New opening sequence: the gold Jeopardy! logo is superimposed over a cyan and blue background.
The "DAILY DOUBLE" name and the "DOUBLE" and "FINAL" in Double and Final Jeopardy! now uses Compacta-D, as do the words "VIDEO" and "AUDIO" in Video and Audio Daily Doubles; the "DAILY DOUBLE" name now appears in silver, while all the rest remain red.
The contestant intros and Final Jeopardy! winnings changed its color to slate purple strips with white borders and white, italicized, shadowed text in Compacta-D. Starting with the December 27, 2004 episode, the color of the strips became blue.
For this season and the next, the category names are switched to a modification of Swiss 911 Extra Compressed.
On early episodes of this season, Sofia Lidskog was still credited as member of the Jeopardy! Clue Crew in the closing credits, and still featured the original Jeopardy! Clue Crew lineup since it was introduced in 2001.
This is the final season in which there is no saxophone and electric guitar riffs used during the end credits.
This is also the last season in which the set's background color stays blue throughout the whole show.
This is the first occurrence where no champions coming from this season who participated in the Tournament of Champions made it to the finals.
Due to several tournaments, including the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, the regular games have only been played 119 times this season. The other being is Season 40 with just 78 times.
This season also produced the least number of 5-time+ champions overall with two.
September 2004[]
September 6, 2004: Season 21 kicks off. This season would be the last to kick off on Labor Day.
September 13, 2004: Bruce England is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$4,800.
October 2004[]
September 20-October 1, 2004: The Tournament of Champions was held. Until Season 29, this tournament marks the last time, the champions in the quarterfinals week were in the order of how much money they have won in their initial appearances. Russ Schumacher won the tournament and $250,000. Tom Walsh received $50,000 and Arthur Gandolfi received $25,000.
October 4, 2004: The Jeopardy! logo became more golden and less reflective during the opening credits. Ken Jennings' 49th-73rd appearances do not mention the number of days he was champion, due to the date of his final episode being leaked. First regular play game was recorded after the summer hiatus. Beth Salkind is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$800.
October 8, 2004: This episode is the well-known incident of Ken Jennings' viral response of "What is a hoe?"
October 14, 2004: The episode features Tie Domi of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Alex delivers clues for the first time.
October 18-22, 2004: Back to School Week is held.
October 22, 2004: Theodora Messalas is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$2,000.
October 25, 2004: Ken Jennings became the first contestant to break the $2,000,000 mark in regular-play.
October 26, 2004: Mary Carpenter is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$2,400.
October 29, 2004: Ken gets his tenth consecutive correct Final Jeopardy! response.
November 2004[]
November 2, 2004: Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune do not air due to the news coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election. As a result, the Tuesday-Fridays episodes of Jeopardy! from this week are all pushed by one day with a new episode airing on Saturday.
November 3, 2004: Ken Jennings broke Kevin Olmstead's record on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? for biggest amount of money.
November 4, 2004: Jennifer Knapp is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$2,200.
November 10-23, 2004: The College Championship was held. Kermin Fleming won the tournament and $100,000. Ari Schoenholtz received $50,000 and Rachel McCool received $25,000.
November 24, 2004: Ken sets a new second-highest single-day cash winnings record of $55,099.
November 30, 2004: Ken Jennings winning streak comes to an end when he was defeated by Nancy Zerg, finishing with a 74-day total of $2,520,700 plus $2,000 for finishing in second and David Hankins is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy in the red with -$2,800
December 2004[]
December 1, 2004: Ken Jennings brought at the beginning of the show to recognize his place in game show history.
December 3, 2004: Kord Heinemann is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$800.
December 28, 2004: Aaron Thompson finishes with a 3-day total of $57,899.
December 29, 2004: Larry Haney is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$1,300.
January 2005[]
January 3, 2005: Mia Hasouris is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$400.
January 7, 2005: Kerry Breitenbach finishes with a 5-day total of $90,400, and becomes the first female unlimited champion. She is also the first female 5-time champion since Michelle Clum in 2000 with unlimited rule in place and after clue values were doubled on November 26, 2001.
January 26-February 8, 2005: The Teen Tournament is held. Michael Braun is the last qualifier for the Ultimate Tournament of Champions with $75.000, Wes Kovarik received $30,000 for exceeding his minimum and Anne Shivers received $18,000 for exceeding her minimum.
February 2005[]
February 1, 2005: Amy Fletcher is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$1,200.
February 3, 2005: Caitlin Cook is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$5,000.
February 9-May 25, 2005: The Ultimate Tournament of Champions are held.
February 18, 2005: Brian Wangsgard is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round with $0.
February 23, 2005: This is only episode where only the contestant from the third lectern plays Final Jeopardy!. Also, Jeff Richmond was the only player to have played in 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-player Final Jeopardy! Rounds. Billy Baxter is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$600 and Bernard Holloway is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$3,000.
March 2005[]
March 1, 2005: Diane Siegel is disqualified from playing Final Jeopardy due to finishing the Double Jeopardy round in the red with -$1,200.
March 16, 2005: Audio signaling system in play in sync with the game board lights.
April 2005[]
May 2005[]
May 20, 2005: A clip of the game was shown in the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel finale.
May 23-25, 2005: Brad Rutter won the tournament with a $2,000,000 cash prize, making him the biggest game show money winner at the time until Ken Jennings reclaimed the record after his appearance on Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? in October 2008. He still holds the record for most money won on Jeopardy! Ken Jennings received a $500,000 and Jerome Vered received a $250,000 cash prize. There's a blooper of Alex making an entrance without his pants. During the presentation of the finalists with their oversized checks, Alex is presented with a blank check.
June 2005[]
June 3, 2005: David Rozenson finishes with a 3-day total of $76,000.
July 2005[]
July 5, 2005: David Madden makes his Jeopardy! debut. On the same episode, all but two responses and a few category names are only 7 letters long.
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