History Trivia / Jeopardy

* ReleaseDateChange: Crosses into DistancedFromCurrentEvents In July 2023, after two champions from the show's 39th season Cris Pannullo and Hannah Wilson announced that they wouldn't participate in the Tournament of Champions scheduled to start airing on September 11, 2023 to kick off the show's 40th season in solidarity with striking writers during the [[MediaNotes/TVStrikes 2023 WGA strike]], the producers announced that they will postpone the tournament until the strike was over. The show instead did "Second Chance" and "Champions Wildcard" tournaments featuring contestants from the show's 37th, 38th, and 39th seasons from September 11, 2023 until February 22, 2024. The Tournament of Champions would eventually air from February 23 to March 19, 2024, followed by an Invitational Tournament from March 20 to April 9, 2024, with regular play games resuming on April 10 of that year.

** The current show averts this, even with the rule that only the winner would receive their cash total. The clue values were quadrupled (doubled pre-November 2001) from the 1978-79 version, and this made it possible for the top winner to win much more than on the former version, even with its bonus round format. Still, the current version could feel cheap for anyone who finishes in second or third place and leaves with only the consolation prize. The runner-up prizes of $2,000 for second and $1,000 for third were unchanged for almost 22 years until being increased to $3,000 and $2,000, respectively.
** Then a major rule change implied this in Season 31, the first after Sony's hacking incident. After four shows where co-champions were crowned, [[ExecutiveMeddling the show axed the co-champion rule]]. Instead of the tied players returning the following day with the same amount of winnings, all ties are now decided with a tie-breaker clue. The winner keeps their bank and plays on while the loser [[SecondPlaceIsForLosers goes home with $3,000]]. Many fans qualified it as this trope, seeing it as a cheap way to save money in the wake of the Sony hacking incident, and because the contestant who loses the tiebreaker doesn't keep their winnings.

* ReleaseDateChange: In July 2023, after two champions from the show's 39th season Cris Pannullo and Hannah Wilson announced that they wouldn't participate in the Tournament of Champions scheduled to start airing on September 11, 2023 to kick off the show's 40th season in solidarity with striking writers during the [[MediaNotes/TVStrikes 2023 WGA strike]], the producers announced that they will postpone the tournament until the strike was over. The show did "Second Chance" and "Champions Wildcard" tournaments featuring contestants from the show's 37th, 38th, and 39th seasons from September 11, 2023 until February 22, 2024. The Tournament of Champions would eventually air from February 23 to March 19, 2024, followed by an Invitational Tournament from March 20 to April 9, 2024, with regular play games resuming on April 10 of that year.

** The current show averts this, even with the rule that only the winner would receive their cash total. The clue values were quadrupled (doubled pre-November 2001) from the 1978-79 version, and this made it possible for the top winner to win much more than on the former version, even with its bonus round format. Still, the current version could feel cheap for anyone who finishes in second or third place and leaves with only the consolation prize. The runner-up prizes of $2,000 for second and $1,000 for third were unchanged for 21 years until being increased to $3,000 and $2,000, respectively.

** All of the 2021 guest hosts, except for Mayim and Ken, have not been acknowledged or had their episodes rerun since their stints. This isn't helped by Levar Burton publicly stating that he was no longer interested in hosting the show (guest or otherwise), despite his popularity.
** While ''Jeopardy!'s'' daytime and weekend runs have almost-always been episodes from the previous season (guaranteeing that nearly every episode would rerun at least once), they are now forced to air episodes from the ''current'' season in order to have them only feature games hosted by Mayim or Ken, or special events (including the half-hour syndicated edits of ''Jeopardy!: Greatest of All Time'', the only games hosted by Trebek to have aired in the daytime run this season). ''Daytime Jeopardy!'' can now be as recent as episodes from ''one month ago'', rather than a year ago. Even the first 75 episodes of Season 37 hosted by Trebek before his death have not been rerun in either rotation.
** On August 1, 2022, streaming service [=PlutoTV=] added a channel featuring classic episodes, along with all episodes in its rotation available On Demand. However, Pluto does not offer any episodes new to streaming; all episodes have been previously featured on Netflix, Hulu, or Crackle. Compared to ''Wheel of Fortune'', their rotation only spans four relatively recent seasons, severly lacking in variety compared to ''Jeopardy!'', but ''does'' include episodes that were not featured on other streaming services.

** In terms of the ''Jeopardy!'' format, it has seen its share of later game shows with a big board of questions selected by three contestants, like ''Series/{{Debt}}'', ''Series/TheChallengers'' (which was an update of another NBC quizzer, ''The Who What or Where Game'' (1969-74), which focused more on current-events and wagering/betting), ''Series/MakeTheGrade'', ''Let's Go Back'', and Canada's ''Game On''. In fact, ''Let's Go Back'' producer Scott Sternberg would later create and produce ''Jep!'', the short-lived kids version of ''Jeopardy!'' from 1998.

** All of the 2021 guest hosts, except for Mayim and Ken, have not been acknowledged or reran since their stints. This isn't helped by Levar Burton publicly stating that he was no longer interested in hosting the show (guest or otherwise), despite his popularity.

** ''Saturday Night Live'''s popular ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' sketches always featured an inaccurate board layout, with four clues in each, rather than five. When ''Sports Jeopardy!'' premiered in 2014, it too only had four clues a category, though in this case, any similarity to SNL is likely coincidental (especially with different clue values, and six categories instead of SNL's seven.)

*** There was also allegations that Burton's episodes was tampered with as they were being edited, as Burton publicly said he had no chance to re-record lines when he screwed up questions, something that all of the other guest hosts allowed to do.

*** Bob Costas was offered the chance to guest host. He rejected the position because of COVID-19 concerns.

** In May 2022, ABC picked up a primetime version of ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' to air alongside the third season of ''Celebrity Wheel of Fortune''. Its original time slot was Sunday nights at 8:00 PM in the fall, against ''Sunday Night Football'' on NBC and part of ''Series/SixtyMinutes'' following NFL on CBS.

** On Denver Creator/{{FOX}} affiliate KDVR, any time the FOX network carries a Major League Baseball game from 7-10 PM Eastern Time (5-8 PM Mountain Time locally), ''Jeopardy!'' is scheduled immediately afterward. Because MLB is notorious for its slow game pace (and almost always running longer than its three-hour time slot allotted by FOX), ''Jeopardy!'' has never aired in its entirety when scheduled in this fashion, and unlike other Mountain Time Zone affiliates where sports overruns are common, KDVR does not opt to start ''Jeopardy!'' from the beginning. The first two Thursday episodes of Season 39 suffered from this, with the first only seeing the tail end aired, and the second not airing at all due to the game running into ''Wheel of Fortune's'' time slot afterward. Game 3 of the first Second Chance Tournament was also pre-empted on this affiliate thanks to being scheduled half an hour after Game 2 of the 2022 National League Championship Series. The latter overran by over an hour, resulting in none of ''Jeopardy!'' and only the second half of ''Wheel'' airing that day. This also happens on Thanksgiving and Black Friday when the FOX network schedules NFL and college football games (which almost-always run long) until 8 PM Eastern/6 PM Mountain, ''Jeopardy!'s'' time slot on KDVR (and pre-empting it and ''Wheel'' outright on all other FOX affiliates carrying the shows).

** Amy Schneider's victory in the 2022 Tournament of Champions on November 21 was ironically pre-empted in her own local market on KGO-TV, an owned-and-operated ABC station serving the San Francisco Bay Area, which includes Schneider's hometown of Oakland. This was due to the San Francisco 49ers competing in Monday Night Football that night, and KGO having the rights to locally broadcast all Monday games involving said team. ''Jeopardy!'' was forced to air at 3:00 AM that night (and a College Week episode of ''Wheel of Fortune'' at 3:30, although that show did not have any Bay Area-based contestants or colleges that day).
** The highly-anticipated week guest-hosted by Creator/LevarBurton ended up being scheduled to air July 26-30, 2021. This was problematic for many Creator/{{NBC}} affiliates due to conflicting with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics; many were forced to pre-empt ''Jeopardy!'' that week (and the one after it, guest-hosted by David Faber). What added salt to the wound for fans on the East Coast was that the pre-emptions were not for the Olympics themselves (which start at 8:00 PM), but for ''The Olympic Zone'', a localized program that is optionally carried at 7:30 PM (many affiliates that air ''Jeopardy!'' or ''Wheel of Fortune'' in that time slot decline it, however). The fact that most of the affiliates pre-empting ''Jeopardy!'' continued to air ''Wheel'', which had already wrapped its season the previous month and was in reruns, did not sit well with fans. Many impacted affiliates were forced to air ''Jeopardy!'' on low-reach sister stations or subchannels (some of which were not available over-the-air, such as WBIR-TV in Knoxville's cable-exclusive channel "[=10News2=]"), or in late night time slots, or even not at all (including WBRE-TV in Pennsylvania, despite being part of a duopoly with CBS affiliate WYOU, which began airing ''Daytime Jeopardy!'' the following season, to boot). WDIV-TV in Detroit moved ''Jeopardy!'' to replace ''Wheel'' during the Olympics, bumping the latter to a subchannel, but some local viewers reported that their TV providers' guides were still listing ''Wheel'' for 7:00 and had no listing for ''Jeopardy!'' despite the change. The West Coast was also a bit more accommodating. Although the games themselves impacted ''Jeopardy!'' and most other syndicated programs, several West Coast affiliates moved ''Jeopardy!'' to an earlier time slot between games (with most of them not doing the same for ''Wheel'', either due to it being in reruns or because that show has stricter scheduling policies and is generally not allowed to air in the afternoon). Inversely, on some affiliates, ''Jeopardy!'' was the only syndicated program to still air at a decent time slot, if at all, during the Olympics.

** Then a major rule change implied this in Season 31, the first after Sony's hacking incident. After four shows where co-champions were crowned, [[ExecutiveMeddling the show axed the co-champion rule]]. Instead of the tied players returning the following day with the same amount of winnings, all ties are now decided with a tie-breaker clue. The winner keeps their bank and plays on while the loser [[SecondPlaceIsForLosers goes home with $2,000]]. Many fans qualified it as this trope, seeing it as a cheap way to save money in the wake of the Sony hacking incident, and because the contestant who loses the tiebreaker doesn't keep their winnings.

** April 5, 2022 saw the same thing, with the tape date being January 27, 2022.
** December 6, 2023: One ''Celebrity'' episode had a clue about Matthew Perry who passed away on October 28. When the clue was selected, the episode's tape date of October 11, 2023 was shown onscreen.

** January 9, 2024: A ''Celebrity'' episode had a clue about Israel with the tape date of August 23, 2023 on screen with the clue.

** To prevent the entire season being buried by Sunday Night Football, ABC padded ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'s'' first season by intentionally placing first-run episodes on a hiatus for the month of December 2022, at which point only the first 8 of 13 episodes had aired. Following this hiatus, the show permanently moved from Sundays to Thursdays, traditionally the best day of the week for ratings. The show's new time slot was also the original time slot for ''Celebrity Wheel'' during its first season, where it was frequently the top-rated show of the night.

** Averted with the Greatest Of All Time tournament. The first three episodes aired from Tuesday to Thursday the week of January 7, 2020, and any remaining episodes would air starting the following Tuesday.

** Averted in December 2017, when Alex took a few weeks off from taping the show as he recovered from brain surgery; he developed subdural hematomas as the result of a fall two months earlier. However, he made a full recovery and was back at the podium in 2018.

** Averted with Cindy Stowell, who competed on ''Jeopardy!'' in December 2016 while battling stage IV cancer. Presumably to focus on the game and not put unnecessary pressure on Cindy and/or her opponents, her illness was never mentioned directly on air while she was a contestant, nor were her opponents informed about the extent of her condition. However, Alex Trebek did record an epilogue after her loss to acknowledge her unique situation and offer condolences to her family and friends; it played during the credits of her final appearance on December 21st.
** Averted the ''entire'' time Alex was battling Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. At no point did the condition make itself apparent on screen and Alex used the time the show had suspended production due to COVID-19 lockdowns to receive the strongest treatments, which, unfortunately, left him the weakest.

* StarMakingRole: Some contestants go on to become media figures in their own right thanks to their run on ''Jeopardy!'', most-notably Ken Jennings, whose record-breaking run turned into decades in the spotlight before he was finally tapped to become one of Alex Trebek's successors as presenter.

** On the January 10, 2020 episode, the last clue revealed in the Jeopardy! round required a contestant to identify the country in which the Church of the Nativity was located; contestant Katie was ruled wrong for "What is Palestine?" and Jack ruled correct for "What is Israel?" After the end of the round, the judges decided to throw out the clue, reset the scores, and [[https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/news-events/correction-jeopardy-bethlehem-clue record a new clue]], which Jack also responded to correctly. However, post-production forgot to dub the new clue into the episode, so viewers saw the problematic clue and then Katie suddenly gaining back $200 at the start of Double Jeopardy! The show responded to the error by explaining the situation and posting the corrected clue on [=YouTube=].

** The current show averts this, even with the rule that only the winner would receive their cash total. The clue values were quadrupled (doubled pre-November 2001) from the 1978-79 version, and this made it possible for the top winner to win much more than on the former version, even with its bonus round format. Still, the current version could feel cheap for anyone who finishes in second or third place and leaves with only the consolation prize. The runner-up prizes of $2,000 for second and $1,000 for third have been unchanged since they were introduced in 2002.

** Season 37 shows some ''glaring'' examples of budget cuts. Much of the show's budget went into set changes--specifically, the contestants' islands now six feet apart from each other--deemed necessary as a result of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Since the season started, there have been substantially fewer video clues presented by the Clue Crew and celebrity guests.

* WorkingTitle: Merv pitched it as ''What's the Question?'', which he admitted wasn't very exciting to begin with. The name came to him when NBC executives told him the game should have more jeopardies in it.

** Former associate producer Harry Eisenberg released a book in 1993 which, among other things, claimed that producers would tamper with the questions to help more female players win. Alex Trebek denied the allegations.

** On March 4, 2022, a clue made reference to the now-troubled border between Russia and Ukraine. A disclaimer showing the episode's tape date of January 11, 2022 was displayed while the clue was in play.

** January 11, 2018 had a Final Jeopardy! clue of "It's the first Oscar nominee for Best Picture to be produced by an Internet streaming service". The answer they were looking for was ''Film/ManchesterByTheSea'', but the show had a post-production correction that aired immediately after the game with Trebek explaining that the clue was erroneous: Amazon Pictures didn't produce the film, but rather was a co-distributor. The error didn't affect the champion (who had a runaway game) or the eventual second-place finisher (who gave the intended response), but Trebek explained that the third-place finisher, who gave an incorrect answer ("What is ''Film/TheSocialNetwork''?"), would be invited back at a later date.