The set was designed by art director Bob Rang, which is the same set as the first season, but was re-skinned as follows:
The neon bands changed its color to pale yellow and blue. The nine-foot letters of the Jeopardy! logo are closed in so that the neon light tubes are not visible. The Jeopardy! logo changed its color to white, and stayed in this color for this season only. The next season, the Jeopardy! logo changed its color to yellow. An archway was added to the far right of the set in which the contestants make their entrances during the introductions; it was located just behind the exclamation point.
The contestant podiums were redone, with the surrounding bands indicating who rang in shrunk to a square size; a small light at the very bottom to indicate whose turn it is now shown, in addition to them being mostly blue, as opposed to red in the previous season. Nine lights are added atop the contestant podiums. These lights indicate how much time a player who rang in on a clue has to respond. For each second that goes by, two lights on both sides dim. If the central light goes out, time is up. This means that a contestant has 5 seconds to respond from the time they ring in.
This set remained in use with various minor changes along the way until the end of Season 7.
At the end of each episode, we see various shots of the set, and the game board's monitors display the Jeopardy! logo that flashes, and the game board's monitors used the closing animations between the two camera shots, alternating between the Final Jeopardy! logo, a blue screen, a red screen, a shot of Alex, and the day's winners, just like the one you see on the game board.
This is the last season in which the show aired for 195 half-hour episodes.
The category cards became silver, and the neon border around them is changed from red to blue; the neon border now shuts off when all five clues in a given category have been used up, in addition to them turning on when they are first read to begin the round.
At the beginning of this season, the show moved to Hollywood Center Studios, and would tape there until the end of Season 10, when the show moved to Stage 10 at Sony Pictures.
This is the last season where Alex Trebek enters with a microphone in his hand, and announcer Johnny Gilbert's voice was softer, but became more of a louder tone; Starting in the next season, announcer Johnny Gilbert's voice became louder.
This is also the last season where the contestants names don't appear onscreen.
The contestants now enter at the extreme right of the stage during their introductions; an arch is added to that side of the stage this season. This practice would continue until the end of season 16, although some shows would have the players already at their podiums during the intro.
Contestants now must wait until Alex finishes reading the answers before buzzing in.
A white perimeter light around the categories and clues on the board lights up to indicate when a contestant can ring in, this would be rarely shown on camera. If a contestant buzzes in too early, they are "locked out" for 1/8 of a second. A contestant now has five seconds to respond after ringing in on a clue; which is indicated by nine light bulbs on top of their scoreboards - each of the extreme left/right lights go out until all of them are turned off, indicating the contestant has run out of time.
Starting with this season, the Jeopardy! set changed from blue to red for Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy!. This continued until the October 6, 1997 episode, when the set reverted back to blue.
During most of the first week of this season, the champion began standing at the right contestant podium, rather than the left contestant podium; the original setup is restored on the Friday show of that week.
The opening credits have changed slightly with the globe changing its color to red with blue letters. The graphic is now accompanied by a whooshing sound before Johnny said "This is Jeopardy!" in a slower, more dramatic manner. Then, the Jeopardy! globe explodes as the theme music starts playing, and the rest of Johnny's catchphrase continues as normal. A number of alternate color schemes are experimented with over the course of the season. Shortly after the start of the season, the globe's color scheme changes its color to white with red letters to match the set.
At the beginning of this season, the color of the dollar amounts changed to yellow.
The title cards for the Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy! segments, and the Jeopardy! title card appears, when the show went away and came back from commercial breaks, use various color schemes: white text on a red and indigo gradient, white text on silver, silver text on blue, gold text on a magenta and dark blue gradient, and red text on a gray checkerboard.
The Daily Double clue displays itself onscreen as a full-screen chyron graphic with white Korinna text.
The ticket and a contestant plug now appears during the last commercial break.
The onscreen display of the Final Jeopardy! segment changed its color to white, as in the second pilot.
The monitor displaying the contestants' names in the main game that is also used to show Final Jeopardy! responses and wagers changed its color from blue to black for this season only; the player's names still remained blue for the main game.
Beginning with this season, Johnny signs off after the credits.
Original stage manager Keith Richmond leaves the show, and John Lauderdale became the full-time stage manager.
At the beginning of the closing credits, a new version of the Mr. Guy credit appears with the Mr. Guy logo, and "of Beverly Hills" was changed to "Beverly Hills, California".
At the start of this season, Jeopardy! started our annual Tournament of Champions.
The sponsor list changes to "THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE FURNISHED PRIZES OR PAID A FEE FOR THEIR PROMOTION ON THE PROGRAM". In the eligibility disclaimer, "PRIZE WINNERS" is changed to "CONTESTANTS". This season is also the first to feature an editing disclaimer (shown only occasionally) reading, "PORTIONS OF THE PROGRAM NOT AFFECTING THE OUTCOME OF THE COMPETITION HAVE BEEN EDITED."
The copyright card is recycled from the most recent used in the previous season.
September 1985[]
September 9, 1985: Season 2 premieres. Since 65 episodes repeated from season 1, they listed it as #261 instead of #196.
September 9-13 1985: For the premiere week's shows only, the champion is positioned at the right lectern.
September 19, 1985: Jay Rosenberg retires undefeated with $49,600.
October 1985[]
October 4, 1985: Chuck Forrest sets a new five day winnings record of $72,800; this record stood for four years. Alex's wardrobe provider credit says "Alex Trebek's Wardrobe furnished by", with the Mr. Guy logo, and "Beverly Hills, California".
October 30, 1985: Mark Leinwand retires with $43,700 despite losing his fifth game.
November 1985[]
November 7, 1985: Harvey Becker sets a new one-day winnings total with $25,400. This record would stand for nearly three years.
November 11-22, 1985: The Tournament of Champions is held for the first time.
The field comprises of all 15 of the previous season's undefeated champions
The quarterfinal matches last through the entire week with the winner of each automatically advancing to the semifinals. The other four spots are wild cards and go to the four highest-scoring players among non-winners.
The three winners of the semifinal matches face each other in the finals where the contestant with the highest score after two games wins the $100,000 top prize. Each runner-up in the finals receives the two-day total they accumulated. All semi-finalists receive $5,000, and all quarter-finalists leave with $1,000. The ToC format was devised by Alex Trebek himself and with exception of the increasing of payouts with inflation, remains the format for most tournaments the show holds today.
Each episode starts with a yellow "$100,000" graphic which zooms on screen accompanied by "Tournament of Champions"; in white words both are in Korinna. The Jeopardy! globe logo does not appear in this tournament.
When the show goes into and comes out of commercial breaks, a title card displays that reads "$100,000 TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS" in purple Korinna text with white outlines, on a blue-and-red gradient background.
At the start of episodes during the finals week, the television monitors display "T OF C FINAL" in Korinna.
During the quarterfinals week, after Johnny Gilbert says, "This is Jeopardy!s $100,000 Tournament of Champions", instead of "Now entering the studio are today's contestants", he said "Now entering the studio are three of last year's five day undefeated champions."
On the November 22, 1985 episode, the late Jerry Frankel won the first Tournament of Champions. However, he died of AIDS on July 13, 1987.
The Sheraton Premiere Hotel provides some hotel accommodations for the cast and crew during at least the inaugural Tournament of Champions.
The Tournament of Champions was held every year in November until 1996.
On the last quarterfinal game of the Tournament of Champions, after the game is played and he congratulates that contestant for being a semifinalist, he says, "Here are the 9 semi-finalists who will be playing on Monday for $100,000/$25,000. On my right, we have (Contestants name) (Location) and so on." When he announced the 4 wildcard spots he says, (contestants name), (location), (how much $$ they earned in 2nd or 3rd place). Then he concludes by saying, "And there you go ladies and gentlemen, these are the nine semifinalists who will be playing on Monday for $100,000/$25,000 in cash. Have a good weekend and we will see on Monday. So long." Then the closing theme plays. This applied for the Teen Tournament, College Championship, and Seniors Tournament. This type of practice has been done until Season 13.
November 25, 1985: Harvey Becker retires with $55,400 despite losing his fifth game.
November 28, 1985: The KingWorld part of the closing announcement is slightly changed to say "...and distributed by KingWorld". The copyright card is changed to silver with a pink Jeopardy! logo. Later on in this season, the copyright card is changed to bright blue with a shiny silver Jeopardy! logo, flanked by a silver star.
December 1985[]
December 6, 1985: Jared Eisenstat retires with $26,098 despite losing his fifth game.
December 24, 1985: The Video Daily Double is used for the first time.
January 1986[]
January 1, 1986: Contestant Kathy Harley in the Final Jeopardy! round did not write her answer in the form of a question, so she was declared incorrect.
January 28, 1986: Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune did not air due to the news coverage of the space shuttle Challenger disaster.
January 29, 1986: Beryl Arbit is the only contestant to play Final Jeopardy! in her third game.
January 31, 1986: Beryl Arbit retires with $41,001 despite losing her fifth game.
February 1986[]
February 10, 1986: Paul Rouffa retires undefeated with $46,100. Also before the closing credits, Johnny Gilbert said: "Due to an error, contestant's score following Double Jeopardy! was corrected."
February 14, 1986: Dan Green retires with $26,000 despite losing his fifth game.
February 26, 1986: Leslie Johnson Kelsay is the only contestant to play Final Jeopardy! on this episode.
March 1986[]
March 6, 1986: Lionel Goldbart retires with $34,997 despite losing his fifth game. Because the episode marked Barbara Lowe's debut, this episode was never rerun.
March 12, 1986: Barbara Lowe retires undefeated with $35,192, but she was completely disqualified from participating in the future ToC due to being declared ineligible as a regular-play contestant for competing under a fake name and competing on another game show in the probationary period, and the episodes she appeared in were never rerun. Then, in 2022, the National Archives of Game Show History unearthed her airing, and her total winnings were revealed.
March 26, 1986: Jeff Goldstein fainted during the Final Jeopardy! round, so Alex allows him to finish writing his response after the Think! music stops.
March 28, 1986: Gary Palmer retires with $18,400 despite losing his fifth game.
April 1986[]
April 11, 1986: Donald Burgo retires undefeated with $26,180.
May 1986[]
May 30, 1986: Marvin Shinkman retires with $39,203 despite losing his fifth game.
June 1986[]
June 6, 1986: Gary Giardina retires undefeated with $32,330.
