Super Jeopardy!
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| Super Jeopardy | |
|---|---|
 Super Jeopardy! logo |
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| Format | Game Show |
| Created by | Merv Griffin |
| Starring | Alex Trebek Announcer: Johnny Gilbert |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | June 1990 – September 1990 |
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Super Jeopardy! was a special version of the popular television game show Jeopardy! that aired weekly on ABC from June 16, 1990 to September 8, 1990. It featured past champions of the show competing for a prize of $250,000, and was hosted by Alex Trebek. Dubbed "the Super Bowl of game shows" by creator Merv Griffin,[citation needed] it was aired as a lead-in to his Monopoly game show. Unlike regular Jeopardy!, Super Jeopardy! had four contestants per episode in the quarterfinal games.
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[edit] Gameplay
In the Jeopardy! Round, point values ranged from 200 to 1,000, with one Daily Double on the board. The Double Jeopardy! Round had clues worth from 500 to 2,500 points, with two Daily Doubles hidden on the board. As in the regular show, the game ended with the Final Jeopardy! Round. The player with the highest score moved on in the tournament, while the others left with consolation money. The tournament was single-elimination, with no wild card slots for high-scorers among nonwinners.
[edit] Tournament structure
Thirty-seven contestants were invited to participate in the tournament. (One alternate, Bruce Cox, was also invited in case any contestant did not show up that day.) Teen, College, and Tournament of Champions winners were given premium placement in the tournament, as well as anyone who reached the semi-finals of their Tournament of Champions. At the request of executive producer Merv Griffin, Frank Spangenberg and Bob Blake (two high-scoring players from the just-completed season who had not yet played in a Tournament of Champions) and Burns Cameron (the biggest winner from the Art Fleming era of the show) were given spots in the tournament. This request came late in the planning for the tournament, after other contestants had already been invited; this led to the four-player format used in the quarterfinal round.
Thirty-six contestants played in nine quarterfinal matches, with the winner facing two other winners in a semifinal match every fourth week. The winners of the three semifinal matches advanced to play in the final match. Super Jeopardy! finished its 13 week run with a single-game final, offering a $250,000 top prize, at the time, the highest amount ever given on Jeopardy! until the Million Dollar Masters, twelve years later.
[edit] Prizes
Bruce Seymour won $250,000 in winning the tournament. Bob Verini placed second and claimed $50,000. Dave Traini, who was in the red at the end of Double Jeopardy! won $25,000. Semi-final losers collected $10,000, and first-round losers $5,000. This payoff structure came into effect for the Tournament of Champions in 2003.
[edit] Episode status
All episodes of Super Jeopardy! exist,[citation needed] but the tournament has not been rerun in its entirety since its original 1990 airing. GSN has aired the final episode as part of a special.[citation needed]
[edit] The set
The Jeopardy! set received a makeover for Super Jeopardy!; some features of the Super Jeopardy! set carried over into future-season Jeopardy! sets. For pictures of the set, see Jeopardy! set evolution.
[edit] Licensed merchandise
GameTek produced a Talking Super Jeopardy! video game for the NES, which was released in 1990. The voice chip would state "Let's Play Jeopardy!", the amount of the clue and "The answer is..." before the clue was revealed, and "It's the Daily Double" went it was revealed. The game allowed players to advance in a tournament of their own by keeping passwords through the levels of play. Two new features were a "lockout" for the buzzers to prevent players from signalling too early, and an option that allowed players to swap out a board with unfavorable or repeated categories. Players had to press the SELECT button to swap out a board.
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