Jeopardy! Teen Tournament

The "Jeopardy!" Teen Tournament is one of the traditional tournaments held each season on the TV quiz show "Jeopardy!" Contestants in this tournament are primarily high school students, and between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. A field of 15 players compete in this tournament; one alternate is invited as a standby, but the alternate has never entered competition.

A second Teen Tournament took place in the last two weeks of July 2007 as the Summer Games Tournament. This was the first and only time, to date, in its 20-year history that there were two Teen Tournaments held in the same season.

Format

The Teen Tournament format is similar to that of the College Championship as well as the Tournament of Champions: 5 quarterfinal games produce 5 semifinalists (winners) and 4 wildcard semifinalists (high scorers among nonwinners); 3 semifinals produce 3 finalists who compete in a 2-game final.

Origins during Fleming era

The first "Jeopardy!" games featuring high school students were held in 1967 on the original version of "Jeopardy!" hosted by Art Fleming. Not yet referred to as the "Teen Tournament", these games were known as the "Jeopardy!" National College Scholarship Contest" and featured high school seniors competing for a $10,000 college scholarship fund. Contestants were recruited from participating high schools across the United States.

Contestant selection

1990s

Would-be contestants mailed postcards with their names and addresses to "Jeopardy!". 1200 teens were selected at random from the postcard entries and were invited to come (at their own expense) to one of four regional test centers ("e.g." Houston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles) to take a timed written qualifying examination with the 50 clues read by Alex Trebek on a video monitor at the front of an exam room. Passing scorers were invited back for an interview and mock game using an electronic buzzer system. Their photographs are taken for their files, and they are asked to fill out a short information sheet with interesting facts about themselves that may be later used by Alex Trebek during the interview portion of the show. Selected contestants and alternates were notified that they had been chosen to appear on the show one to two months later. They are then flown to Los Angeles to tape the show. Taping occurs over a period of two days, with the five quarterfinals played on the first day and the three seminfinals and two final games played on the second day. Accommodations were provided for the contestants at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, with taping taking place at the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.

2000s

Contestants registered on the "Jeopardy!" web site rather than submitting postcards. As before, a select number of registrants were invited to audition and take a written test at a regional audition. Accommodations for contestants are provided at the Hilton in Universal City, California.

2006-present

All web site registrants take a 50-question timed online test at one of several set test times. The test is given using Adobe Flash and takers are given 15 seconds per clue to type in their answers. A random selection of passers (usually the one that did extraordinarily well) are invited to attend regional auditions at which another 50-question written test is given, followed by interviews and mock games.

Prizes

The prize amounts for all contestants are as follows:

Other prizes

* 2005 Teen Tournament contestants were awarded a computer package.
* The 2003 Teen Tournament winner was awarded a silver 2003 Volkswagen New Beetle.
* The 2002 Teen Tournament winner was awarded a 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS Convertible ("Spyder").
* The 2001 Teen Tournament winner was awarded a Chevrolet Tracker.
* Prior to 2001, all Teen Tournament winners were invited to participate in the "Jeopardy!" Tournament of Champions.
* The 1999-B Teen Tournament winner was awarded a Chevrolet Cavalier.

List of participants

The following is a list of contestants and where they placed in the tournament. Winners and runners-up who earned more than the minimum guarantees are as indicated in parentheses.

fnb|1 Amanda Goad and Derek Bridges were tied for first place at the end of the 1996 Teen Tournament. The tie was broken in a special tiebreaker round. The category was U. S. Cities and the answer was "A November 1995 Bosnian peace accord is named for this city." The correct response, given by Amanda, was "What was Dayton, Ohio?" [ [http://www.j-archive.com/help.php#tiebreakerround J! Archive - Help ] ]

fnb|2 Due to a questionable judges' ruling in violation with Standards and Practices , Milo Dochow was brought back for the Winter 2000 "Jeopardy!" College Championship.

fnb|3 Peter Morris in 1989 and Muffy Marracco Morris in 1992 were the first pair of siblings to appear on the Teen Tournament. Peter Morris appeared again on the 1998 Teen Reunion Tournament. Wen Shen in 1990 and Gwen Shen of 1995 were also brother and sister.

Merchandising

A console game based on the Teen Tournament was released in the mid 1990s.

Teen Reunion Tournament

The "Jeopardy!" Teen Reunion Tournament was a special one-week tournament held in November 1998 at the Wang Center for the Performing Arts in Boston, Massachusetts that invited back 12 former Teen Tournament contestants from the first three tournaments on the game show "Jeopardy!"

Format

12 former Teen Tournament contestants competed three at a time in four qualifying round matches. Winning contestants who were among the top three scorers would play in the final match for $50,000. Losing qualifiers took home $5,000, while the non-playing finalist took home $7,500. The third place finisher took home a minimum guarantee of $10,000, while the second place finisher was entitled to a minimum guarantee of $15,000. The highest scoring player in the finals took home $50,000.

The two nonwinning finalists also received the board game "Game of the Year" by University Games as well as a Tigris Pyramid and Movana.

Results

;Qualifying round
* November 16, 1998: Dana Venator defeated Peter Morris and Creswell Formey.
* November 17, 1998: David Javerbaum defeated Amy Wilson and Sascha Dublin.
* November 18, 1998: Eric Newhouse defeated Stefanie Wulfestieg and Julie Robichaux.
* November 19, 1998: Chris Capozzola defeated Stanley Wu and Samantha Moeschler. Capozzola, Javerbaum, and Newhouse advanced to the finals.

;Finals
* November 20, 1998: Newhouse defeated Javerbaum and Capozzola.

References

External links

* [http://www.jeopardy.com The official "Jeopardy!" website]
* [http://www.jeopardy.com/mini_sites/teentournament_s24/ Official "Jeopardy!" Teen Tournament website]
* [http://www.j-archive.com J! Archive] - An archive of past and present "Jeopardy!" games, including some from the Teen Tournament
* [http://www.geocities.com/gameshowguy2000/JEOPARDYEVENTS.htm John's "Jeopardy!" Events Archive (1997-Today)]