Jeopardy

[adamjk]

I have a couple of questions regarding the Fleming era Jeopardy:

1. We all know that the Trebek version has had 2 triple 0 ties, but did this ever happen in the Fleming version?

2. How much money was offered to the winner of each tournament of champions?

[JasonA1]

1. We all know that the Trebek version has had 2 triple 0 ties, but did this ever happen in the Fleming version?

I'm going to make an inference on this one with some pretty common knowledge, so bear with me. Remember back then they got to keep their earned cash - win lose or draw. And on all the existing shows and the Trebek pilots they don't risk a whole lot. So I'd bet somebody saved something every time - it was commonplace then to risk a seemingly random amount of your score that was not too high.

-Jason

[Matt Ottinger]

I agree with Jason, but just as he said it's more of an educated assumption than to be absolutely sure that it never happened.  Seems preposterously unlikely.  Back in the day, they weren't as wildly concerned about keeping track of records like that as some of us are now.  The one thing I remember is that they always kept track of how many people had become five day undefeated champions.  (A winner would be identified as the 63rd, or 76th, or 97th or whatever it was over the years.)

I don't have enough of a memory of what the winner received for their T of C shows, but my first instinct is that it was just whatever they earned in their game.  Simply a second chance to play, if you will.  I can find out for you, though.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Nov 8 2004, 03:17 PM\']I don't have enough of a memory of what the winner received for their T of C shows, but my first instinct is that it was just whatever they earned in their game.  Simply a second chance to play, if you will.  I can find out for you, though.

[snapback]63307[/snapback]

[/quote]

I believe most years it was a $10,000 first prize, in addition to your game winnings.  One year near the end, I recall Fleming announcing that the first prize was "an exotic cruise to the South Sea Islands."

[adamjk]

What would the 2nd, 3rd and whatever else place people get?

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'adamjk\' date=\'Nov 8 2004, 05:56 PM\']What would the 2nd, 3rd and whatever else place people get?

[snapback]63326[/snapback]

[/quote]

Just their game winnings, AFAIK.

[Matt Ottinger]

I asked this question over at the Sony Jeopardy board and Burns Cameron, considered the greatest champion of the Fleming era, responded with this:

Well, it was a one-week ToC, with nine 5 day winners. MTW were the semifinals, and there was a 2 day final, like there is now.  You took home the cash you won(in my case $4040) and got a non cash prize(which I had to forfeit because I couldn't take it within the one year period) The prize was a 1 week vacation at Bluebeard's Castle on St. Thomas.

So Mark may be right that it was a cash prize in some years, an exotic trip in others.  But in any case, the player kept the money he won.

Since they only used five-day winners, it's possible that they didn't schedule this as an annual affair but simply scheduled a Tournament of Champions whenever they had nine undefeated champions lined up to play.

[tvrandywest]

And while we're talking about Fleming era J! tournaments, kudos go to gamemeister Jay Wolpert who won one of those years' T of C.   A tip of the hat to all former contestants who weaseled into the biz!   ;-)

Randy
tvrandywest.com