Jeopardy

Back in the 1950s, contestants on American TV quiz show contests seemed incredibly smart. Charles Van Doren was on the quiz show “Twenty One”, and seemed unstoppable. Then the truth came out: the games were rigged, and it was a major scandal; it was even a popular movie. It was then that Merv Griffin got the idea for a quiz show called “What’s the Question?” His idea: give the contestants the answers, and have them give a question as a reply. They would win money as the prizes, and the show would be a simple knowledge test. NBC bought it and “Jeopardy!” was born. Art Fleming was the host and Don Pardo its announcer.

There were six categories of quiz questions and five questions for each, and the dollar amounts were $10, $20, $30, $40 and $50. In the first round, there was one “Daily Double”. This was a question only the contestant that revealed it got to answer, and they could bet any portion (or all) of their money. In round two, there were six more categories, the dollar amounts of the questions were doubled, and there were two “Daily Doubles”. At the end, they were given a “Final Jeopardy” question, they bet any or all (or none) of their winnings, and had to write their answer. The player who got the highest score got to come back the next time, but could only do that for a maximum of five consecutive appearances.

While it ran for over a decade (1964 to 1975), it was eventually cancelled. Later, both Fleming and Pardo appeared in the “Weird” Al Yankovic parody music video “I Lost on Jeopardy”.

In 1984, Merv Griffin brought the show back in its current format with Alex Trebek as the host, and Johnny Gilbert the announcer. While the game board was electronic and the prizes people won were more (the amounts are now $200, $400, $600, $800 and $1,000 for the first round and doubled for the second), it was the same show. Contestants selected an item from the board, the answer was revealed, and then they had to phrase their reply as a question. If they didn’t, their reply was deemed incorrect. Over time audio and video answers were added. In the event of a challenge to a question, there were a team of judges with reference materials to check on them. Any such matter was always resolved during a commercial break so as to not interrupt the flow of the show.

It proved so popular that is was picked up for syndication, and continues to run to this day. It ranks as the longest running TV game show in history and is in over twenty countries.

Over the years the show has brought in people from all across the country, and done specialty tournaments for children, teens, college students, celebrities (who play for charities) and their all-time champions. As a side note, Ken Jennings still ranks as their all-time biggest money winner; due in large part to them removing the limit on the number of times a contestant can be on. He was on the show more than seventy times! The show has also gone “on the road” and appeared in places like Radio City Music Hall.

To get on the quiz show for a chance to win money and test knowledge is fairly easy. You go to a specific location for a series of test knowledge questions. The top winners of that quiz run through a sample game, and then the winners of those games get their names into the list of potential players. Today, they also have an online quiz you can take.

Yet, all of this doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a chance to compete; only a portion of the people who fly out to Hollywood (at their own expense) get on. That’s where an online game like Money4intellect can be a real plus. You can play right form the comfort of your own home, and bet as little as $10 on a general knowledge quiz. The prizes pool can be as much as $10,000 just by quickly answering ten multiple choice questions, and you get your winnings right away; they can go into a PayPal account. The games take as little as two to five minutes (a lot quicker than “Jeopardy!”). It’s clear that the online game represents the next step in the evolution of quiz shows and games.