[quote name=\'rmfromfla\' date=\'Jul 12 2004, 10:15 AM\'] Surprise... (I've been waiting to post this!)
How J!'s season 1 ended: in August...
On May 30, 1985, Nathan Walpole became the 15th and last 5x champ
on the 184th show of S1. The next day, Alex started the show by
"supposedly" welcoming three newcomers; the day's show won by Phil.
Forward to Monday, June 3: One of Phil's opponents is Liz Cachese, a
5xer who won her games back in Nov. 1984,so the repeats were on,
including 5x Ron Black's shows. 12 weeks of reruns take place until
Friday, August 23, when the last six original shows begin to run.
Winners: Rick Rodepaugh (3 games), Larry Olson (1), and Alan
Lefkowitz (2), who became the "carryover" contestant when S2 began
on Monday, Sept. 2, 1985 (and he lost that day). I don't remember
Alex mentioning anything to be here on Monday for the start of S2.
Also, on pp. 43-45 in his book, Harry Eisenberg mentioned the
taping sked for S1 - began on August 14(2 days, 5 shows a day)
and was to end by Christmas, so that was 19 weeks and 190 shows.
Of course, there was the possibility if a second season didn't
take place, those shows might have never aired (and they could
have ended the series with a TOC, playing under their buzz-in rule
instead of the one started in S2....) [/quote]
Hmm. Sounds like J! was originally scheduled for an original 2-year run in its initial contract with King World back then. But since J! did very well in ratings, it became apparent that the show would need more seasons to work with. I think the current J! contract expires in 2007 or 2008(not sure on that).