Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions

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The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions is a 2-week tournament held more or less annually featuring 15 of the longest-running champions from the past season or seasons of the TV quiz show Jeopardy!

Contents

[edit] Field

The Tournament of Champions field consists of the 15 champions who have won the most games since the previous Tournament of Champions, as well as the winner(s) of the Jeopardy! College Championship. For many years, the winner(s) of the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament and the Jeopardy! 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.

[edit] Format

Michael Falk is congratulated by host Alex Trebek after winning the 2006 Tournament of Champions.
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Michael Falk is congratulated by host Alex Trebek after winning the 2006 Tournament of Champions.

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!" All departing participants receive $5,000 (no money from 1985-1986, $1,000 from 1987-1996, $2,500 from 1997-2002).
  • Shows 6-8: The semifinals. At this point, it is "win or go home". All departing semifinalists each receive $10,000 ($5,000 from 1985-2002).
  • 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 ($25,000 during the Fleming era, $100,000 from 1985-2001; $250,000 from 2003-date). The second-place contestant receives $50,000 ($5,000 from 1985-1986, $10,000 from 1987-1996, and $15,000 from 1998-2002) or his/her two-day finals total, whichever is higher. The third-place contestant receives $25,000 ($5,000 from 1985-1986, $7,500 from 1987-1996, and $10,000 from 1998-2002) or his/her two-day total, whichever is higher.

[edit] List of participants

The following is a list of contestants and where they placed in the tournament.

Finalists Semifinalists Quarterfinalists
Art Fleming Era (1964–1975; 1978–1979)
1965
Winner: Burns Cameron
1969
Winner: Jay Wolpert
Alex Trebek Era (1984-present)
Season 2 (1985)
Winner: Jerry Frankel
1st runner-up: Bruce Fauman
2nd runner-up: Steve Rogitz
Ron Black
Paul Boymel
Liz Caccese
Larry Floyd
John Hannatt
Ric Moser
Elise Beraru
Michael Day
John Genova
Paul Crozier
Paula Tupper
Nathan Walpow
Season 3 (1986)
Winner: Chuck Forrest
1st runner-up: Paul Rouffa
2nd runner-up: Marvin Shinkman
Beryl Arbit
Donald Burgo
Gary Giardina
Lionel Goldbart
Gary Palmer
Jay Rosenberg
Harvey Becker
Jared Eisenstat
Danny Green
Mark Leinwand
Eric Schoeck
Guy Tonti
Season 4 (1987)
Winner: Bob Verini
1st runner-up: David Traini
2nd runner-up: Eugene Finerman
Eric Berman
Richard Cordray
Michael Galvin
Doug Molitor
John Ryan
Roger Storm
Keith Bell
Jonathan Fellows
Frank Hughes
John Podhoretz
Zeke Sevilla, Jr.
Keith Walker
Season 5 (1988)
Winner: Mark Lowenthal
1st runner-up: Bruce Naegeli
2nd runner-up: Sandra Gore
Roy Holliday
Peggy Kennedy
Richard Perez-Pena
Steven Popper
Michael Rankins
Kathleen Waits
Michael Block
Barbara-Anne Eddy
Leah Greenwald
Stephen Lebowitz
Bruce Seymour
Ron Trigueiro
Season 6 (1989)
Winner: Tom Cubbage
1st runner-up: Rich Lerner
2nd runner-up: Brian Wangsgard
Bruce Cox
Mark McDermott
Peggi Malys
Eric Newhouse
Ouida Rellstab
Cigus Vanni
Cathy Boggs
Jeff Richmond
Joel Sacks
Chris Shea
Yael Sofaer
Jim Thompkins-McLean
Season 7 (1990)
Winner: Bob Blake
1st runner-up: Larry McKnight
2nd runner-up: Steve Berman
Jeff Bandman
Andrew Bernknopf
Erik Larsen
Ofc. Frank Spangenberg
Eric Terzuolo
Jamie Weiss
Lisa Guay
Dan Katz
Richard Neale
George Soule
Michael Thayer
Elaine Zollner
Season 8 (1991)
Winner: Jim Scott
1st runner-up: Steve Robin
2nd runner-up: Lou Pryor
Mark Born
Leslie Frates
Scott Gillispie
Jonathan Jacobs
Lois Kurowski
Mark Pestronk
Sara Cox
Tom Halpern
Bruce Ikawa
John LeDonne
Andrew Westney
Lynne Wexler
Season 9 (1992)
Winner: Leszek Pawlowicz
1st runner-up: Bruce Simmons
2nd runner-up: Jerome Vered
India Cooper
Kirk Ditzler
Richard Kaplan
April McManus
Leonard Schmidt
Robert Slaven
Billy Baxter
Ofc. Frank Epstein
John Kelly, RET USAF
Steve Newman
Dave Willis
Phil Yellman
Season 10 (1993)
Winner: Tom Nosek
1st runner-up: Bev Schwartzberg
2nd runner-up: Marilyn Kneeland
Dennis Donohue
Phoebe Juel
Jack Mahoney
Leslie Miller
Ed Schiffer
Walt Senterfitt
Debby Arnold
Al Lin
Linda Shepard
Diane Siegel
David Tiemann
Fraser Woodford
Season 11 (1994)
Winner: Rachael Schwartz
1st runner-up: Jeff Stewart
2nd runner-up: David Hillinck
Kurt Bray
Steve Chernicoff
John Cuthbertson
Jean Grewe
Brian Moore
Bill Pitassy
Amy Fine
Fred Frank
Matt Morris
Tom Nichols
Bart Thomas
David Venderbush
Season 12 (1995)
Winner: Ryan Holznagel
1st runner-up: David Siegel
2nd runner-up: Isaac Segal
Bruce Borchardt
Jonathan Groff
Paul Thompson
Jim Vercolen
Gordon Wean
Matt Zielenski
Aaron Klein
Len Krisak
Ben Lyon
John McKeon
Jim Morgan
Linda Roberts
Season 13 (1996)
Winner: Michael Dupee
1st runner-up: Bob Scarpone
2nd runner-up: Michael Daunt
Bill Dickenson
Amanda Goad
Mary Hirschfield
Bill Sloan
Beverly Spurs
Shane Whitlock
Bernie Cullen
David Cuneo
Brad Plovan
David Sampugnaro
Lucien Schmidt
Barbara Walker
Season 14 (1998)
Winner: Daniel F. Melia
1st runner-up: Kim Worth
2nd runner-up: Bob Harris
Sahir Islam
Lyn Payne
Claudia Perry
Fred Ramen
Peter Scott
Grace Veach
Craig Barker
Joshua Den Hartog
Paul Gutowski
Pam Mifflin
Arthur Phillips
Wes Ulm
Season 15 (1999)
Winner: David Abbott
1st runner-up: J. J. Todor
2nd runner-up: Juliet Wiley
David Bagley
Dan Girard
Pat Healy
Lance Johnson
Andrew Maly
John Skelton
James Arey
Andrew Hutchings
Lara Robillard
Chris Ward
Carolyn White
Melizza Zygmunt
Season 16 (2000), at the Atlanta Civic Center in Atlanta, Georgia
Winner: Robin Carroll
1st runner-up: Jeremy Bate
2nd runner-up: Steve Fried
Mike Blumenfeld
Carolyn Cracraft
Terry Currin
Chacko George
Michael Rooney
Eddie Timanus
Jack Archey
Lee Lassiter
Darlene Lieblich
Helen Petroff
Melissa Sexstone
Janet Wong
Season 18 (2001)
Winner: Brad Rutter
1st runner-up: Rick Knutsen
2nd runner-up: Tad Carithers
Larry Cloud
Lan Djang
Mark Eckard
Ryan Moore
Pam Mueller
Babu Srinivasan
Michael Arnone
Michelle Clum
Bob Fleenor
Andrew Garen
Kevin Keach
Doug Lach
Season 19 (2003)
Winner: Mark S. Dawson
1st runner-up: Brian Weikle
2nd runner-up: Eric Floyd
Alan Bailey
Mark Brown
Jill Bunzendahl Chimka
Maxine Levaren
Trevor Norris
Travis Troyer
Kathy Cassity
Kyle Hale
Jackie Harrison
Mark Lee
Jason McCune
Ben Tritle
Season 21 (2004)
Winner: Russ Schumacher
1st runner-up: Tom Walsh
2nd runner-up: Arthur Gandolfi
Seth Alcorn
Tom Baker
Anne Boyd
Vinita Kailasanath
Chris Miller
Steve Reynolds
John Beck
Samantha Ott
Scott "Renzo" Renzoni
Sean Ryan
Jim Stalley
Keith Williams
Season 22 (2006)
Winner: Michael Falk
1st runner-up: Vik Vaz
2nd runner-up: Bill MacDonald
David Madden
Kevin Marshall
Bob Mesko
Jason Richards
Aaron Thompson
Maria Wenglinsky
Kerry Breitenbach
Doug Dorst
Kermin Fleming
Tom Kavanaugh
Nico Martinez
David Rozenson

[edit] See also

[edit] External links