Jeopardy!/Sets

This talks about the many sets used over the years.

1964-1975 (Jeopardy!)
Originally designed by Tom Trimble with later alterations by Merrill Sindler, the set featured contestant desks on the left and a game board on the right. The game board was covered by a blue cloth-type curtain, which revealed the categories and dollar values at the start of each round. A smaller board was used to reveal the category and clue during Final Jeopardy! Clues were revealed by means of a pull-card. A jumbled Jeopardy! logo was featured on the contestant backdrop. Contestant scores were in slides (similar to Password). The contestant podiums, unlike the show today, had seats for contestants to sit in. For the weekly syndicated version, the set used flashing lights & a larger Jeopardy! logo behind the players, the rest of the set, stayed the same however.

1978-1979 (The All New Jeopardy!)
When the series was revived in 1978, a new set designed by Henry J. Lickel was introduced. Contestants walked through sliding doors just behind their desks during their introductions. The game board was on the left this time with the desks on the right. The curtain on the game board was replaced by sliding panels; pull-cards were still used however; though sometimes flip panels (ala Family Feud) were used with the clue printed on the reverse side & the dollar amount printed on the other side. Contestants’ scores were in eggcrate display.

1983 (Pilot 1)
The set for the first pilot of the Alex Trebek hosted series retained many of the elements from the Art Fleming Era. The contestant desks, backdrop, and game board resembled PCs from the technology era of the 1980s.

1984 (Pilot 2)
The set was completely overhauled for the second pilot, also by Henry J. Lickel, looking more like the 1984-85 set. The game board consisted of 30 television monitors, and the categories were backlit on cards above the monitors. The contestant podiums now had monitors in the center displaying their names; plus, there were separate name cards above the monitors. Also, the contestants' scores were now in vane display which would become standard until 2002. A redesigned Jeopardy! logo was crafted out of red neon tubes; the lights on the logo flashed across one letter at a time (in this pilot, there would be one light going across; the rest were darkened). For Final Jeopardy! contestants wrote their responses on an electronic tablet using a light pen; this would be done for all other sets since then.

1984-1985 (Season 1)
The set for the first season of Jeopardy! in syndication was the same as the one used for the second pilot but with minor facelifts. Starting with this season and lasting until the end of Season 7, the category headings would be in red text and would individually light up as Alex introduced each category and would turn off when all 5 clues in that category had been used up. At first, the category headings each had a red neon light and did not turn off when a category was finished nor turned on when the categories were announced; in fact they stayed on throughout the show. At first, the Jeopardy! logo lights didn't flash until later in that first season, only this time it is one light off while the rest are lit, and the light chase went really fast.

1985-1991 (Seasons 2-7)
In 1985, the set was overhauled by art director Bob Rang into the form it would retain until 1991. The 9-foot Jeopardy! logo was this time in white neon with acrylic glass covering the letters and the light chase would slow down a bit; the acrylic glass would be gold colored from 1986 until 1991. An entrance arch was built for the contestant entrances in the open. Starting from this season onward, the values of the answers will be seen close-up before the clue is seen, the $100 value is rarely close-up. For a brief period at the start of the second season, the champion would stand at the third podium on the right, while the first challenger stood at the first podium on the left. Now, 9 light bulbs were placed atop the contestant podiums to indicate how much time they had to respond to a clue. For each second that goes by, 2 lights turn off (one on each end), meaning a player has 5 seconds to respond; the last light turning off meant the player ran out of time. To accommodate the rule change that players must wait until the clue was completely read before ringing in, a white light surrounds the game board, which is activated as soon as the clue is read. The category headings' neon lights changed from red to white, and like the first season, would light up as each category was announced; from this season until the end of Season 7, each would turn off when a category is finished. The set background changed from blue to red for Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy! Starting in Season 7 and continuing into the present, the lights dimmed during Final Jeopardy!

Super Jeopardy! (1990)
For the Super Jeopardy! tournament in the summer of 1990, the set used four podiums in the quarterfinal games; there would be the usual three for the semifinals and finals. This was also the first time the lights dimmed during Final Jeopardy!, which became permanent from Season 7 onward. Also, the category headings were in blue text instead of red as on the regular show. The surface of the set was hard instead of carpet.

1991-1996 (Seasons 8-13)
At the start of the 8th Season in the fall of 1991, a brand new state-of-the-art set was introduced. Designed by Ed Flesh, it featured a revised 9-foot Jeopardy! logo which now changes color; the neutral color is white, but during the bumpers, opening & closing it would change to red and/or blue; the colors change letter by letter from left to right. The entrance arch was eliminated, and from then until 2000, contestants simply walked onto the set during the introductions. New podiums were a feature of the set, and contestant scores atop the podiums were in incandescent seven-segment display so they could be seen when the lights dimmed during Final Jeopardy! Also, the monitors on the game board were made sleeker, and the categories were now displayed in monitors with various animations to reveal the categories at the start of each round. For its first season using the set, the category monitors were blank and the category's name simply appeared as each category was announced (but would later zoom in as each category was announced); by season 9, it was changed to show the names of the categories broken up into pieces top and bottom and the pieces would go together as each category was announced. The set was best known for its metal-grid backdrop, hence, a few fans nicknamed it the "grid set". Also, from Season 9 until the end of this set's run, the backgrounds for the contestant monitors changed to red for Double Jeopardy! to match the backdrop. In addition, the contestant interviews would be moved from after the first commercial break to after completion of the first round, but starting in Season 13 and continuing to the present, the contestant interviews were moved back to after the first commercial break.

1996-2002 (Seasons 13-19)
On the November 11, 1996 episode, two months after the start of Season 13, Jeopardy! introduced an entirely new set, designed by Naomi Slodki. The set featured a more wood-like appearance, and was nicknamed the "Sushi Bar" set by fans. One notable new feature of the set was the show's logo no longer lit up; it was emblazoned on sliding doors, which consist of the "P" and "A", in which Alex would make his entrance and walk down a small staircase. On some episodes during Celebrity weeks, celebrities walked onto the set by entering the emblazoned sliding doors and to their contestants' podiums during their introductions. The backdrop behind the contestants, and for the entire set, consisted of dark gray granite columns and huge wood panels with small etched glass "windows".

On the first episode with this set, the contestant monitors turned red in Double Jeopardy for the last time.

And starting this season, the camera no longer zooms in on the top and bottom dollar values.

In the first season of this set's run, the category monitors would be blank, and the categories would zoom from both top and bottom and coming together. Beginning in Season 14 and continuing into the current set, the categories were covered by a Jeopardy! logo (or Double Jeopardy! or a logo of a particular tournament). From 1997-2000, the category effect screen rotated the page up, and from 2000 onward, the category effect screen faded in.

Also starting in Season 14, the podium microphones were removed, so Alex and the contestants wore clip-on mics, which have been used on all other sets since then. Also, at long last, the studio audience can now be seen during Alex's entrance, coming in and out of commercial breaks, and during the closing credits.

After the October 3, 1997 episode, the set no longer turned red in Double Jeopardy! Before that date with this set, the background color would switch back to blue at the show's close. However, on the January 23, 1998 Celebrity Jeopardy! Sportscasters episode, the set turned red in Double Jeopardy! for the very last time, and on the February 14, 1997 Teen Tournament Finals episode, the set was a rather unusual pink shade at the show's close.

For the first two seasons with this set, the glass was back-lit in red and the grid in purple for the Jeopardy! round, while they both were in purple for Double Jeopardy!, and, for the third and fourth season, the glass and grid remained the same throughout the entire episode: red glass with a blue grid. For the rest of the entire time of this set, the glass was always back-lit in white and the grid in purple.

Also in early 1998, the practice of popping in the dollar figures on the Double Jeopardy! board ended; they were already present in the monitors coming out of the second commercial break. This was first seen during the Tournament of Champions in February and became permanent in March. Beginning with the first episode aired in the third week of March 2000, the audience no longer applauded coming out of the 2nd commercial break.

Starting in Season 17 and continuing to today, the contestants no longer walked onto the set during their introductions; they were already at their podiums. Previously in the last few seasons, blind contestants who made their appearances were already at their podiums during their introductions; this happened only 5 times before Season 17 (not counting the 1997 International Tournament), all occuring in Season 16 where the first ever blind Jeopardy! contestant Eddie Timanus appeared and where he won five consecutive games. On September 19, 1997, the players were standing at of their podiums to celebrate the 3000th episode of the show and the players were introduced after Alex Trebek came through the sliding doors. For no apparent reason on the October 7, 1997 episode, all three contestants appeared already at their podiums for the very first time.

2002-2009 (Seasons 19-25)
On the November 25, 2002 episode, two months after the start of Season 19, Jeopardy! introduced another new set, also designed by Naomi Slodki. It featured hanging panels with stone fixtures and metallic finishes as well as translucent light blue, making true to it's name the metallic set. The set also featured trapezoid-shaped podiums, and the score displays were changed from incandescent seven-segment display to blue and red video displays with dynamic scoring. It meant that positive scores were displayed in blue while negative scores were shown in red. During the first week with this set, the background changed from blue to red when the lights dimmed during Final Jeopardy!, a somewhat revived practice from the 80s and 90s when the Double Jeopardy! round was in play. But from the second week until the end of Season 21, the set stayed blue throughout the entire show. However, starting in Season 22 and continuing to today, the set turning red when the lights dim during Final Jeopardy! became permanent.

In the fall of 2006, Jeopardy! and its sister show Wheel of Fortune became the first game shows to broadcast in high definition when they premiered their 23rd and 24th seasons respectively. As part of the transition to HD, the set received minor facelifts. The game board was replaced with a nearly seamless projection wall (a seamless projection wall was part of the show's traveling sets from 1997 until 2008; a similar or perhaps the same one was used for Rock & Roll Jeopardy!). The podiums from the pre-HD version of this set were replaced with more "HD-friendly" ones. The trapezoid-shaped contestant podiums were replaced with more rectangular-shaped ones and were now spaced wider apart so that a camera shot could be trained on a single contestant within a 16:9 ratio frame without showing the other contestants on the sides of the screen. Also, the contestant podiums originally had red ring-in lights, but from the third week of Season 23 until the end of this set's run, they were changed to white due to visibility issues.

During Season 25 only, the dollar figures didn't pop in on the Jeopardy! round board; they were already present following the introductions.

The host's podium and contestant podiums from this set are now in the Jeopardy! Hall of fame, which opened in mid-September 2011.

2009-2013 (Season 26-29)
In 2009, Jeopardy! rolled out a brand new state-of-the-art set, designed again by Naomi Slodki. This set was first used on the Celebrity Jeopardy! and Tournament of Champions episodes aired March 10-24, 2009, all while the show was being taped at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and was then put permanently into use from the start of Season 26 onward. It is now designed specifically for HD and features Sony's latest technology. The game board is now a wall of 36 42-inch Sony HD flat panel LCD monitors (the game board on the traveling set now uses smaller LCD monitors); it is also three feet wider than the previous game boards since it uses 16:9 monitors. The contestant podiums are also comprised of flat-panel monitors but on their sides. A large monitor is placed between the contestant podiums and Alex's podium and displays the Jeopardy! logo throughout most of the game. The monitor between Alex and the contestants also reveals the Final Jeopardy! category just before the third commercial break (a somewhat revived practice from the Art Fleming era) and because of that, Alex remained at his podium (prior to this he stood in front of the game board), though both the category and clue continue to be revealed on the game board and Alex continued to stand in front of it during the first two seasons of this set's run. Behind Alex's podium are sliding doors, in which Alex would make his entrance (similar to when the Sushi Bar set was in use). Another notable feature of the set is the contestant backdrop, which is comprised of multi-colored triangles and "spider web" like designs consisting of black and white lines. The contestant podium scores are always shown on a blue background this time; while positive scores continue to be shown in white text, negative scores are shown in red text on a blue background.

Also on the Season 26 premiere, the practice of popping in the dollar figures on the Jeopardy! round board returned but with a different sound effect.

On the episode aired March 15, 2010, consolation prizes ($2000 for 2nd place and $1000 for third place) began appearing on the contestant podium score displays at the conclusion of the game, appearing as blue text on a white background. Shown under the consolation scores are the logos for the prizes' sponsor, Aleve.

Starting in Season 28 and lasting until the end of this set's run, Alex made his entrance from behind the game board instead of through the sliding doors, and remained at his podium throughout the whole game due to Achilles Tendon injury he suffered when he chased a robber in San Francisco; however, on the episode aired December 12, 2011, Alex returned to conducting the contestant interviews near the contestant podiums, and he continues to stand in front of the board when revealing the Final Jeopardy clue and category on road shows. During the second week of this season, the sponsor for the consolation prizes began appearing on the contestant podiums at the conclusion of the game. Also, the set background is now a slightly darker shade of blue.

2013-Future (Season 30-future)
Jeopardy! will switch to a new set starting with the show's 30th Anniversary Season.

Traveling Sets
There have also been various sets used for when the show goes on the road for specific tournaments and events. These sets are fabricated in Southern California before being shipped to their respective road venues for taping. The 1997 International Tournament and 2009 Tournament of Champions, however, didn't use traveling sets; the former took place on the set of the Swedish version, and the set used for the latter is currently the primary set at Sony Pictures Studios.