Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions

The "Jeopardy!" Tournament of Champions is a tournament held more or less annually featuring the longest-running champions from the past season or seasons of the TV quiz show "Jeopardy!" The tournament began in the show's first season in 1964 during Art Fleming's tenure as host, and continues into the Alex Trebek era of the show.

The season 25 Tournament of Champions will be taped during the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. [ cite news | last=Wallenstein | first=Andrew | title=Sony TV gets celebs' help in digital push | work=The Hollywood Reporter | url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i16fe8d093beb449b0c46a952c78f946c | date=2008-01-08 | accessdate=2008-01-09 ]

Field

The Tournament of Champions field consists of the 15 champions who have won the most games (minimum of 3) since the previous Tournament of Champions, as well as the winner(s) of the College Championship. For many years, the winner(s) of the Teen Tournament and the Seniors Tournament also participated, but the Seniors Tournament was discontinued after 1996, and a Teen Tournament winner was last invited to the Tournament of Champions in 2000. Before the "sky's the limit" rule change in 2003, the field was determined by number of games won (up to 5), as well as winnings. Winners of the Teen, College, and Seniors Tournaments still earned automatic berths.

Format

The Tournament of Champions lasts two weeks (10 shows) with the following format:

* Shows 1–5: The quarterfinals, with three new contestants participating each day. The five winners advance to the semifinals. Four "wild card" spots are available to those with the highest score among non-winners; ties broken by the highest score after "Double Jeopardy!" Any game ending with a triple-zero tie will eliminate all three players; a fifth wild card will be added, while one will be eliminated in case of a tie score by two players in a quarterfinal.
* Shows 6–8: The semifinals. This is a knockout format as winners advance to finals. In case of a tie (not a triple-zero), a toss-up answer will be given between the two players in question with the player who gives the correct question advancing to the finals. In case of a triple-zero tie, the second-place player who has the higher score of the other two advances.
* Shows 9–10: The two-day finals. The first-day score does not factor into the second day's scoring. The contestant's cumulative total from both days is added together to determine his/her final score. The contestant with the highest cumulative score wins the grand prize. The runners-up receive either a guaranteed cash prize or the amount of their two-day total, whichever is higher.

Prizes

The prize amounts for all contestants are as follows:

Other prizes

* During the Art Fleming era of the show, in addition to their score winnings, Grand Champions won a $1,000 bonus, a tropical vacation, and were presented with a trophy called the annual Griffin Award, named for show creator Merv Griffin.
* In 2006, schools selected by each contestant received the "Classroom Jeopardy!" electronic game in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week.
* In 2007, each contestant received the "Jeopardy!" DVD Home Game System.

List of participants

The following is a list of contestants and where they placed in the tournament. Non-winning finalists who won more than the minimum guarantees are indicated in parentheses.

References and notes

External links

* [http://www.jeopardy.com/showguide_tournamentofchamps.php List of JEOPARDY! Tournament of Champions winners]
* [http://www.jeopardy.com The official JEOPARDY! website]
* [http://www.j-archive.com J! Archive: An archive of JEOPARDY! games, past and present, including some from the Tournament of Champions]
* [http://www.oddchange.com/jdoc/toc.html The JEOPARDY! Database of Champions, a database of Tournaments from Seasons 2-16]