To prevent preemption by Election Day coverage in some markets, the November 8, 2022 episode was a "warm-up" exhibition game for Amodio, Schneider, and Roach, with no prize money at stake. The winners of the semifinal matches advanced to the finals, which consisted of a minimum of three and a maximum of seven games, similar to the Greatest of All Time tournament. The first finalist to win three games won the tournament and the $250,000 top prize. The second-place and third-place prizes were determined first by number of wins, then by number of second-place finishes, and finally by total score across all games played, and won $100,000 and $50,000, respectively. Furthermore, all three finalists received entry into the Jeopardy! Masters tournament.
The format was changed again in Season 40, affected by the Hollywood labor stoppages, causing additional tournaments to be held in order to allow episodes to be filmed, now featuring an even more expanded field of 27 contestants who played in nine quarterfinal games. The nine winners of the quarterfinal games proceed to the semifinals, and the three winners of those games proceed to the finals. The format of the finals is retained from the Season 39 tournament, with the winner earning an entry into the Jeopardy! Masters tournament. Beginning with Season 41, the prizes for the non-winning finalists were adjusted to $75,000, along with an invitation to the Jeopardy! Masters tournament.
In order to accommodate the revert of the Season 39 format for Season 41's tournament, a similar exhibition game, which featured Adriana Harmeyer, Isaac Hirsch and Drew Basile, who were automatically qualified to the semifinals as the top three seeds, was broadcast in audio-only on Tunein on January 24, 2025, as part of its continued partnership between Tunein and Sony Pictures Television. It would later be aired on February 14, the day after the tournament concluded.
The Season 42 tournament featured a reduced field of 21 contestants, with the top three seeds Scott Riccardi, Laura Faddah, and Paolo Pasco automatically qualified to the semifinals. The six winners of the quarterfinal games proceed to the semifinals, and the winners of those semifinal games proceed to the best-three-of-seven finals.
JeoparDAY!
Starting from Season 38, a special day took place annually on March 30, the same date Jeopardy! originally premiered. The Season 38 JeoparDAY! event featured the first episode of the original NBC version of Jeopardy!. The Season 39 JeoparDAY! featured the first episode of the syndicated version of Jeopardy!, which was Alex Trebek's first episode. The Season 40 JeoparDAY! event celebrated the show's 60th anniversary, which allowed the first 10,000 people who took the Jeopardy! Anytime Test to donate $6, which totaled $60,000.Jeopardy! Honors
Starting from Season 39, an annual awards ceremony event takes place during taping of Tournament of Champions before the competition starts. It featured a blue carpet walk taking place from inside Studio 10 at Sony Pictures Studios, and several awards, such as the Alex Trebek Person of the Year and the Most Valuable Player award. It also features inductions into the Jeopardy! Hall of Fame. Since Season 40, Ken Jennings hosted the event and it took place at the set of the show since Season 41. The Season 39 Jeopardy! Honors event was hosted by Buzzy Cohen and took place at the Sony Pictures Plaza. The Season 40 Jeopardy! Honors took place next door at Studio 11.Other regular tournaments
Teen Tournament
The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament, which began in 1987, was an annual tournament in which 15 high school students between the ages of 13 and 17 competed in a ten-episode tournament structured similarly to the Tournament of Champions. The winner receives $100,000 and entry into the Tournament of Champions.Originally the winner of the Teen Tournament was awarded one of the automatic qualifying spots in the Tournament of Champions that followed their victory. Jeopardy! discontinued this practice after the 2000 Tournament of Champions, with Fall 1999 champion Chacko George being the final Teen Tournament winner to receive the berth; however, each subsequent Teen Tournament winner from 2001 through 2005 was invited to compete in 2005’s Ultimate Tournament of Champions.
Additionally, Teen Tournament winners have also received merchandise at various points: the winners of the Fall 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2003 Teen Tournaments were awarded new cars, and the 2005 Teen Tournament winner received a computer package. At least one similar tournament was held in May 1967 during Fleming's run, with the winner receiving a $10,000 scholarship. The tournament was last held in Season 35.
Teachers Tournament
In May 2011, to mark its 6,000th Trebek-era episode, Jeopardy! introduced its Teachers Tournament featuring 15 full-time teachers of students in kindergarten through grade 12. The tournament is similar in format to other tournaments, with the winner receiving a guaranteed minimum of $100,000 and an entry in to the Tournament of Champions. Second place wins $50,000 and third place wins $25,000, and players eliminated in the semifinals winning $10,000 and first round losers winning $5,000.The tournament was not held in Season 37 because of pandemic restrictions, and in Season 38 was billed as the Professors Tournament, for collegiate professors. Mayim Bialik hosted the tournament in Season 38.
College Championship
Introduced in 1989, the Jeopardy! College Championship featured 15 full-time undergraduate college students, with the format being similar to the other tournaments. The winner receives $100,000 and an entry into the Tournament of Champions.From 1997 until 2008, the College Championship was taped on various college campuses; an exception was the 2000-A College Championship as it was taped in Culver City.
The last syndicated College Championship was held in Season 36. It was not held in Season 37 due to travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In Season 38, it was reformatted and moved to primetime, billed as the National College Championship.