The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament is a special 2-week event that features up to 15 high school students who are between the ages of 13-17. The layout is the same as the Tournament of Champions and other 2 week tournaments. They are 5 quarter-final rounds in the 1st week. The winners move on into the semi-finals on the 2nd week and the 4 high-scorers among non-winners will advance as well. The winner of the semi-finals advances to participate in a 2-day final. The Teen Tournament has been held every season since it's 1987 debut, including two installments in seasons 23 and 35 except for season 31, 32 and 34. The teen tournament returned into rotation starting in season 33. On top of that, the cash payout will be just like the college championship that was in existence since 2004.
In November 1998, Jeopardy! held a special Teen Reunion Tournament in Boston featuring 12 contestants from the inaugural three Teen Tournaments. In a unique format for a Jeopardy tournament, the three highest earners in the four semifinal games played in the one-day final on Friday, similarly to Wheel of Fortune's then-Friday Finals format. 1989 Teen champion Eric Newhouse (the only winner in the field) won the $50,000 top prize over 1988 finalist David Javerbaum and semi-finalist Chris Capozzola, while 1987 finalist Dana Venator was the lowest-earning semi-finalist and did not qualify for the finals.
Until 2000, Teen Tournament winners were invited to the Tournament of Champions, where 8 of 14 advanced to the semifinals, including 4 (Eric Newhouse, Matthew Zielenski, Sahir Islam, and Chacko George) who won their quarterfinal game. However, none of them ever advanced to the final round.
Eric Newhouse was also a semi-finalist in 1990's Super Jeopardy! tournament and a finalist in 2002's Million Dollar Masters tournament. Every Teen Tournament winner to that point (save for Michael Block & Amanda Goad) competed in 2005's Ultimate Tournament of Champions, where 1992 winner April McManus and 1995 winner Matthew Zielenski made the quarterfinals. Newhouse received a bye to the second round, though did not advance further. 1991 winner Andrew Westney also competed in 2014's Battle of the Decades tournament as a fan favorite qualifier for the "1980s decade" round, but did not advance.
2013 winner Leonard Cooper competed in 2019's All-Star Games tournament as a member of Team Austin Rogers. His team wound up competing in the wildcard match where they were eliminated, collecting and splitting $75,000.
Season | Airdate | Finale | Winner |
---|---|---|---|
3 | February 16, 1987 | February 27, 1987 | Michael Galvin |
4 | February 8, 1988 | February 19, 1988 | Michael Block |
5 | February 6, 1989 | February 17, 1989 | Eric Newhouse |
6 | February 5, 1990 | February 16, 1990 | Jamie Weiss |
7 | February 11, 1991 | February 22, 1991 | Andy Westney |
8 | February 24, 1992 | March 6, 1992 | April McManus |
9 | February 1, 1993 | February 12, 1993 | Fraser Woodford |
10 | February 7, 1994 | February 18, 1994 | Matt Morris |
11 | February 6, 1995 | February 17, 1995 | Matthew Zielenski |
12 | May 6, 1996 | May 17, 1996 | Amanda Goad |
13-A | February 3, 1997 | February 14, 1997 | Josh DenHartog |
14-B | November 3, 1997 | November 14, 1997 | Sahir Islam |
15† | November 16, 1998 | November 20, 1998 | Eric Newhouse |
15-A | February 22, 1999 | March 5, 1999 | Melissa Sexstone |
16-B | November 1, 1999 | November 12, 1999 | Chacko George |
17 | April 30, 2001 | May 11, 2001 | Graham Gilmer |
18 | February 4, 2002 | February 15, 2002 | Bernard Holloway |
19 | February 3, 2003 | February 14, 2003 | John Zhang |
20 | February 9, 2004 | February 20, 2004 | Jennifer Wu |
21 | January 26, 2005 | February 8, 2005 | Michael Braun |
22 | February 6, 2006 | February 17, 2006 | Papa Chakravarthy |
23 | February 5, 2007 | February 16, 2007 | David Walter |
23* | July 16, 2007 | July 27, 2007 | Meryl Federman |
24-A | February 11, 2008 | February 22, 2008 | Rachel Horn |
25-B | November 10, 2008 | November 21, 2008 | Anurag Kashyap |
26 | November 2, 2009 | November 13, 2009 | Rachel Rothenberg |
27 | February 17, 2011 | March 2, 2011 | Raynell Cooper |
28 | April 30, 2012 | May 11, 2012 | Elyse Mancuso |
29 | January 30, 2013 | February 12, 2013 | Leonard Cooper |
30 | July 21, 2014 | August 1, 2014 | Jeff Xie |
33 | November 9, 2016 | November 22, 2016 | Sharath Narayan |
35-A | November 7, 2018 | November 20, 2018 | Claire Sattler |
35-B | June 17, 2019 | June 28, 2019 | Avi Gupta |
†There was a one-week Teen Tournament Reunion that took place on the 15th season.
Trivia
- There was no Teen Tournament Logo for the show's 14th season.
- There was a 2nd Teen Tournament that took place on the 23rd Season to start the Summer Games.
- The B-Tournament in 2008 uses the Rock & Roll Jeopardy! Final Jeopardy music
- Because of the Battle of the Decades, the 2014 Teen Tournament took place after the regular games, and thus Season 30 became the first season to stretch through August.
- The teen tournament returned into action on November 9, 2016.
- On top of that, the teen tournament finals will have $100,000 for 1st place, $50,000 for 2nd place and $25,000 for 3rd place. Eliminated semi-finalists will get $10,000 and eliminated quarter-finalists will get $5,000. This was the same cash payout format used since 2004 for the College Championship.
Gallery