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Jeopardy! is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given general knowledge clues in the form of answers and they must identify the person, place, thing, or idea that the clue describes, phrasing each response in the form of a question.
The original daytime version debuted on NBC on March 30, 1964, and aired until January 3, 1975. A nighttime syndicated edition aired weekly from September 1974 to September 1975, and a revival, The All-New Jeopardy!, ran on NBC from October 1978 to March 1979 on weekdays. The syndicated show familiar with modern viewers and produced daily (currently by Sony Pictures Television) premiered on September 10, 1984.
Art Fleming served as host for all versions of the show between 1964 and 1979. Don Pardo served as announcer until 1975, and John Harlan announced for the 1978–1979 season. The daily syndicated version premiered in 1984 with Alex Trebek as host and Johnny Gilbert as announcer. Trebek hosted until his death, with his last episode airing January 8, 2021, after over 35 years in the role. Following his death, a variety of guest hosts completed the season beginning with consulting producer and former contestant Ken Jennings, each hosting for a few weeks before passing the role onto someone else. Then-executive producer Mike Richards initially assumed the position of permanent host in September 2021, but relinquished the role within a week. Since then, Jennings and Mayim Bialik have served as permanent rotating hosts of the syndicated series. While Bialik was originally arranged to host additional primetime specials on ABC, and spin-offs, the announcement of Jeopardy! Masters in 2023 meant these duties were shared as well.
Currently in its 39th season, Jeopardy! is one of the longest-running game shows of all time. The show has consistently enjoyed a wide viewership and received many accolades from professional television critics. With over 8,000 episodes aired, the daily syndicated version of Jeopardy! has won a record 39 Daytime Emmy Awards as well as a Peabody Award. In 2013, the program was ranked No. 45 on TV Guide's list of the 60 greatest shows in American television history. Jeopardy! has also gained a worldwide following with regional adaptations in many other countries.Reception and legacy
By 1994, the press called Jeopardy! "an American icon". It has won a record 39 Daytime Emmy Awards. The program holds the record for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show, with seventeen awards won in that category. Trebek won seven awards for Outstanding Game Show Host. Twelve other awards were won by the show's directors and writers in the categories of Outstanding Direction for a Game/Audience Participation Show and Outstanding Special Class Writing before these categories were removed in 2006. On June 17, 2011, Trebek shared the Lifetime Achievement Award with Sajak at the 38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony. The following year, the program was honored with a Peabody Award for its role in encouraging, celebrating, and rewarding knowledge.In its April 17–23, 1993, issue, TV Guide named Jeopardy! the best game show of the 1970s as part of a celebration of the magazine's 40th anniversary. In January 2001, the magazine ranked the program number 2 on its "50 Greatest Game Shows" list—second only to The Price Is Right. It later ranked Jeopardy! number 45 on its list of the 60 Best TV Series of All Time, calling it "habit-forming" and saying that the program "always makes [its viewers] feel smarter". Also in 2013, the program ranked number 1 on TV Guide's list of the 60 Greatest Game Shows. In the summer of 2006, the program was ranked number 2 on GSN's list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time, second only to Match Game.A hall of fame honoring Jeopardy! was added to the Sony Pictures Studios tour on September 20, 2011. It features the show's Emmy Awards as well as retired set pieces, classic merchandise, video clips, photographs, and other memorabilia related to Jeopardy!'s history.In 1989, Fleming expressed dissatisfaction with the daily syndicated Jeopardy! series in an essay published in Sports Illustrated. He confessed that he only watched the Trebek version infrequently—only for a handful of questions—and criticized this iteration mainly for its Hollywood setting. Fleming believed that in contrast to New Yorkers who Fleming considered being more intelligent and authentic, moving the show to Hollywood brought both an unrealistic glamour and a dumbing-down of the program that he disdained. He also disliked the decision to not award losing contestants their cash earnings (believing the parting gifts offered instead were cheap) and expressed surprise that what he considered a parlor game had transformed into such a national phenomenon under Trebek. In television interviews, Fleming expressed similar sentiments while also noting that he approved of Trebek's approach to hosting, that Fleming and Trebek were personal friends and that, despite the modern show's flaws, it was still one of the best television shows.Jeopardy!'s answer-and-question format has become widely entrenched: Fleming observed that other game shows had contestants phrasing their answers in question form, leading hosts to remind them that they are not competing on Jeopardy!