Jeopardy! is a British game show based on the U.S. game show Jeopardy!. Originally aired on Channel 4 from 12 January 1983, to 2 July 1984, hosted by Derek Hobson, the show was later revived by ITV from 3 September 1990, to 9 April 1993. Initially hosted by Chris Donat in 1990, it was later presented by Steve Jones from 1991 to 1993. The show then moved to Sky One from 4 December 1995, to 7 June 1996, with Paul Ross as the host. It was revived for a third time in 2024, returning to ITV, with Stephen Fry as presenter.
Unlike in the U.S. version, contestants have points, instead of money, added or subtracted for responses (or lack of) to questions selected, a concession made because of severe restrictions on game show prizes in the UK at the time. The 2024 reboot uses cash similar to the U.S. version (£25, £50, £75, £100, and £150 in the first two rounds and double those amounts in Double Jeopardy). The original point values were 5 to 25 in the Jeopardy! Round and 10 to 50 in Double Jeopardy! There were three Daily Doubles in each round. Points became pounds at some point in the Jones run, but later reverted to points by the time Ross took over as host.
In the Hobson, Donat, and Jones runs, the contestants only saw their own scores, although, at the end of each round, they were told their relative positions (i.e., who was in first, second, and third place). This had the side effect of reducing "runaways", a common phenomenon in the American show, where contestants heading into Final Jeopardy! with more than double their nearest opponent would be guaranteed victory by betting a small amount; most contestants did not pay enough attention to others' correct or incorrect responses to know if they had clinched a runaway game.
Also under Hobson, Donat, Jones and Ross, the response had to be grammatically correct in addition to the usual requirement of phrasing in the form of a question. For example, a response that began "Who is..." when a "What is..." prefix was grammatically correct was ruled incorrect, and the contestant received a penalty.
By the time Ross became host, the points had increased to 100 to 500 for the Jeopardy! round and 200 to 1000 for Double Jeopardy! The Daily Double amount was reduced to the standard one for the Jeopardy! Round and two for Double Jeopardy!.
The current revival features one Daily Double in each of the first two rounds and two Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy!.
The contestant leading after Final Jeopardy! won £500 (or whatever total they had in the Jones run when points became pounds). Five consecutive wins increased that champion's winnings to £3,000 with the undefeated champion retiring. When Jones became host, the top three scorers of each of those series played Master Jeopardy! (the equivalent of the Tournament of Champions in the American show) for the grand prize of a holiday. For the 1993 series, the scoring system was changed from points to money, and five-day champions won a £500 bonus. Fry's hosting run has returning champions with no limit on episode count, mirroring a change made to the American show in 2003.
The Derek Hobson/Channel 4 run of Jeopardy! is based on the original 1964–75 series hosted by Art Fleming. The 1990 version is based on the Alex Trebek version, and the 2024 version, at Fry's insistence, is a shot-for-shot transfer of the contemporary American version, with the same theme song, logo and set design, but with three rounds (two Jeopardy! rounds and one Double Jeopardy!) instead of two.
Episodes from the original U.S. version also aired daily mornings on Sky One from July 1995 to December 1996.
2024 revival
On 27 February 2023, ITV announced that the show would be revived again, this time presented by Stephen Fry.[1][2] In April 2023, Fry was also announced as host of an upcoming Australian revival that will premiere in 2024 on Nine Network.[3] The new British series, delayed from October 2023,[4] premiered on 1 January 2024.[5][6]
The version received mixed reviews, with the slow pace and Fry's hosting style being common criticisms.[7][2]
