History Main / RetiredGameShowElement

* In the Fleming version and the first 30 years of the syndicated run, players who finished tied for the lead were declared co-champions and played again on the next show. Since November 2014, ties have been decided by tiebreaker clues. The winner becomes the returning champion on the next show, and the loser departs with the $3,000 prize ($2,000 prior to Season 40) for second place.

** The Tournament of Champions received an overhaul in Season 39. The qualifying field now consists of 21 entrants with the three who had the longest streaks since the last tournament receiving semifinal byes. The remaining 18 contestants play six quarterfinal games. After the semifinals, the three finalists play until someone wins three matches.

* When ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' returned in 1984, one notable change was that only the contestant who won the game got to keep the money they won -- the other players left with a ConsolationPrize. Beginning on May 16, 2002, the show replaced these with cash prizes: $1,000 for third place and $2,000 for second. In Season 40, these were updated to $2,000 and $3,000, respectively.

** "Back to School" weeks or other weeks where children aged 10-12 competed. These offered much easier material in addition to categories about tween trends and pop culture. The first one was held in 1999, and they were done twice a year in most of the TurnOfTheMillennium. On July 31, 2013, a contestant's misspelled response was deemed unacceptable, sending social media in an uproar. What was ridiculous was that it wouldn’t have affected the game’s outcome regardless of if it was correct, as the winner had amassed such a high score that it would have been impossible to beat him. In December 2014, Alex had an incident with a StageMom who demanded that an act be re-shot to accommodate a child finishing Double Jeopardy! in the red. After those two sportsmanship incidents, ''Jeopardy!'' stopped doing kids' weeks for good.

** "Back to School" weeks or other weeks where children aged 10-12 competed. These offered much easier material in addition to categories about tween trends and pop culture. The first one was held in 1999, and they were done twice a year in most of the TurnOfTheMillennium. On July 31, 2013, a contestant's misspelled response was deemed unacceptable, sending social media in an uproar. What was ridiculous was that it wouldn’t have affected the game’s outcome regardless of if it was correct, as the winner had amassed such a high score that it would have been impossible to beat him. In December 2014, Alex had an incident with a StageMom who demanded that an act be re-shot to accommodate a child finishing Double Jeopardy! in the red. After those two sportsmanship incidents, ''Jeopardy!'' stopped doing them for good.

** '''Nickname''', probably the most enigmatic category due to its freakishly sparse tenure (''at least'' 1979-98) but no known uses between May 31, 1979 and Fall 1988.

* To a lesser extent, before the introduction of the Bullseye round, the values in the main game were all in dollars, meaning a losing family would walk away with more than just some nice prizes — the dollars they earned were theirs to keep. Once Bullseye debuted, the dollars became points because, as Ray Combs once put it, "the dollars are in your [Bullseye] bank." Even when the show returned in 1999, the main game has inexplicably clung to using points, nullifying the purpose of the change.

* In 2020, the Ask the Audience and +1 lifelines were removed as a result of new ''Millionaire'' episodes being taped without an audience. In its place, the Ask the Host lifeline was added to the American version; this lifeline enables the host to try to help the contestant answer the question.

* Safe Crackers had its theme changed twice: on the 1985-86 nighttime show, it had a different think cue playing instead of the Pink Panther theme. That song became its think cue circa January 17, 1992, due to the staff getting tired of paying royalties to the composers of that theme. It remained its think music until April 1995, when its current theme song debuted, which was its think music from the 1994-95 nighttime show.
* Switcheroo also had two different songs that are no longer active: Its first theme song was from 1976 to December 1991. Instead of using that song, the Tom Kennedy version used a theme that was a remix of the Celebrity Charades theme. That ended up becoming its temporary think cue in Season 20 before the current theme debuted in March-April 1992.

* When ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' returned in 1984, one notable change was that only the contestant who won the game got to keep the money they won — the other players left with a ConsolationPrize. Beginning on May 16, 2002, the show replaced these with cash prizes: $1,000 for third place and $2,000 for second. In Season 40, these will be updated to $2,000 and $3,000, respectively.

** "Back to School" weeks or other weeks where children aged 10-12 competed. These offered much easier material in addition to categories about tween trends and pop culture. The first one was held in 1999, and they were done twice a year in most of the TurnOfTheMillennium. On July 31, 2013, a contestant's misspelled response was deemed unacceptable, sending social media in an uproar. What was ridiculous was that it wouldn’t have affected the game’s outcome regardless of if it was correct, as the winner had amassed such a high score that it would have been impossible to beat him. During the last week in December 2014, Alex had an incident with a StageMom who demanded that an act be re-shot to accommodate a child finishing Double Jeopardy! in the red. After those two sportsmanship incidents, ''Jeopardy!'' stopped doing them for good.