History YMMV / Jeopardy

** Michael Davies (who replaced the fired Mike Richards in season 38) either brought the show out of the doldrums of the Richards era, or overexposes the show too much as opposed to improving the clue writing or updating the Tournament of Champions prizes. His decisions to replace the longtime tournament format and introduce a postseason format for Season 40 (which had to be extended due to the WGA strike) don't help.

** Some ''Wheel'' fans blame vocal ''Jeopardy!'' fans for the termination of Mike Richards, whose contributions to ''Wheel'' were praised by game show fans as a whole and brought the show to new levels of prominence and relevancy not seen in years. His termination meant the quiet cancellation of what would have been ''Wheel's'' first tournament in over two decades. When Michael Davies was named his successor, it was reported that he would run both shows, but ended up never joining ''Wheel''. While fans and former contestants of ''Wheel'' have been wishing for a "second chance" for years, Davies' announcement that ''Jeopardy!'' would be having one was met with shocked reaction; the concept of reviving tournaments or champions on ''Wheel'' has been continually derided by some fans and Pat Sajak for the game being too dependent on "the luck factor" (meaning a good puzzle solver could barely get a chance to play if they get poor spins), which ''Jeopardy!'' supposedly lacks by comparison. With Davies expanding the franchise in many ways, ''Wheel'' fans feel the dynamic of the two shows being sister programs is gradually going away.

* MorePopularReplacement: Michael Davies to Mike Richards; among other things, Davies ditched the "more guest hosts" plan in favor of just having Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings split hosting duties, introduced a Second Chance Tournament, and added several things such as box scores and bumpers showing the next day's contestants during the credits. He continued this in Season 39 by announcing an overhaul to the Tournament of Champions format, which fans felt was long overdue.

** Michael Davies (who replaced the fired Mike Richards in season 38) is well-liked, but some people see him as downgrade from Harry Friedman (whom Richards succeeded). While they do give him credit for bringing the show out of the doldrums of the Richards era, they also say he overexposes the show as opposed to improving the clue writing or updating the Tournament of Champions prizes.

** Creator/MayimBialik, a Season 37 guest host and one of the two rotating hosts. Depending on who is asked when she started out, she was either a pleasant host who brings some fun to the table or she's an annoyance who giggles too much and was only brought in for StuntCasting. After Mike Richards was ousted, Ken Jennings and Bialik split hosting duties. Viewers then noticed a jarring difference between both hosting styles with each rotation. Bialik makes unnecessary pauses before ruling on a response, and she usually doesn't show emotion to anything exciting such as a huge Daily Double or Final Jeopardy! wager. Her robotic demeanor hasn't changed, usually opening the show with a quick recap of the previous game's events and using the same catchphrases such as "Unfortunately, that's not correct." during Final. While fans generally agree that Jennings has settled into the role, Bialik's inability to improve has made her stick out like a sore thumb to many with coming full circle when it was announced in December of 2023 that she would no longer host. Her last episode aired in April of that year, after which she stepped down to announce her solidarity with those taking part in the [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes WGA and SAG-AFTRA Strikes]].

** Creator/MayimBialik, a Season 37 guest host and one of the two rotating hosts. Depending on who is asked when she started out, she was either a pleasant host who brings some fun to the table or she's an annoyance who giggles too much and was only brought in for StuntCasting. After Mike Richards was ousted, Ken Jennings and Bialik split hosting duties. Viewers then noticed a jarring difference between both hosting styles with each rotation. Bialik makes unnecessary pauses before ruling on a response, and she usually doesn't show emotion to anything exciting such as a huge Daily Double or Final Jeopardy! wager. Her robotic demeanor hasn't changed, usually opening the show with a quick recap of the previous game's events and using the same catchphrases such as "Unfortunately, that's not correct." during Final. While fans generally agree that Jennings has settled into the role, Bialik's inability to improve has made her stick out like a sore thumb to many with coming full circle when it was announced in December of 2023 that she would no longer host. Her last episode aired in April of that year, after which she stepped down to announce her solidarity with those taking part in the [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes WGA and SAG-AFTRA Strikes ]].

** Creator/MayimBialik, a Season 37 guest host and one of the two rotating hosts. Depending on who is asked when she started out, she was either a pleasant host who brings some fun to the table or she's an annoyance who giggles too much and was only brought in for StuntCasting. After Mike Richards was ousted, Ken Jennings and Bialik split hosting duties. Viewers then noticed a jarring difference between both hosting styles with each rotation. Bialik makes unnecessary pauses before ruling on a response, and she usually doesn't show emotion to anything exciting such as a huge Daily Double or Final Jeopardy! wager. Her robotic demeanor hasn't changed, usually opening the show with a quick recap of the previous game's events and using the same catchphrases such as "Unfortunately, that's not correct." during Final. While fans generally agree that Jennings has settled into the role, Bialik's inability to improve has made her stick out like a sore thumb to many with coming full circle when it was announced in December of 2023 that she would no longer host. Not helped by the fact that she hadn't hosted an episode since April of that year.

** Game show producer Jay Wolpert retired undefeated in 1969 and won that year's Tournament of Champions.

** Creator/MayimBialik, a Season 37 guest host and one of the two rotating current hosts. Depending on who is asked when she started out, she was either a pleasant host who brings some fun to the table or she's an annoyance who giggles too much and was only brought in for StuntCasting. After Mike Richards was ousted, Ken Jennings and Bialik split hosting duties. Viewers then noticed a jarring difference between both hosting styles with each rotation. Bialik makes unnecessary pauses before ruling on a response, and she usually doesn't show emotion to anything exciting such as a huge Daily Double or Final Jeopardy! wager. Her robotic demeanor hasn't changed, usually opening the show with a quick recap of the previous game's events and using the same catchphrases such as "Unfortunately, that's not correct." during Final. While fans generally agree that Jennings has settled into the role, Bialik's inability to improve has made her stick out like a sore thumb to many.

** The "answering with a question" format had so wormed its way into the brain of American audiences, as far back as the Fleming era, that practically any other game show that asks trivia will see multiple contestants answer with a question; that show's host may then remind them "this isn't ''Jeopardy!''" with varying degrees of humor or irritation (most notably ''Series/WinBenSteinsMoney'', where offending contestants were forced to wear a DunceCap). This happens even in high school academic quiz bowls, especially since, like ''Jeopardy!'', contestants have to buzz in.
** Just about any news article about ''Jeopardy!'' is bound to include "What is _____?" and/or "I'll take ______ for $[X]00, (Alex)." They also appears frequently in situations that have nothing to do with ''Jeopardy!'', especially the latter.
** In the ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' episode "What Is... Cliff Clavin?", Cliff appears on the show and, despite getting a runaway lead, wagers everything and gets Final Jeopardy! wrong. This episode has been referenced regularly on ''Jeopardy!'' — at least two contestants have copied his Final Jeopardy! response of "Who are three people that have never been in my kitchen?", and Trebek sometimes warns contestants with runaway leads not to "[[PersonAsVerb pull a Cliff Clavin]]" (i.e., wager everything--or even enough to let a player who's behind to catch up--and then get it wrong).
*** [[{{Defictionalization}} Similarly, Cliff's entire board of "dream categories"]] [[AscendedMeme was used]] [[http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=310 in the May 10, 2005 Ultimate Tournament Of Champions game.]] (albeit with Bar Trivia turned into ''"Bar" Trivia''; responses had to have "bar" in them somewhere.)
** There have been countless references to ''Saturday Night Live''[='s=] "Celebrity Jeopardy!" sketches, which almost always featured Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond) as a contestant. Both the show itself and many of its contestants have made constant references to these sketches — the writers through category names ("Months That Begin with 'Feb'"), and the contestants through Sean Connery impersonations.
** "Who is [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Kebert Xela]]?" was used by a contestant in Final Jeopardy!
-->'''[[Creator/AdamWest Adam West]]:''' [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries Only by making him say his name backwards can send him back to the Fifth Dimension where he belongs.]]
** The ''Jeopardy!'' fanbase has made a meme out of Liederkranz cheese, the answer to a [[http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=3109 notoriously difficult Final Jeopardy!]] question on the July 23, 2009 show; often considered the most obscure clue the show has ever had. Its notoriety was probably exacerbated by the fact that the champion a.) had an absolutely monstrous lead going into Final Jeopardy! (the scores were $22,800/$200/$200), and b.) is a prominent member of the fanbase.
** "Stay clam" [sic] is both this and helpful advice for ''Jeopardy!'' contestants. The meme originated from a misspelled forum post from 2002 Back to School Week player Gracie Studdard, who was giving advice on how to handle one's self on a game show. Since its introduction, watchers and players alike will say if they clam on giving the question to an answer if they are uncertain.
** "SHIT TYRONE GET IT TOGETHER", an infamous viral image of a dreadlocked African-American contestant falling in the red who answered something wrong, which mutated into a phrase used to mock people's stupidity in general.
** After James Holzhauer's run, other contestants have imitated his pantomime of pushing poker chips and saying "All in!" to announce a True Daily Double wager.
** It's common to hum the "Think" music when someone is hesitating answering a question.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJO7hcinS-U "What's a hoe?"]]: Ken Jennings gave this answer to the clue "This long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker." The answer was "rake" and Trebek and the audience got a good laugh from Ken's answer. Several fans however have protested the answer saying that Ken technically wasn't wrong and/or they've never heard the term "rake" used in that context in their life.
** August 2021 saw fans applying the "My fall plans/The Delta Variant" meme to ''Jeopardy!'' when Mike Richards was announced as the permanent host (at first) for Season 38. The first part had the memer's preferred choice of host, most commonly Ken Jennings, [=LeVar=] Burton or even Alex Trebek. The second universally had Richards' picture.

* AmericansHateTingle: Unlike most other game shows of American origin, ''Jeopardy!'' has mostly failed to catch on in other countries, with few foreign adaptations lasting more than a couple years. This is particularly surprising given countries like the most of Europe practically grew up on trivia game shows which are mostly all-gameplay no-gimmick pretty much like ''Jeopardy'' is. Most people outside North America only know ''Jeopardy!'' and host Creator/AlexTrebek through references in American media.

** On the 1978-79 revival, the lowest-scoring contestant was eliminated after each round, and the winner played a Bingo-style BonusRound. Since Final Jeopardy! was gone from the show, this was the only incarnation without the legendary [[JeopardyThinkingMusic thinking music]].

** Many feel that the show entered a new one when Mike Richards took over as producer in Season 37, given some rather contentious judgment calls, a perceived drop in clue quality, and the wildly varying reception to the guest hosts following Trebek's death. Then he took over as host full-time for the main show, and the revelation of his other actions forced him to step down as host and lose his job altogether. The Audience Alienating Era ended for most when Ken Jennings and Creator/MayimBialik were named hosts for the rest of the season, combining with a hot streak of super-champions (starting with Matt Amodio, who carried over from the end of the "guest host" era, and Michael Davies being selected as Richards' replacement).

** The 1978-79 revival eliminated the lowest-scoring contestant after each round, and the winner played a Bingo-style BonusRound; as a result, this was the only incarnation of ''Jeopardy!'' without the legendary [[JeopardyThinkingMusic thinking music]].

** The rearranged ThemeTune introduced in Season 38. While most agreed it was a good idea to change it (given the previous version had been in use for 13 years), it's generally agreed that it sounds more like a MIDI arrangement or a ringtone (apart from the opening part), though [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoxDWi_kGCw an alternate version]] heard in the ''Inside Jeopardy!'' podcast and ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' with a guitar added was better received. The Final Jeopardy! music was unchanged.

** The format of contestants being supplied the answers and having to come up with the questions was the basis for the first regularly scheduled quiz show ''Series/CBSTelevisionQuiz''. For the record, Merv Griffin was likely unaware of that show since he was a teenager living in San Francisco when that show (which originated from WCBW in New York) was on the air, although his future wife Julann (who gave Merv the idea of switching the questions and answers around) probably was.

** Season 14 (1997-98) not only rearranged the thinking music used since 1964 and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6rHqrLA7aw synthesizer]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfDUKtxi8HU theme]] used since 1984 (which was updated with bongo and shaker tracks in 1992), but saw the first use of clues read by celebrities, as well as even more {{pun}}ny categories and travel shows than ever before. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking There was also the removal of podium microphones]].

** Michael Davies considered, but never implemented, a cash bonus for sweeping a category. Said cash bonus was previously offered during the later years of the Fleming version.

** In the 1978-79 revival, the lowest-scoring contestant was eliminated after the Jeopardy! round. Final Jeopardy! was also replaced with a Bingo-style BonusRound; as a result, this was the only version of the show without the JeopardyThinkingMusic.
** Season 14 (1997-98) not only rearranged the legendary thinking music used since 1964 and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6rHqrLA7aw synthesizer]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfDUKtxi8HU theme]] used since 1984 (which was updated with bongo and shaker tracks in 1992), but saw the first use of clues read by celebrities, as well as even more {{pun}}ny categories and travel shows than ever before. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking There was also the removal of podium microphones]].

** Season 14 (1997-98) not only abandoned the legendary JeopardyThinkingMusic used since 1964 and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6rHqrLA7aw synthesizer]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfDUKtxi8HU theme]] used since 1984 (which was updated with bongo and shaker tracks in 1992), but saw the first use of clues read by celebrities, as well as even more {{pun}}ny categories and travel shows than ever before. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking There was also the removal of podium microphones]].

* WTHCastingAgency:
** The announcement that [[Series/TheDoctorOzShow Dr. Mehmet Oz]] would be a guest host received near-universal backlash from fans and former contestants due to his controversial reputation.
** Joe Buck, the final guest host of Season 37, was seen as this before his guest-hosting stint aired due to his contentious history as a sportscaster. Despite this, he was generally considered by the fandom to have done a good job as guest host.
** Then-executive producer Mike Richards, who was the initially-announced host for Season 38; this resulted in the largest amount of backlash against the show to date.

** The announcement that Richards himself would become the new permanent host for Season 38 was met with arguably even more backlash than the Dr. Oz debacle. Especially since it was also announced that Creator/MayimBialik (herself a divisive host, but she at least had her fans) would host primetime specials and spin-offs. This decision angered fans who felt Ken Jennings[[note]]the first guest host to replace Trebek, and one of the most popular names that came to mind replacing him as emcee[[/note]], Buzzy Cohen[[note]]whom fans felt did a terrific job during his stint as guest hosting the Tournament of Champions during Season 37[[/note]], [=LeVar=] Burton[[note]]whom fans felt was never given a fair chance and got shafted due to coverage of the Olympics pre-empting his week in many markets; there are even theories that he was deliberately sabotaged due to only being given one week and many mistakes being left in that they perceived could've easily been edited out[[/note]], David Faber[[note]]an EnsembleDarkHorse among the guest hosts for his smooth and personable style[[/note]], Brad Rutter[[note]]who, like Jennings, is a former champion, but has hosting experience and never got a shot as a guest host[[/note]], Jimmy [=McGuire=], Sarah Whitcomb-Foss[[note]]longtime Clue Crew members who host mock games and also eventually didn't come into the running as guest hosts[[/note]], Alex Faust, Laura Coates, and Ben Mankiewicz [[note]]who were people Trebek threw around as possible successors and were never guest hosts[[/note]] got snubbed. The decision to use Bialik for primetime shows led to accusations that Sony only selected her as a secondary host to distract from Richards' sexual harassment allegations during his tenure on ''The Price is Right'' resurfacing. Them resurfacing along with an old Richards-hosted podcast where he commonly made off-color remarks created an untenable situation that not only forced Richards to relinquish hosting duties but cost him his role as executive producer as well.

** Sports-specific categories often befall this fate. One early example comes from a first-round Bowling category in 1986, from which only the $100 and $200 clues are played. Alex promptly assumes none of that episode's contestants have ever bowled and, in a sharp ad-lib, suggests simply chatting for what little time remained in the round. More famously, the February 1, 2018 show had a "Talkin' Football" category where none of the contestants rang in. Alex gave plenty of one-liners along the way, such as "If you guys ring in and get this one, I will ''die''."

** On July 31, 2013, a player on Kids' Week absolutely owned the game to the tune of $66,600, which was the fifth-highest one-day total at the time. What do people best remember about this episode? One of his opponents was penalized for misspelling "Emancipation Proclamation" as "Emancip'''t'''ation Proclamation" in his Final Jeopardy! response. In the days that followed, angry posts flooded the show's Facebook page, stating that the judges should have been more lenient since the contestants were children, not adults. Even journalists and news websites chimed in on the issue, and the contestant said that he was robbed because of his spelling error (never mind that he would've been in second place regardless of the outcome). This mess had a massive impact on the final fate of the Kids' Week games: after the next one got caught up in the Sony hack and exposed a StageMom incident, not a single Kids' Week has been held since, [[OldShame and the show has all but distanced itself from them]].

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: Computer releases throughout the years have been praised for allowing responses to be typed as opposed to moving a cursor between letters. This allows for a much faster pace than video game releases in the same era, even if the time window for typing is generous.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: For many years, the commonly accepted strategy for board clearing was to start from the top of a category and go straight down, as difficulty correlates directly to clue difficulty and thus starting from the top helps ease the players into what the category is asking them before they get to the hard clues. However, this trend was slowly upended throughout the late 2010s and the early 2020s as an indirect result of strings of successes from multiple super-champions using unorthodox board clearing strategies. This has resulted in the evolution of the modern board clearing strategy, which is to eliminate as many high-value clues from the board as possible at the start to prevent them being lost due to time at the end of a round and make late-round clues less impactful on the game state.

** 2021: 38-day champ Matt Amodio. Impressive for his ability to win many games under six different hosts and his gameplay style, or annoying for his tendency to say "What's" before every response, even people, as well as saying last names only? The producers had to clarify during his run that he did not violate any rules and that responses are always accepted as long as they're in the form of a question.
** 2022: 23-day champ Mattea Roach. Her personality (such as waving her hands and making remarks often) makes her either endearing or grating, depending on who you ask.

* TheScrappy: Creator/MayimBialik, a Season 37 guest host and one of the two rotating current hosts. Depending on who is asked when she started out, she was either a pleasant host who brings some fun to the table or she's an annoyance who giggles too much and was only brought in for StuntCasting. After Mike Richards was ousted, Ken Jennings and Bialik split hosting duties. Viewers then noticed a jarring difference between both hosting styles with each rotation. Bialik makes unnecessary pauses before ruling on a response, and she usually doesn't show emotion to anything exciting such as a huge Daily Double or Final Jeopardy! wager. Her robotic demeanor hasn't changed, usually opening the show with a quick recap of the previous game's events and using the same catchphrases such as "Unfortunately, that's not correct." during Final. While fans generally agree that Jennings has settled into the role, Bialik's inability to improve has made her stick out like a sore thumb. Not helping is that she has admitted to not watching ''Jeopardy!'' before taking the hosting gig, to say nothing of her outside views.

** With Trebek's passing came the decision to have guest hosts for the remainder of Season 37. Aside from the fanbase universally disliking [[Series/TheDoctorOzShow Dr. Mehmet Oz]], the merits of each have varied. Much like the Power Players weeks mentioned further below, some fans aren't comfortable with certain hosts on a bipartisan/nonpartisan series. Those who don't mind it have ignored the criticism at best and resorted to infighting at worst.

** Kids or Back to School Week games, which not only make the Teen Tournament feel redundant, but include [[ItsEasySoItSucks questions that are too easy, even for that demographic]], or too focused on child-appropriate topics (such as contemporary cartoons, children's literature, tweenage pop music, etc.) to allow older generations to play along. They stopped doing them in Season 31, due to the two aforementioned incidents.

*** Prior to this season, the Tournament of Champions (and Celebrity Jeopardy!), Teen Tournament, College Championship, and Seniors Tournament were respectively held in the sweeps periods of November, February, May, and July. [[note]]During season 12, tournaments began being shifted to a fluid, irregular schedule, with the Teen and College tournaments switching places, the Seniors Tournament being demoted to December for its final installment, and the first International Tournament debuting that July. Tournaments continue to be booked on a fluid basis, though almost always during the aforementioned sweeps periods.[[/note]]

* TearJerker:
** The episode for November 9, 2020 began with [[https://youtu.be/uLRZoJa9elg a post-production bit]] in which then-executive producer Mike Richards [[WhamLine tells viewers that Alex Trebek passed away over the weekend]] and [[TryingNotToCry comes close to crying doing so]]. He adds that the remaining 35 episodes Trebek had taped would air, ending with him saying "On behalf of everyone here at ''Jeopardy!'', thank you for everything, Alex" and solemnly saying the iconic "This is ''Jeopardy!''" line before the lights on the set go down.
*** The last episode hosted by Alex Trebek ended with a video tribute made up of clips of him hosting the show with "Once Before I Go" playing. You'd have to be lying to say that you didn't cry during this. The kicker? What goes on to be Alex's final sign-off on his final episode:
-->'''Alex''': Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for spending the time with us. [[HarsherinHindsight We'll see you again next week.]]
** On his first day as guest host, Ken Jennings fights back tears, reminiscing about Alex.
--->'''Ken''': You know, sharing this stage with Alex Trebek was one of the greatest honors of my life. Not many things in life are perfect, but Alex did this job pretty much perfectly for more than 36 years, and it was even better up close. We were dazzled by his intelligence, his charm, his grace...really, there's no other word for it. Like all ''Jeopardy!'' fans, I miss Alex, very much, and I thank him for everything he did for all of us. Let's be totally clear: no one will ever replace the great Alex Trebek, but we can honor him by playing the game he loved.
** The final episode of the original series from January 3, 1975, complete with a rendition of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile". And the final shot? The darkened set.
--->'''Art Fleming''': All I can say is, thank you again, for 11 wonderful years. Well, I guess that's it. Someday, somewhere, we may all meet again. Until then, goodbye, take care, and god bless.