Jeopardy! (Sky One, 1995-1996)
British versions of the long-running American game show Jeopardy! on Channel 4 in the mid-80s and ITV in the early-90s weren’t very successful. But there was a third attempt at a British version on Sky One in the mid-90s. The host for this was TV’s Paul Ross (well of course it was). This was fairly faithful to the original, although there were a few notable differences.
Things began with some very generic daytime TV show-style music, instead of the famous opening theme. Three contestants took part. There are five clues in six categories, that have an increasing points value from 100-500. There was no money on offer in this round. There’s lots of trivia to tackle though, and you must remember to give your response in the form of a question.
That was of course the basic twist to the format. Give a correct response, and you score the points, get it wrong or don’t answer in the form of a question, and they are lost. And there are also some Daily Doubles on offer, where contestants can bid as much of their score as they wanted (some of these had a picture or sound clue), so even more points could be scored rather quickly.
Then after the break it’s Double Jeopardy!, where the clue values are now 200-1,000 points (quick, call Action Time! No wait, this actually is an Action Time production). And the studio turns red. Again, there are Daily Doubles on offer. This means contestants can get rather high scores. Are there any other game shows where it is possible to score a five-figure amount of points?
Then it is time for Final Jeopardy! The category is revealed, and some points have to be bid. The clue is then revealed, and they have 30 seconds to write their response, again in the form of a question (and this also has to be virtually illegible too it seems). Get it right, and you win your bid. Good for you. Of course, the scores can change wildly at this point, and sometimes they do.
The highest scorer is declared the champion and wins £500. If they win five shows in a row, they win £3,000. The defeated contestants take away some consolation prizes including encyclopaedias and a pen. This version didn’t do that well either, but for a few years, the original American version was shown on Sky One, a rare example of a game show import. And another revival is planned to launch soon.