‘Jeopardy!’ Secrets: 41 Surprising Facts About the Big-Money Game Show
Beloved Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek died November 8, 2020 after a years-long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old. Trebek, who was born in Ontario, Canada, was a familiar face in many American homes, having been the face of the country’s most popular quiz show for 35 years. He was, as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tweet, an icon. “Almost every night for more than three decades, Alex Trebek entertained and educated millions around the world, instilling in so many of us a love for trivia,” Trudeau said.
Trebek received a stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2019 but never missed a day of work. Taping days are notoriously grueling — they shoot five episodes per day. The show has not yet announced who will succeed the hard-working Canadian as the next man (or woman) with all the answers (well, the questions, in this case).
A heartfelt thank you
Trebek’s widow, Jean, posted a message of thanks on Instagram to all the fans who had shared fond memories of her late husband. "My family and I sincerely thank you all for your compassionate messages and generosity," she wrote.
The two met at a party in 1988 and were married two years later. They had two children together, Matthew and Emily.
Now, it's time to get to all those super-secret Jeopardy! facts we promised you. We'll open up the board with the category "Fun and Games" for $400.
What's it all about?
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past three decades and haven’t seen the show (What is impossible?!), here’s what you need to know. Jeopardy! is a game show that challenges three contestants to a test of general trivia — topics range from elements on the periodic table to K-pop stars and everything in between.
But the twist is huge: The host reads the answer as a clue, and contestants hit a buzzer for a chance to respond with a question. Over the course of each show, contestants battle it out over three rounds, 13 topics, and 61 questions spread across the show’s iconic grid of 36 blue TV screens.
How do you win?
Another cool thing about Jeopardy!: Each correct answer (or, OK, fine, question) is worth a certain dollar amount — from $200 to $2,000 — but only there’s only one winner per Jeopardy! episode. If you come in second place, it doesn’t matter if you’ve amassed tens of thousands of dollars during the taping. You’re going home with bupkis.
Knowledge, quick reflexes and ballsy bidding strategies have sent some contestants home with crazy winnings. For instance, on April 9, 2019, 32-time Jeopardy! champion and professional sports gambler James Holzhauer wagered $25,000 on a single Daily Double question. Just how did he do it? We'll get into that later.
What is a big, big success story?
Needless to say, Jeopardy!'s impact has been monumental. But how did we get here? And how, after all this time, has Jeopardy! maintained its fanbase and popularity without selling out the original vision of its creator, Merv Griffin (that's him on the left)? No one question can answer all that. But let's dig into all the details and inner-workings that continue to make Jeopardy! so addictive.
One important thing Jeopardy! had going for it from its infancy was opportunity. Television networks were in love with game shows for two extremely compelling reasons. The first: ratings! The shows were popular and people tuned in to play along from home. The second reason: money. Networks could charge advertisers higher rates to run ads during game show commercial breaks because the home audience had to pay attention to the show in order to play along. That meant there was a better chance viewers would see and hear commercials.
But who came up with the endearing questions-as-answers format? The answer may surprise you.
Who is the best wife ever?
Alex Trebek wrote about the story of the moment Jeopardy! was conceived in his 2020 book The Answer Is…. While the show was officially created by Merv Griffin, the game show icon who also spun up Wheel of Fortune, it was actually Griffin’s wife, Julann, who came up with the show’s famous questions-as-answers format.
The couple was on a plane brainstorming ideas for a new show. Sure, networks wanted game shows, but Griffin was frustrated by those networks' sour opinion of trivia-based programs. That's when Julann came up with a simple solution: "Why don't you do a show where you give the contestants the answers?" she joked.
"Sure, and I'll end up in the slammer," said Merv.
What else did Julann contribute?
Giving contestants the answers first and have them respond with the questions? This simple flipping of the script was what became the game show we know and love today. “We kept going and I kept throwing him answers and he kept coming up with questions," Julann Griffin said. "By the time we landed, we had an idea for a show."
That wasn’t Julann’s only contribution. She also wrote the original main theme song to the show and even built a sample Jeopardy! set in the couple’s New York apartment when the project was still in development.
What's that song called?
Think! you know the Jeopardy! theme music? Think! again.
The show has had three main title themes over its 55-year history. But one piece of music has held strong to the show, and that’s the track we know and love today. We bet you’re already humming it right now.
In the early years of the show, "Think!" (yes, the music has a name) was only played while the contestants wrote down their responses in the final round of play. But the song became linked to Jeopardy! overall, and when the Trebek version of the show premiered in 1984, "Think!" was promoted to the main title theme.
What is a very weird lullaby?
Griffin first wrote the earworm as a lullaby for his son. Titled, "A Time for Tony," the song became the soundtrack of Merv's legacy. Variety has estimated that, at one time, the song had earned Griffin more than $70 million in royalties.
If you're wondering if the song has lyrics, the answer is yes. Griffin wrote the words — we hope — after the track moved to TV. As a lullaby, it's non-standard, to say the least. But as a game-show song, it slaps:
We're in trouble — trouble deep!
We're imperiled and endangered.
We're in trouble, yes indeed,
We are all in Jeopardy!
Where do you find a good game show host?
When Griffin was first looking for a host for what would become Jeopardy!, he found one in an unlikely place. Griffin spotted an actor in a Trans World Airlines ad. Fleming seemed "authoritative, yet warm and interesting," and invited Fleming to audition. The actor had no prior television hosting experience, but his agent advised him to "act like a game show host." It worked.
Fleming served as the host for the show's initial ten-year run — from 1964 to 1974. He returned for a single season when the show was revamped as The All New Jeopardy! in 1978. Fleming died from pancreatic cancer in 1995, the same disease that would claim Trebek's life a quarter-century later.
How does a game show host move to America?
So how did Alex Trebek come along? He was a TV announcer and news reporter in Canada in the '60s. As a young man, he rose through the ranks at the Canadian Broadcasting System. "I had been with the CBC for 12 years and kind of exhausted all of the opportunities that a staff announcer with the CBC would have," Trebek told The Daily Beast. "And I thought I’d like to expand my boundaries in terms of work, so I looked south of the border."
In 1973, Trebek's friend and future Growing Pains dad Alan Thicke was producing a game show called The Wizard of Odds, and he recommended Trebek try out for the host gig. Trebek got the job, and moved from Toronto, Canada to sunny California. Merv Griffin took notice of Trebek's Jeopardy!-perfect presence when Trebek was a substitute host on an episode of Wheel of Fortune.
What is a winning career?
From 1984 to 2020, Trebek hosted more than 8,200 Jeopardy! episodes. For his work on the show, he won the Daytime Emmy Award for best game show host seven times, including once in 2020. While accepting what would become his final Emmy Award, Trebek said “Speaking as one who has now been nominated 32 times and won 7 times, I think I can say with some degree of authority that winning is nicer.”
Trebek's final episode has yet to air. The host filmed his last Jeopardy! episode on October 29 — just 10 days before his death. It will air on Christmas Day, 2020. Trebek also said that he had rehearsed a hypothetical goodbye speech, but, for now, producers aren't saying if the 30-second clip ever made it to tape.
Where is Hollywood?
When the Alex Trebek run began in 1984, the show was filmed in the heart of Hollywood in Los Angeles. Sunset Boulevard's KTTV lot was the show's home. One year later, it moved not quite two miles west to Hollywood Center Studios, where classics like I Love Lucy and The Addams Family were shot.
All things must come to an end, though. In 1994, the production packed up its wall o' screens and headed 30 minutes south to Culver City's Sony Pictures Studio. The production found a home there that it would call home well into the 21st century.
Where is Culver City, actually?
The move to Sony made sense, considering that Jeopardy! is produced by Sony Pictures Television. Since the move, fellow Merv Griffin creation Wheel of Fortune has filmed on the stage right next door. Other famous productions that have been shot in Culver City include little titles like The Wizard of Oz, Grease, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
In 2020, both neighbors made changes to their sets to provide ample space for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Jeopardy! stage was redesigned to allow for more space between the contestants' podiums. Trebek stayed a safe distance from contestants at all times during filming. And off-camera staff was provided with personal protective equipment.
What is the coolest job ever?
So how does the show actually work? It starts with some really cool jobs.
Every day, the Jeopardy! writers work to create two to three categories with five clues each. The clues go through a rigorous fact-checking and editing process. When all looks good, they’re loaded onto the grid of blue screens.
"The eight of us as a group try to improve the material as much as we can," Jeopardy! co-head writer Billy Wisse told Vulture. "We talk about whether we’ve done this fact too much, or talked about this person or this country too much recently, or whether this clue could be worded better."
Where is the reference section?
The writers aren’t the only people responsible for turning trivia into Jeopardy! clues. There's a deeply-entrenched research team involved, as well.
And what do you need at your disposal if you’re assembling 75 super fact-checked Jeopardy! clues every week? Books. (Of course, Jeopardy! had writers long before the internet was invented — back when books were the most efficient place to go spelunking for facts.)
The writer’s room is a giant library filled with volumes upon volumes of knowledge. Today, the books act both as a source of inspiration as well as a great place to fact check obscure information.
Once clues get written, the researchers step in to make sure they are correct.
Who is making a list and checking it twice?
Bill Wisse began as a researcher in 1990. In this interview with AV Club, he breaks down the mechanics of the position. The job really hasn't changed much over the years.
"Each clue has a number of facts in it. [...] and the writer has provided one source, at least, for every element within the clue—every name, every statement, every date—[...] is to double-source all of those."
"Secondarily, [we] check to see if the clue is pinned, which is quiz-show speak for making sure that there is only one correct answer. Or that, if there’s an alternate answer that’s also acceptable, that it’s been anticipated."
Remember that each fact needs two sources to verify it's the real deal. Take into account the roughly 14,000 clues written for each Jeopardy! season and you’ll start to get an idea of how much weight rests on the researchers' shoulders.
Who got a big promotion?
Michele Loud spent years on the outside looking into the storied quiz show. She had applied to be a contestant on the regular and college versions of the show before she landed a gig on the research team. From there, she applied to be a writer.
And in 2019, the former would-be contestant got a major promotion: She became co-head writer, sharing billing with longtime head clue man Billy Wisse. Loud says one of her all-time favorite Jeopardy! clues she came across on a carton of ice cream.
IN 1929 WILLIAM DREYER & JOSEPH EDY
CREATED THIS ICE CREAM FLAVOR,
NAMED IN PART TO REFLECT THE TIMES AHEAD
What was that flavor? Rocky road, of course.
Who are the folks on location?
Rounding out the clue-hunting team is Jeopardy!'s Clue Crew. Those are the people who travel around the world filming video clues in places like Stonehenge and Easter Island. The gang has recorded video clues in more than 300 cities in 46 countries, including in all 50 states and on all seven continents.
Since the team was created in 2001, the clue crew has gotten up close and personal with precious artifacts, historical documents and priceless memorabilia. In addition to the on-camera talent, the Clue Crew travels with sound engineers, camera operators and more to bring the best on-location content to the Jeopardy! grid.
But what about that grid?
In the show’s early days, clues were laid out on color-coded index cards. Software replaced the index cards, but the color-coding remains.
These colors identify four types of categories: Academic, pop culture, wordplay, and kind of lifestyles, which is pretty much everything else. Things can sometimes get a bit tricky when the categories are being built.
"You try to assemble them. And assemble them with a certain degree of balance and variety," Billy Wisse told AV Club. "If you have something old, you try to have something new. If you have a really narrow category, you try to balance that out with something that’s a little more general. It’s tricky."
What color is each category? Academic subjects are blue. Pop culture trivia is pink. Wordplay clues are yellow. And lifestyle-centric trivia — about topics like housewares or consumer goods — are green.
Who's that man behind the curtain?
During Jeopardy!'s notoriously hectic tape days (more on that later), there is a team of technicians hard at work in the show's control room. Just like at a basketball or football game, there are people responsible for selecting what you see, as a television viewer. When contestants are announced, someone selects their camera to roll onscreen. Each time someone selects a clue, a person triggers that clue to appear.
The people in the control room even get the first look at what contestants write down on their tablets for written responses. That's right, even before the host sees Ken Jennings' response for Final Jeopardy!, the folks in the control room already know what he's written. That's a pretty cool perk.
Where did that tie go?
Like we mentioned before, Jeopardy!'s filming schedule is a real doozy. The team shoots five episodes on a typical "tape day," with two tape days happening every other week. One episode of Jeopardy! takes about 45 minutes to run through.
Because of the show's 46-week production schedule, the time for a player to celebrate a victory is limited. They're given 15 minutes to head backstage to change clothes. Before they know it, contestants are jumping back behind the podium to play another game.
They shoot two to three episodes on each day with their crew filling in the time, swapping out set pieces. Not to be outdone, Wheel of Fortune films six episodes "from 12 noon to 6pm" on their tape days, which happen four times a month.
What is some really good advice?
Have you ever thought about becoming a contestant? Of course you have. Here's some advice.
Contestants can’t possibly study every piece of trivia in existence before going on Jeopardy!. But there are a few things players should consider, aside from looking through the encyclopedia and the old Trivial Pursuit deck.
According to two studies that looked at the entire Trebek-era Jeopardy! archive, the most common category on the Jeopardy! grid is the wordplay collection known as "Before and After."
But what do the contestants themselves suggest? Well, during a Reddit AMA, 74-time-champ Ken Jennings recommended memorizing the U.S. presidents in order. His second-most important category for study is world capitals.
But seriously, what should we study?
"I also did cocktails, current cabinet and Senators, and university towns. Those all came up eventually, but you might have to be there for 74 games," Jennings added. "Brush up on your strong categories; resist the temptation to try to learn 500 things about ballet or college basketball or whatever from scratch."
Former Jeopardy! champ Brad Rutter (that's him between Jennings and James Holzhauer) agrees with Jennings' winning study strategy. "There's usually one of those categories in every game," he explained to Esquire. "I don't think they've ever repeated a clue, but they do ask about the same stuff a lot."
What is a hand cramp?
So, now that we've studied up, what else should we know? Blazing-fast buzzer skills are one of the keys to winning a game of Jeopardy!. Players must wait until Alex Trebek finishes reading the question before the buzzers can become active. That beat allows for a producer, seated off-camera, to press a button that turns them on.
Two long lights will appear on either side of the game board. That signifies that the buzzers are live. Then, and only then, can contestants race to hit their button for a chance to answer the clue.
Many Jeopardy! champs like Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings have gone on the record about how important blazing-fast buzzer skills are to winning a game.
When is... NOW?!
"There's actually a production assistant who literally presses a button backstage to activate the buzzer system," Rutter told Esquire. "So that guy will usually wait, like, half a second after Alex is done to open the system up, and you can kind of get into a rhythm with him too."
If contestants jump the gun and ring in too fast, their buzzers are locked for a quarter of a second. Contestants who miss the window and buzz too late risk the possibility that someone else has already answered the clue correctly. Timing is seriously key. But is it really that simple?
What's a great way to lose?
According to Ken Jennings, who holds the record for the longest-ever winning streak, waiting for those "buzzers-ready" lights is a great strategy... if you want to lose. Contestants have to sync their buzzing with the lights. The light and the buzz happen simultaneously. According to Jennings, this gives a home-court advantage to the returning champion in each episode.
The contestant who buzzes at just the right moment will see a confirmation light on the podium. Contestants are advised to keep hitting the button until they see that light. With the razor-thin time margin to buzz in and answer a question, there’s always a chance that one or even all of the contestants have pressed the button too soon and are locked out for a fraction of a second.
What is blue and white and read all over?
In one of his many Reddit AMA interviews, Jennings recommended trying to read each clue ahead of Trebek, as fast as you can, to allow time to think and prepare to buzz in. "Like Jeff Bridges says in 'Tron': "On the other side of the screen, it all looks so easy," he quipped.
In 2011, Jennings returned to Jeopardy! to take on an IBM computer named Watson. Watson won. According to the 74-time champ, "It just comes down to buzzer mojo. Which is why Watson won so handily… pretty hard to have better response time than a circuit board."
How tall is Ken Jennings anyway?
The Jeopardy! set is filled with hidden elements that make game logistics more streamlined. For example, behind each podium, there are risers to make all three contestants appear around the same height.
There are small indicator lights on the lower left corner of each podium that remind the host who got the last question right and thus who gets to pick the next clue.
There is a scoreboard just to the left of the game board off camera where contestants can see everyone’s current score. This makes calculating strategic bids for Final Jeopardy! quick and easy.
Ken Jennings’ height is listed as 5 feet 10 inches on imdb.com.
Is trivia a contact sport?
Like many competitions, Jeopardy! has instant replay... sort of. You know the panel of judges that the host looks to during gameplay? The people sitting at that table include producers and high-ranking writers. They are the show's second line of defense should any confusion arise after a player answers.
What if those judges need help? There’s a red phone on their desk that has the research team on speed dial. The research library is 100 yards away, where the team closely follows the game. Once they receive a call, the team is already checking the contestant’s response.
Who's on the line?
"Sometimes things come out of the blue and we just say, well, we never thought of that," Jeopardy! head writer Billy Wisse explained. "We’ve never heard of it before, or sometimes the contestant reads the clue in a way that we hadn’t thought of."
Be it an acceptable alternative response or a different interpretation to the clue, the win is left up to the judges, the research team and the writers. They may be unseen, but the crew has always been a key part of the whole process.
What Is A Poh-TAH-Toe?
Occasionally, an answer's pronunciation comes into question. In 2018, Nick Spicher buzzed in to answer this wordplay clue: "A SONG BY COOLIO FROM DANGEROUS MINDS GOES BACK IN TIME TO BECOME A 1667 JOHN MILTON CLASSIC."
"What is Gangsta's Paradise Lost," would've been the correct answer.
But Spicher said, "Gangster's Paradise," instead. Because the words "gangster" and "gangsta" have two different definitions, he was ruled incorrect. His answer changed the overall meaning of the response.
"The Jeopardy! rule is, contestant pronunciation doesn't have to be correct, but it has to be a plausible pronunciation of the correct spelling. So I guess the ruling was, 'gangster' is not a plausible pronunciation of 'gangsta,' which seems right to me," Ken Jennings said.
What is a very important question?
Final Jeopardy!, the last round in every taping, has some cool secrets all its own.
For example: Pronunciation may be of huge importance here, but spelling only kind of counts. (What a relief for all the bad spelerz 😉 out there.) In the show's "Final Jeopardy!" round, players get 30 seconds to jot down their response to one last clue.
The official rule for the round is as follows: "Written responses to the Final Jeopardy! clue do not have to be spelled correctly, but they must be phonetically correct and not add or subtract any extraneous sounds or syllables." And here's another thing we know you're wondering about...
What is up with the penmanship?
Have you ever noticed how silly a player's writing looks on screen? There's a huge size difference between the pens contestants are given and the screens they write on. A big pen and small writing space can make legibility a challenge. "It’s like writing with an icicle on glass," Ken Jennings told Cracked.
And, like we mentioned before, the folks in the control room actually get the first look at what contestants are writing in their Final Jeopardy! responses. The techs actually have a live readout of the contents of those pen tablets. They actually watch as contestants try to write neatly on the slippery surface.
Where's my paycheck?
Contestants don’t run straight to the bank after they win on Jeopardy!. There’s a 120-day wait from airdate to payout. The gap between taping and airdate can be anywhere from a week to a few months. So, contestants typically see their winnings a little more than six months from the time they film.
There are a few reasons why shows like Jeopardy! build in this buffer. One reason they do this is to maintain secrecy.
If you saw your favorite Jeopardy! contestant cruising around in a brand new expensive car and snapped a picture for your Instagram story, it might tip off the internet that said contestant had recently come into a gigantic cash prize.
Meanwhile, contestants are sworn to secrecy while they wait for their episodes to air. They sign a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits them from telling anyone about the outcome of their Jeopardy! episode.
What is a cool name for a strategy?
Contestants all have their own theories about how best to use Jeopardy!’s rules to win big. James Holzhauer would jump from category to category to knock out the most valuable clues early.
The practice of jumping from category to category actually has a name: The Forrest Bounce. This unique name references the 1980s Jeopardy! champion Chuck Forrest. He used this category-switching method to throw off his opponents, earning him the nickname, "The Alexander Great of Jeopardy!"
That's not to say that his strategy was a winning one.
"He jumped all over the board in an obvious attempt to throw off his opponents," Alex Trebek told Vulture. "It worked. They never adjusted. But, you may remember, Chuck didn’t win the championship that year. So go figure."
Who is the new king?
Holzhauer also bet big — record-shattering big — whenever he got the chance. There’s a rule that sets the minimum bid for a Daily Double question at $5. That’s a far cry from the $25,000 Holzhauer wagered on two separate Daily Doubles. In the Final Jeopardy! round, contestants can, according to the rule book, wager zero.
The conventional wisdom for betting in Final Jeopardy! goes like this: If you’re in the lead, you bet to win. What would the wager be? Whatever it takes to defeat the second-place contestant by one dollar.
What's the safe bet?
But what if you're a second-place contestant? Well, those folks have the most math to do in a short amount of time. Assuming the first-place contestant bets to win, the second-place player should bet exactly enough to defeat the third-place contestant by one dollar... that is, if the third-place player bets everything and have a correct answer. This gives the person in second place a chance at victory if the first-place contestant falters.
Game theory is hard, y’all. And, for that reason, lots of Jeopardy! contestants study game theory before competing. An art and a science, game theory can be a complicated nut to crack. But when studied, it's possible that you, too, could go home $2.4 million richer.
What is an ever-changing design?
Since the Art Fleming days, Jeopardy! has had nine set designs for regular in-season episodes, two special tournament sets and many more traveling sets. This is what the soundstage looked like from 1985 to 1991 during Final Jeopardy! During the rest of each episode, the background was blue instead of red.
Fans will recognize that, despite the many changes, plenty of set features have stayed the same through the decades. For example, the basic format of the game board, the arrangement of the contestants and the row of lights that indicates how much time a contestant has to respond to a clue are all still part of the set.
What is the sincerest form of flattery?
As the success of Jeopardy! has grown, a variety of spinoffs and comedic skits have hit the airwaves. In 1998, Rock & Roll Jeopardy premiered on VH1 sporting the same answers-as-questions format, but with a laid back music-theme. Jeff Probst was the program's host.
Celebrity Jeopardy! is a series of Saturday Night Live comedy sketches that began in 1996. In all 15 sketches, Will Ferrell plays Alex Trebek and a rotating cast of guests and cast-members impersonate other celebrities. Jimmy Fallon has appeared on the series six times, portraying different celebrities each outing.
What is a very nerdy Wednesday?
Jeopardy! alumni actually have a trivia night in O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Santa Monica, California. Pub goers who visit O’Brien’s on a Wednesday night are often met with familiar faces like Buzzy Cohen and Pam Mueller. And this isn’t your run-of-the-mill bar trivia. Regulars from this trivia night — including many Jeopardy! folks — take turns writing and asking the questions. Everyone else competes.
But O’Brien’s trivia night wasn’t always so prestigious. In 2006, former Jeopardy! champion Jerome Vered (a former writer and researcher for the show Win Ben Stein's Money) stopped in to test his brain against the trivia night. Maybe unsurprisingly, Vered won. Other former champions heard about the weekly event and together they made it a regular hang for the biggest brains on the game show circuit.
Who's the next question keeper?
Though Jeopardy! producers have not yet announced who could take fill Trebek's very scholarly shoes, there are plenty of rumors as to who his successor could be. At one time, Trebek himself named CNN's Laura Coates, LA Kings announcer Alex Faust and TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz as potential successors.
"There are so many talented people out there that could do the job," he added.
During his final years, Trebek spoke about his legacy and the unknown person who would step behind the host's lectern after his death.
In an interview with ABC News he said, "I will tell people, ‘Don’t ask me who’s going to replace me because I have no say whatsoever. But I’m sure that if you give them the same love and attention and respect that you have shown me...then they will be a success and the show will continue being a success. And until we meet again, God bless you and goodbye.'"
Could Ken Jennings grow a mustache?
After Trebek's death, international sports gambling website Sportsbetting.ag listed their odds for potential future Jeopardy! hosts. Among the list of recognizable names is former champion Ken Jennings. Jennings became famous during his epic 74-game victory streak that won him a whopping $2.52 million.
Jennings has also been a consulting producer on the show since 2020. He has yet to give any statement as to whether or not he would accept the honor.
What other names have been floated?
And the list of could-be hosts continues to grow. Other names that have surfaced include actor and Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, actor Neil Patrick Harris and even ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos. The New York Times also suggested Rosie Perez, one of a very few women to be mentioned in the conversation.
No matter who becomes the next face of Jeopardy!, the task will be tall. Trivia fans have another few weeks of Trebek-hosted episodes before that chapter of America's favorite quiz show is closed. Until then, Jeopardy! fans, don't forget to phrase your answers in the form of a question.