History of Jeopardy!

1983

• September 18: There was a pilot episode of Jeopardy! with Alex Trebek as the host, but with the set from an older version of the game, previously hosted by Art Fleming. The main theme from this version was also retained, as well as the Think music for Final Jeopardy!, which was used all the way until 1997. Back then, the answers would be worth $25 to $125, while in Double Jeopardy!, they would be from $50 to $250.

1984

• January 1: A new set was built, and was later to be used in the first season of the show. The 2nd pilot episode aired on January 1, 1984, where the values ranged from $50 to $250 in Round 1, while Double Jeopardy! had the dollar values from $100 to $500.
• September 10: The first episode premiered, and the same set where they filmed Trebek's second pilot episode was used. Starting here, the dollar values were worth $100 to $500, and on Double Jeopardy!, they were worth $200 to $1,000. Compared to the early version of Jeopardy!, all three contestants would keep their winnings, but in this version, only the winner got to keep his/her cash winnings, while the other two contestants won consolation prizes. The theme song was remixed from the 2nd Trebek pilot episode, and continued until 1992, during Season 8. This episode was first seen on YouTube in Summer 2007.
• September 11: On Day 2, all three contestants ended with $0 by wagering everything and giving the same freak incorrect response (What is January 1, 1900?) to the answer "Calendar date with which the 20th century began". With the correct response revealed as "What is January 1, 1901?", everyone received consolation prizes (the returning champion's prize was different), and three new contestants appeared on September 12.
• September 12: On Day 3, another easy answer ("It is the 2nd most spoken language in the world") to the category "Language" was used in Final Jeopardy!. However, with one of the contestants scoring -$1,300 at the end of Double Jeopardy!, only the other two contestants moved on to play the final round.

1985

• June 7: Season 1 ends.
• September 9: For Seasons 2-7, the set was redone. It now had yellow and blue neon bands.
• After the second half of an episode, the blue background would change to red. The categories' lights also improved. The spinning globe flies into the middle of the screen at the beginning of each episode.
• November 11-22: The first Tournament of Champions was held. It featured contestants from Season 1 as well that won five games in a row and/or the most games and money throughout their runs.

1986

• June 6: Season 2 ends.
• September 8: Starting with Season 3, the white lights were changed to yellow, but the background still remained blue and red. A different-looking globe flies to the middle of the screen, then breaks into pieces to open the show.

1987

• February 16: The first Teen Tournament was held.
• May 15: The first Senior Tournament began, where all contestants are over 50 years old. Throughout these years, Alex Trebek was younger than most, if not all, of the contestants.
• July 24: The last Season 3 episode aired.
• September 7: Beginning in Season 4, the neon bordering around the category cards are covered.

1988

• July 5: Kevin Frear set a new one-day record of $27,800.
• July 22: Season 4 finale.
• September 5: Premiere of Season 5.

1989

• May 8: The first College Championship was held for two weeks.
• July 21: Season 5 finale.
• September 4: Season 6 begins.

1990

• January 15: Frank Spangenberg breaks Frear's record for winning the most money in one game. The new record was now $30,600. On top of that, he also set a new record of $102,597 during his five games.
• July 20: Season 6 finale.
• September 3: Starting on the premiere of Season 7, all Final Jeopardy! games had the lights go dark during the 30 seconds when the contestants wrote down their responses.

1991

• July 19: The 1985-1991 set is now discontinued for the Season 7 finale.
• September 2: For Season 8, a new grid set debuts, but the 1984 Jeopardy! theme song continues to be in use for one more season.

1992

• May 21: Jerome Vered set a new record of $34,000 in one game.
• July 18: Season 8 finale.
• September 7: Starting with Season 9, the Jeopardy! main theme was remixed to include bongos. In addition, as of this year, the show is now owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

1993

• January 19: One of the contestants wins with only $1, while the other two wagered everything and ended up with $0. It was confirmed that the $1 winner be declared as the returning champion.
• July 23: Season 9 finale.
• September 6: A special "10th anniversary" logo was used for the show's 10th season. This would also be the last season in which Merv Griffin Enterprises is alive to be the head production of the show.
• November 29–December 3: A 10th Anniversary Championship tournament was held for this week.

1994

• July 22: After ten seasons, Merv Griffin Enterprises was no longer the name of the production company for Jeopardy!, as it had been folded into Columbia Tristar Television before Season 10 ended.
• September 5: The last Jeopardy! globe and Daily Double logos used during the run of the 1991-1996 set debuted with Season 11. Also starting with this season, all episodes are taped at Stage 10 at Sony Pictures.

1995

• July 21: Season 11 finale.
• September 4: On Season 12, instead of spinning from the left of the screen, the word "Jeopardy!" would spin around the globe.
• December 18–29: The last Senior Tournament was held during these two weeks. After that, all contestants who were over 50 years old played in regular Jeopardy! games.
• From this year to 2002, the show was closed-captioned by VITAC, after ABC, one of the over-the-air stations that airs Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, became a client of it.

1996

• July 15–19: During the first four days on the last week of Season 12, an international Olympic Games Tournament was held. It featured contestants from all across the entire world. Season 12 ended on July 19.
• September 2: For early episodes of Season 13, each episode would begin with the camera zooming through Sony Pictures Studios, then cut to the Jeopardy! globe. Later in these early episodes, Trebek would ask what the contestants do in real life, and in even LATER episodes within this time, the KingWorld logo would now play before the Columbia Tristar Television logo, with the Jeopardy! theme still playing on the KingWorld logo. This remains until September 1998.
• November 11: Starting on November 11, the globe was discontinued, and the show now featured a new Sushi Bar set, with a last-season editing of the 1991 theme music. A new Jeopardy! logo was seen during the opening of each show for the remainder of the season.
• November 11–29: During these three weeks, on the first week, five Celebrity Jeopardy! games were held, followed by the 1996 Tournament of Champions, featuring the last 15 all-time champions that set foot on the 1991-1996 set. The first champion within regular Jeopardy! games to set foot on the Sushi Bar set returned on December 2, 1996.

1997

• February 3–14: When Jeopardy! held its Teen Tournament during these two weeks, on the final day, the set turned from red to blue to pink before the end credits.
• April 1: Pat Sajak hosted Jeopardy! for a day.
• May 5–9: Another International Tournament took place in Stockholm, Sweden for one week. Alex Trebek hosted again, but a different announcer was also there.
• July 18: The 1984 "Think!" music was discontinued after this date.
• September 1: Starting with Season 14, a new logo and a new theme song debuted. Also, the microphones from the contestants' podiums were removed.
• September 15: The remixed version of the "Think!" music that lasted until 2008 first aired on this date.
• September 19: The 3,000th episode aired on this date.
• October 6: Beginning on this date, the set would no longer turn red in Double and Final Jeopardy!. It would just remain blue throughout the whole game.

1998

• January 23: The set changed from blue to red before Double Jeopardy! for the last time during the last Celebrity Jeopardy! Sportscasters Show.
• February 2: The dollar figures no longer pop in on the Double Jeopardy! board starting with the Season 14 Tournament of Champions.
• The official Jeopardy! website (http://www.jeopardy.com) launched online in 1998.
• June 12: No one won the game on this date as both contestants wagered all of their winnings while tied at $7,600, and the third contestant was eliminated from the game upon scoring $400 below $0).
• September 7: Starting on Season 15, a Jeopardy! Online logo was added after the credits and before the 1989 KingWorld and 1996 Columbia Tristar Television logos. Very early episodes, however, never carried this bumper; instead, the last seconds of the Jeopardy! theme still played over the KingWorld logo. On top of that, the Daily Double clues were still in a red background.
• November 16–20: A Teen Reunion Tournament was held on this week.

1999

• September 6: For Season 16, the show would open with the camera zooming through a different-looking Sony Pictures Studios.
• October 26: On this date, a blind contestant named Eddie Timanus won almost $70,000 during his five games of Jeopardy!.

2000

• January 3: A new Jeopardy! Online logo begins in use for the remainder of Season 16 and continuing through September 2001.
• September 4: For Season 17, the Jeopardy! theme was slightly changed at the beginning of each episode. In addition, the contestants no longer walk onto the set as the show opens (they're already at their podiums).

2001

• April 23: The theme song from 2001-2008 debuts. It was used until July 25, 2008, when Season 24 ended.
• September 21: 18 days after the premiere of Season 18, Alex Trebek shaved his mustache.
• November 26: As of this date, the dollar values in both Jeopardy! rounds are now doubled. Now they are $200 to $1,000 in the first round, and $400 to $2,000 in Double Jeopardy!.

2002

• April 29: A new one-day record of $38,400 was set by Ben Sternberg.
• May 1–14: Jeopardy! held a Million Dollar Masters Tournament at Radio City Music Hall.
• May 15: The 4,000th episode aired with no game that day, just a documentary.
• May 16: As of this date, runner-up contestants would win $2,000 for finishing in second place and $1,000 for third place.
• September 5: Another record was set by Myron Meyer, who won $50,000 in one game!
• November 8: Two months after Season 19 premiered, the Sushi Bar set was discontinued.
• November 25: After the College Championship tournament ended, a new metallic set was introduced, and the contestants' podiums are now displayed in LCD format. If a contestant is at a negative score, the background would turn red.

2003

• April 14: A new record of $52,000 was set by Brian Weikle.
• September 8: Starting with Season 20, the 5-day limit is now discontinued, and contestants can return to the show until they are defeated. So virtually, since then, there has always been a returning champion in every regular episode of Jeopardy!, with at least one exception.

2004

• June 2: A later known to be famous contestant named Ken Jennings first appears on Jeopardy!.
• July 23: In the Season 20 finale, Jennings set a now 2nd-place record of $75,000 just for playing one game. This record lasted for six years.
• November 30: As the first regular champion of Season 21, Jennings broke another record for winning the most games on Jeopardy! (74 games). His winnings resulted in a total of over $2.5 million.

2005

• February 9: The Ultimate Tournament of Champions began with over 100 contestants including those from the past years competing.
• May 23–25: The last two remaining contestants, Brad Rutter (2000) and Jerome Vered (1992), competed against Ken Jennings on these very final three days. In the end, Brad Rutter won $2 million, Ken Jennings won $500,000, and Jerome Vered won $250,000.
• July 5: Another contestant named David Madden made his first appearance on Jeopardy! He later held a 2nd-place record of winning the most games (19) during the last 13 episodes of Season 21 and the first six games of Season 22.
• September 12: As of Season 22, the set turns red after the lights dim while the contestants write down their responses in Final Jeopardy!.

2006

• September 11: As of Season 23, over the next three seasons, the 2002-2009 set was slightly redesigned for HDTVs, and the show began airing in both standard and high definition.

2007

• March 16: All three contestants won $16,000 at the end of Final Jeopardy!. Because $16,000 is a possible winning score no matter what, these same three contestants played again for a rematch on March 19, 2007.
• September 10: With KingWorld now defunct, CBS Television Distribution is now the current distributor for the show, beginning in Season 24. However, the KingWorld logo from 2006 still appears in very early episodes of this season.

2008

• September 8: The show underwent many new changes (except for the set, of course) -- it introduced the current theme song, along with a different version of the "Think!" music. In addition, the old "board fill" sound effect was permanently removed.
• October 13: The current "Think!" music debuted on this date. It became permanent on November 24, 2008, as the early version of this "Think!" music was sometimes still in use until November 7, 2008, before the Teen Tournament began, in which during these two weeks (November 10-21), they used Rock & Roll Jeopardy!'s "Think!" music.

2009

• March 10–24: The current set (CES 2009) was temporarily used for Celebrity Jeopardy! and the Season 25 Tournament of Champions.
• September 7: The first episode was broadcast in syndication in HD as part of the "Best of 25 Years" week.
• September 8:Eddie Timanus's fifth and final regular game of Jeopardy! aired in HD exclusively on this date.
• September 14: As of the premiere date of Season 26, the CES 2009 set was now the primary set. In addition, the new and current "board fill" sound effect also debuts.
• Throughout Season 26, a Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational tournament was held, where celebrities compete for $1 million for their favorite charities.

2010

• March 13: As of this date, whoever placed 2nd and 3rd would receive the $2,000 and $1,000 cash prizes appearing on their podiums, respectively.
• September 14: On the day after Season 27 premiered (September 13), Roger Craig broke Jennings' record by winning $77,000 in one game.
• December 14–24: Tom Nissley won more money than Roger Craig by $5,000 in his 9 games.

2011

• February 14–16: The IBM challenge was held for 3 days during mid-February between Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and Watson. At the end, Watson beat both Jennings and Rutter by over $50,000. As a result, Watson's grand-prize winnings were all sent to charity. Jennings won $150,000 for placing 2nd, and Rutter won $100,000 for placing 3rd. Half of their winnings went to charity as well.
• September 19: Season 28 premieres. And since it began much later in September, it would air new episodes through early August for the first time ever.
• November 14–15: During Season 28, in November 2011, Craig and Nissley made it all the way to the finals in the Tournament of Champions. Craig won $250,000 for finishing in 1st place, while Nissley won $100,000 for finishing in 2nd place.

2012

• September 17: Season 29 premieres.

2013

• February 7: All three contestants wagered their entire winnings and gave incorrect responses during the final round of a semifinal game in a Teen Tournament. As a result, a wildcard spot had to be added for the finals, while all three players in that game walked away with $10,000. The contestant who earned that wildcard spot for the finals won the Teen Tournament!
• Jeopardy! becomes one of TV Guide's top 60 greatest shows in American television history.
• September 16: Season 30 premieres with the set redesigned yet again.

2014

• May 5–16: The Battle of the Decades tournament was held for two weeks, like any other typical special tournament. It featured 15 champions from past to present, and the grand prize was $1 million.

2015

• September 14: The current season (Season 32) premiered on this date.

2016

• January 18: All three contestants flunked out in a regular game, and the two leading contestants each received $2,000 as a consolation prize, while the third place contestant received $1,000, and three new players were brought in on January 19.

2017

• October 17: Manny Abell wins a game with $1. Abell had $1,000 going into Final Jeopardy!, while the other two players each had $12,300 (12 times more than Abell's winnings). Unfortunately for them, they both wagered everything and lost, while Abell wagered $999.

2018

• September 10: The 35th season begins.

2019

• April 4: James Holzhauer begins his winning streak. It lasts through June 3, where he walks away a 32-day champion with over $2.46 million.

Post-2019

• November 8, 2020: Alex Trebek died in Los Angeles, California. He was replaced by Ken Jennings in January 2021.