Jeopardy! - Tournaments and Events

Tournaments and Events

Starting in 1985, a Tournament of Champions has been held annually (except in Seasons 17, 20, 23, and 27), featuring the top fifteen champions and other biggest winners who have appeared on the show since the last tournament. The tournament runs for ten consecutive episodes in a format devised by Trebek himself. A top prize of $250,000 is awarded to the winner.

Beginning in 1992, Celebrity Jeopardy! has featured celebrities and other notable individuals competing for charitable organizations of their choice. The 2009–2010 season included the Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational played throughout the season, with twenty-seven celebrity contestants competing for a grand prize of $1,000,000 for their charity.

First aired in 1987, the Teen Tournament features competition between fifteen high school students, with the winner receiving $75,000 and, in some years, a new car. Until 2001, the winner was also invited to participate in the Tournament of Champions.

Beginning in 1989, the College Championship features college students competing for a $100,000 prize. The tournament pits fifteen full-time undergraduate students from colleges and universities in the United States against one another in a two-week tournament, identical in format to the Tournament of Champions. The winner is also invited to participate in the next Tournament of Champions. Each College Championship aired between 1997 and 2008 was taped on location at a college campus.

Beginning in 1999, Kids Week features competition between school-age children aged 10 to 12. The winners keep all of their winnings, with minimum guarantees of $15,000 ($10,000 from 2000 to 2009, and $5,000 in the first two tournaments), but do not return to play another game. The first four times the event was held, the player who had the highest winning score during the week was also awarded a bonus of $5,000.

Ten Seniors Tournaments were held for a top prize of $25,000 (or the contestant's two-game total, whichever was greater) between 1987 and 1995. The tournaments featured contestants over the age of 50. Typically this tournament aired as the last two weeks of a season prior to a six-week-long summer break, with the winner earning an invitation to the next Tournament of Champions. Since the last Seniors Tournament in December 1995, contestants older than 50 years regularly appear on the program in non-tournament games.

Three International Tournaments, held in 1996, 1997, and 2001, featured one-week competitions between champions from each of the international versions of Jeopardy!. Each of the countries that aired their own version of the show in those years could nominate a contestant. The format was identical to the semifinals and finals of the Tournament of Champions. In the first two tournaments, the winner received $25,000, and for the third, the top prize was doubled to $50,000.

The Teachers Tournament, introduced in May 2011 to commemorate the Trebek version's 6,000th episode, features fifteen teachers competing for $100,000 in a format identical to the Tournament of Champions. The winner also receives a spot in the next Tournament of Champions.

There have been a number of special tournaments featuring the greatest contestants during the history of Jeopardy! The first of these "all-time best" tournaments, Super Jeopardy!, aired in the summer of 1990 on ABC. It featured 37 top contestants who had competed on the program from 1984–1990, plus one notable champion from the original 1964–1975 version, all competing for a top prize of $250,000. In 1993, a Tenth Anniversary Tournament was conducted over five episodes and aired following the conclusion of that year's regular Tournament of Champions. In May 2002, to commemorate the Trebek version's 4,000th episode, the show invited fifteen champions to play for a $1 million bonus, in the Million Dollar Masters tournament, which took place at Radio City Music Hall. The Ultimate Tournament of Champions aired in 2005 and pitted 145 former Jeopardy! champions against each other, with two winners moving on to face Jennings in a three-game final for a $2 million top prize, the largest in the show's history. Overall, the tournament spanned 76 shows, starting on February 9 and ending on May 25.

In November 1998, contestants from the 1987, 1988, and 1989 Teen Tournaments (including the champions) were invited to Boston to play in a special Teen Reunion Tournament. In September 2008, Jeopardy! celebrated its landmark 25th anniversary season by holding a special Kids Week Reunion tournament featuring 15 former Kids Week alumni from the 1999 and 2000 Kids Weeks competing against each other.

The IBM Challenge, aired February 14–16, 2011, featured IBM's Watson computer facing off against Jennings and Rutter in a two-game match played over three shows. This was the first man-vs.-machine competition in Jeopardy!'s history. Watson locked up the first game and the match to win the grand prize of $1 million, which IBM divided between two charities (World Vision and World Community Grid). Jennings, who won $300,000 for second place, and Rutter, who won the $200,000 third-place prize, both pledged to donate half of their total winnings to their respective charities. The competition brought the show its highest ratings since the Ultimate Tournament of Champions.