Jeopardy!/Tournaments & Events

Jeopardy! airs some special tournaments throughout the season. Most of the tournaments start on a Monday and some tournaments started on Wednesday. February, May and November are the common months for the premiere of new tournaments. Eliminated contestants leave with some departing money for participating in the tournament. The longer you stay in the tournament, the more money you're likely to win. In addition, since most tournaments also serve as ToC advances, if you win, ToC participation prize money will be given additionally.

Tournaments

Original Format

The tournament format was itself devised by Alex Trebek, expanding on a format used during the original series. Each lasts 2 weeks over 10 episodes. In all games bar the finals, the players play for points (though dollar signs are still used for aesthetic purposes); for the finals, they play for cash.

• Quarterfinal (Games 1-5), Day 1 of Recording: 3 competitors from each game. The winner of each game advances to the semifinals, and among those who did not win, the four players in the order of the highest final score advance to the semifinals as wild cards. DJ! in case of a tie, Selections are made in the order of results at the end of the round, and in case of a tie, Jeopardy! Selection will be made based on performance at the end of the round. If there is a game where all 3 players end at 0 or less, there is no automatic semifinalist in that game and a wild card is added. For fairness between wildcards, players who have not yet played a game are isolated in a separate space so that they do not know the outcome of the previous game.
• Semifinal (Games 6-8): Only the winner of each game advances to the next round. Even if all three players end under 0, the tiebreaker will determine the winner.
• Final (Games 9, 10): The cumulative results of the two games will determine 1st to 3rd place. The two games are separate, so you can't bet the prize money you won on the first day in the Daily Double or Final Jeopardy! on the second day. DJ in each game! Competitors with a negative score at the end will receive a $0 grade for that day.

In general, there is a set prize money for each advancement stage, and the finalist gets the greater of the minimum guaranteed prize money or the two-day cumulative performance.

Current Format

The current tournament structure seeds players into one of three competitions based on their winning streak during a qualifying period; this consists of the final six weeks of the pre-season, the thirty-six weeks post-season, and the first ten weeks of the following season. Because of this, the only cash awards awarded are those for advancing along in the competition:

Second Chance: No winners but those who scored highest amongst non-winners during the qualifying period. This lasts for two weeks (three in season 40), with each week consisting of three elimination rounds followed by a two-game final. Two Second Chances were held in Season 40, the first featuring 27 players from Seasons 37 & 38, while the second featured 36 players from season 39. For the first Second Chance in Season 39, there were two 9-player brackets. The money was as follows: Third and Second Place semifinalists earned the usual consolation prizes, while the finalists earned $10,000 for third, $20,000 for second, and $35,000 for the winner, as well as advancement into the Champions Wildcard, or the Tournament of Champions during Season 39.

Champions Wildcard: The two winners from Second Chance, plus thirteen one & two-day winners. For Season 40, two competitions were held, the first had the three Second Chance winners joining a 105 player field featuring players from Seasons 37 & 38. There were four 27-player brackets, each consisting of nine quarterfinals, three semifinals, and the standard two-day final. For the second, a 54-player field; was used, with 50 from Season 39, four from the second Second Chance tournament, divided into two brackets. For the third in Season 41, the Second Chance winners were joined by thirteen Season 40 champions. This competition used the previous tournament format, with the money awarded as follows: $5,000 for a quarterfinal loss, $10,000 for a semifinal loss, while the finals awarded $25,000 for third, $50,000 for second, and $100,000 for the winner, plus a spot in the Tournament of Champions. Season 41 changed the finals runner-up prizes to a flat $40,000 each,

Tournament of Champions: For Season 39, the field expanded to 21 players, with the three who won 20+ games or more, Matt Amodio, Amy Schneider, and Mattea Roach, earning a bye to the semifinals (and playing an exhibition game to round things out), while the remaining 18 played in six quarterfinals with the winners facing the top seeds. The finals consisted of a best of three contest, with the finalists earning the regular ToC prizes: $50,000 for third, $100,000 for second, and $250,000 for the winner. For subsequent seasons, the field increased to 27 players, who played in the format mentioned above; the finals remained best of three. For Season 41, the finalists runner-up prizes were changed to a flat $75,000 each. For Season 40, the three finalists qualified for Jeopardy Masters, while in Season 41, only the winner qualified.

Invitational Tournament: Twenty-seven past champions and fan favorites return by invitation only. The format is the same as Champions Wildcard, as are the payoffs, though the finals is now the first to two games wins.

Jeopardy! Masters: The final stage of the tournament structure, this field consists of the ToC winner, the Invitational winner, the top three scorers from the previous Masters, and one selected by the producers. There are two games per episode, with match points awarded accordingly: three for a win, two for second, zero for third. In the first episode, the second game is played by the three who didn't play the first; after that, the two winners from the previous episode play against an opponent who hasn't played against both winners. After the quarterfinals, the two low scorers are eliminated. The remaining four face off, with one sitting out each game. Points are reset, and the low scorer is eliminated. The remaining three play a standard two-game final to determine the winner. The money is as follows: $50,000 for 6th, $75,000 for 5th, $100,000 for 4th, $150,000 for 3rd, $250,000 for 2nd, and $500,000 for the winner, as well as $100,000 to their favorite charity as well as the title of "Jeopardy Master". For the first season only, the three finalists were guaranteed to return the following season.

In the original series, each tournament only had nine participants and simply consisted of three semifinal matches and the two-day final, with all players keeping their money at the end of each game, and Grand Champions also receiving the tournament prize.

Tournament broadcasts are usually scheduled in February, May, and November to catch viewership.

Annual Tournaments

• Second Chance
• Champions Wildcard Tournament
• Tournament of Champions
• Invitational Tournament
• Masters Tournament

Special Tournaments

• Super Jeopardy!
• 10th Anniversary Tournament
• International Tournament
• Million Dollar Masters Tournament
• Ultimate Tournament of Champions
• Battle of the Decades Tournament
• National College Championship

Defunct Tournaments

• Teen Tournament
• Seniors Tournament
• College Championship
• Teachers Tournament

Events

Celebrity Jeopardy!

A special edition of the show featuring celebrities competing for their favorite charities. Premiering in 1992, these games are usually week-long events, and occasionally are called Power Players Week featuring personalities in politics and journalism. The difficulty of the material is significantly reduced, and because of that, it was parodied several times on Saturday Night Live. Unlike regular play, where a player finishing Double Jeopardy! with zero or a negative score is disqualified from playing in Final Jeopardy!, celebrities who finish the second round with zero or negative are guaranteed a positive score to work with in the final round.

Here, even if everyone is under $0, nobody loser, Double Jeopardy! The winner is determined by score.

The Power Players Week held in Washington in 2016 marked the final Celebrity week held during the regular run, with a separate spinoff debuting in 2022.

Road Trips

• Starting in 1997, some of these tournaments and events were taped at venues outside Culver City. For instance, from 1997 to 2008, the College Championship was taped at a college campus (the 2000-A College Championship, however, was taped in Culver City).
• Power Players Week was always taped at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. The Million Dollar Masters Tournament and 2006 Celebrity Jeopardy! games were taped at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, NY.
• The Tournament of Champions was taped on the road twice, in 2000 and 2009 respectively; the 2009 ToC was taped at the Consumer Electronics Show, NV.
• Seasons 26, 29, 30, 31, 34 or later were during this time span that didn't have any road shows, probably because it was the first season with the current set.

Kids Week/Back to School Week

Main article: Jeopardy! Kids Week

The IBM Challenge

An exhibition match was held February 14-16, 2011, featuring Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter competing against the Watson supercomputer for $1,000,000. Second place won $300,000 and third place won $200,000. All three players donated their winnings to a charity of their choice.

All-Star Games

• The JEOPARDY! All-Star Games aired from February 20 to March 5, 2019; six teams of three competed for a chance at $1,000,000. Only one member per team can participate in each round of play.
• Each preliminary tournament match consists of two games spread out over three nights and the three highest-scoring non-winning teams will play in the Wild Card match.
• The two winning teams, and the highest-scoring Wild Card team play in a two-day total point final match, where the winning team wins $1,000,000. Second place splits $300,000, and third place splits $100,000.

The Greatest of All Time

This tournament lasted from January 7 to 14, 2020, and consisted of the top three winners in Jeopardy! history in Brad Rutter, Ken Jennings, and James Holzhauer, all in a contest to determine who truly is The Greatest of All Time. Like Super Jeopardy!, Rock & Roll Jeopardy! (first two seasons), Sports Jeopardy!, and Jep!, scores were kept in points and not dollars, though using the exact same values as the parent show. Each episode was played as a two-game total point match similar to a regular tournament's final match: whoever has the highest total at the end of the episode wins a match, while three matches wins $1,000,000 and the Greatest of All Time trophy. The runners-up each received $250,000. Ken Jennings won the tournament, not only notching his first ever tournament win, but also handing his primary opponent Brad Rutter his only human loss (remember the IBM Challenge does not count).