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Jeopardy! (1964)
| Jeopardy! (1964) | |
| |
| Premiere | March 30, 1964 |
| Finale | January 3, 1975 |
| Creator | Merv Griffin |
| Host | Art Fleming |
| Network/Provider | NBC |
| Style | 30-minute game show |
| Company | Merv Griffin Productions January Productions |
| Episodes | 2753 |
| Origin | USA |
Jeopardy! is the first incarnation of the popular game show Jeopardy!. This version, which featured Art Fleming as host and Don Pardo as announcer, aired on NBC in the daytime. It aired through 1975 when it was canceled due to scheduling by NBC daytime programming head Lin Bolen, who was trying to jettison some of the older game shows..
Three contestants, one a returning champion, face a game board of six categories. Each category has five boxes with money amounts of $10 to $50. The champ starts the game by selecting a category and money amount, and that box shows a clue in the form of a statement (or "answer"). The contestant ringing in must give his/her response in the form of a question (e.g.: The answer is "The knave in a British deck of cards is this in a U.S. deck." Correct response: "What is a Jack?"). Doing so correctly earns the money. Incorrect responses deduct the amount. The contestant uncovering a "Daily Double" may wager all or part of his/her money to respond to the clue, uncovered after the wager is made. If a player has less than $50, he/she may wager up to $50 on the "Daily Double." Late in the show's run, a contestant who solely ran all five clues of a category won a bonus cash prize which started at $500 and went up $500 each day it was not accomplished.
In Double Jeopardy (round two), dollar amounts are doubled ($20 to $100) and there are two Daily Doubles.
At the end of Double Jeopardy, any player finishing with a negative score is out of further play. All remaining contestants participate in Final Jeopardy!, wagering all or part of his/her score on a final clue in a last category. The top scorer is the champion. The other contestants keep whatever positive money they have scored.
Jeopardy! premiered at 11:30 AM ET. It moved to 12 Noon ET in September of 1965, where it played for over eight years, the longest stint at 12 Noon of any NBC daytime show.
In January 1974, NBC moved Jeopardy!, where it played opposite The $10,000 Pyramid on CBS. NBC daytime head Lin Bolen was pretty much trying to get rid of the show, but Jeopardy! wound up knocking Pyramid off by the end of March (it would return on ABC two months later). By June, Bolen moved Jeopardy! to 1:30 PM in the East (going up against As the World Turns and Let's Make a Deal) and 12 Noon in the West (against ABC's Password--CBS went local). Jeopardy! would be canceled in 1975 after NBC bought out its contract to make room for a new Merv Griffin series, Wheel Of Fortune and to make Another World the first hour long daytime drama. NBC executives wanted to appeal to a younger demographic and Jeopardy had more of an older following. In the fall of 1974, a syndicated nightime once a week version was made that lasted one season and therefore finished its run later in 1975.
Three-and-a-half years after leaving NBC daytime, Jeopardy! returned in a revised format on the network. It ran only five months. It would return in syndication in 1984 and that version continues on television to this day.
In Depth
- At a Glance: Additional information about the series
