About

Jeopardy! is an American TV game show that first aired in 1964, though its current version premiered in 1984. The game involves three contestants providing the questions to trivia answers.

History

Jeopardy! had first aired in 1964, though the current revival premiered on September 16th, 1984. Alex Trebek has acted as the show's host since 1984, and is expected to retire after his contract expires in 2016.^[14] The show has aired over 6,000 episodes since the relaunch, and has won 30 Daytime Emmys and received two nominations for People's Choice Awards.^[15]

Alex Trebek Cancer Announcement

On March 6th, 2019, Alex Trebek, 78, announced in a YouTube video he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

"Hi everyone, I have some news to share with all of you and it’s in keeping with my longtime policy of being open and transparent with our Jeopardy! fan base. I also wanted to prevent you from reading or hearing some overblown or inaccurate reports regarding my health. So therefore, I wanted to be the one to pass along this information.
Now, just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Now normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working. And with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease. Truth told, I have to! Because under the terms of my contract, I have to host Jeopardy! for three more years! So help me. Keep the faith and we’ll win. We’ll get it done. Thank you."

The news inspired tributes and well wishes from celebrities and Jeopardy! fans across the country. Pat Sajak, host of Wheel of Fortune, tweeted his support (shown below, left). Ken Jennings, the longest Jeopardy! champion, gave tribute to Trebek, calling him "the last Cronkite: authoritative, reassuring TV voice you hear every night, almost to the point of ritual" (shown below, right).

On Reddit, a thread about the news posted in /r/television^[21] gained over 22,000 points. The video Trebek posted was posted in /r/videos,^[22] where it gained over 134,000 points.

Game Play

Jeopardy! is a thirty-minute quiz show that consists of two rounds, first round and the Jeopardy round, and concludes with final Jeopardy. There are three players each game and the game is run by a host who calls on contestants and reads the clues. The first round consists of six categories with five answers each (worth, 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1,000 dollars, respectively). When a clue is read each contestant who knows the answer tries to buzz in first. If the first buzzer gets it incorrect, another contestant may try. When a clue is answered correctly (and in the form of a question) the player gains its dollar amount, if they guess it incorrectly or buzz in and fail to answer at all, that dollar amount it deducted from their score. The contestant who answers the clue correctly gets to select the next category and question. Hidden throughout the game are "Double Jeopardy!" questions. These can be answered only by the contestant who selects them, and the contestant may wager any amount of money they have. After every question in the first round has been answered, the game moves onto the Jeopardy round, where another six categories with five answers are revealed, though the dollar amounts they're worth have been doubled. The Jeopardy round is played under a time limit, meaning all the clues might not be played before time runs out. At the end of the Jeopardy round the category for double Jeopardy is revealed. Contestant decide how much of their money they want to wager depending on the category. Once the clue is revealed, the contestants have thirty seconds to write their response. The person with the most money at the end wins, which means a contestant can win the game even if they do not answer Final Jeopardy correctly.

Reception

The show has been won 31 Daytime Emmy Awards. The show has also been nominated for two People's Choice Awards in 2008 and 2009 for Favorite Game Show, and one TV Guide Award for Favorite Game Show in 2000.

Online Presence

Jeopardy's official Twitter account^[1] has over 41,000 followers and its Facebook page^[2] has over 760,000 likes.

Ken Jennings and the Watson Super Computer

In the summer and fall of 2004 Jeopardy! contestant Ken Jennings won 74 games and over 2.5 million dollars, beginning his run on June 2nd, 2004, and ending his winning streak on November 30, 2004.^[3] His streak was made possible by a rule change made in 2003 that stated a winner could continue to return until they were beaten, the previous limit had been five consecutive wins.^[6] Jennings returned to Jeopardy to play in a special three-day game from February 14th to February 16th, 2011, against fellow Jeopardy! champion Brad Rutter and IBM super computer Watson. Watson won the game, while Jennings came in second.^[5] In February 2013 Kennings gave a TED talk on Jeopardy! and Watson.^[4]

Fandom

Popular Jeopardy! Tumblr blogs include jeopardyhotties^[16], which features photos of attractive Jeopardy! contestants, lookatthisjeopardycontestant^[17], which features funny pictures of Jeopardy! contestants, and finaljeopardy^[18], which features Final Jeopardy questions.

Related Memes

Shit Tyrone

Shit Tyrone, Get It Together is a catchphrase expression typically used to indicate that significant improvement needs to be made. The phrase is often accompanied by a screen shot of a Jeopardy! contestant named Tyrone, whose negative balance of -$ 1,500 clearly stood out from the other participants' positive scores. Tyrone Rogers, appeared on Season 25, Episode #5727^[9] of Jeopardy!, which aired on June 30th, 2009.

The original instance of "Shit Tyrone, Get It Together" image macro was reportedly posted on 4chan, according to various accounts on Tumblr.^[10] The image was reblogged by humor sites Monorail^[11] and Funny Junk^[12] on September 13th, 2009 and later picked up via Stumbleupon.^[13]

Dankey Kang

Dankey Kang refers to a two-pane image that consists of a Jeopardy! question describing Sonic the Hedgehog and a screenshot of a contestant erroneously answering "Dankey Kang," a misspelling of Nintendo's iconic gorilla character Donkey Kong. Though it was subsequently debunked as a photoshopped hoax, the image went viral on Twitter anyway, wrongly labeled as an example of FAIL humor.

Arthur Chu

Arthur Chu is a Jeopardy! contestant who has received criticism from fans for his methods of play. Chu won over $100,000 over the course of four wins in the first week of February 2014.^[7] While traditionally Jeopardy! contestants select clues by going down a row, Chu jumps around, searching for the Daily Double. He searches for the Daily Double even in categories he isn't comfortable with, just to prevent the other contestants the opportunity to find them. Chu stands by his tactics, explaining,

“I admit I was upset when I first saw some of the things people were saying about me. But eventually, my wife just started shoving it in my face, retweeting all these racist tweets with responses that shamed the tweeters. And that made me start getting into it….I decided I’d take Richard Sherman’s angle and play up that image. If they’re going to paint me as a Jeopardy thug, then fine, I’ll own it. I’ll bring the swagger.”

^[8]

Internet Meme Questions

In the 2010s, Jeopardy! has occasionally referenced memes in its program. On March 31st, 2016, KnowYourMeme moderator Don uploaded to YouTube a clip in which KnowYourMeme was referenced in a clue about Netflix and Chill on the show (shown below).

On January 12th, 2017, Jeopardy! devoted an entire round to memes, with the categories Dad Bod, Yas Queen, What Color is This Dress?, Keyboard Cat, Squad Goals, and "Me"mes.^[19] This led to a clip of Trebek saying "Yas Queen" to be celebrated on Twitter in the coming days.

Twitter's reaction was compiled in a Twitter Moment^[20] the following day.

Search Interest

External References