Plot

An Australian version of the popular American quiz show. The main twist of this program was that the host would give the answers, to which the contestants would then have to supply the questions. This show was noted for having significantly more difficult questions than most other quiz shows.—Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>

The concept of Jeopardy! puts a twist on many classic quiz shows - it openly admits that it gives the contestants the answers, and gets away with such a claim because of a catch - once the contestants receive the answers, they have to ask the questions. What makes this premise work is that the answers take the form of clues that describe a person or thing, and the first contestant to press their buzzer after working out what the clue is describing has to phrase their response like a question.

The game is played with three contestants, and usually one of them is a returning champion. The first round that they play is known as the Jeopardy! Round. This round begins with a grid of dollar amounts being revealed, with each of the five rows having a common amount, and the five amounts that appear in each of the six columns are $100, $150, $200, $250 and $300. Six clue categories are then revealed in the row above the $100 amounts from left to right. The returning champion, or the winner of a toss conducted before recording of the show begins if there is no returning champion, gets to make the first selection of a category and a dollar amount, for example "Cars In Films for $200". The screen in the column of the chosen category and the row of the chosen dollar amount then reveals a clue that is read out by host Tony Barber. After the host finishes reading the clue, any contestant who thinks they know what the clue refers to can press their buzzer - the first to do so gets the opportunity to respond, having to phrase their response in the form of a question in order for it to be deemed correct. In the choice used previously as an example, the clue was "The car in the Australian film "Malcolm" had this unusual ability", and the correct response that the contestant needed to provide is "What is to be split in half?". If that contestant comes up with the correct response, their total is increased by the clue's value and they are able to make the next selection, but if they give an incorrect response, fail to respond in time or don't phrase their response as a question, their total is decreased by the clue's value and any opponent who hadn't yet responded to that clue had another chance to buzz in and do so. If none of the contestants buzzed in within a given time, either after the initial reading of the clue or after a contestant gave an incorrect response, three short beeps would sound, the host would state the correct response, and the contestant who chose that clue then made another selection. The fact that the amount of money in each clue was always considered to be "in jeopardy" is the likely origin of the show's title.

One of the clues in the round would reveal a "Daily Double" when it was chosen by a contestant. When a contestant found a Daily Double, they could put any amount up to the maximum of the amount of money they had accumulated at the time or the largest amount available in that round ($300 for a Jeopardy! Round) at risk on the clue that would subsequently be revealed. The clue would be directed to that contestant alone and unopposed - if their response was incorrect or they failed to come up with a response or phrase it in a question, neither of their opponents could respond. The contestant's score would be increased or decreased by the amount of money they had staked on the question depending on whether or not their response was correct. The round ended after all 30 clues had been revealed.

The contestants would then play a second round which was known as the Double Jeopardy! Round, which had similar gameplay to the Jeopardy! Round, but with a different set of six clue categories. This time, the contestant with the lowest dollar amount received the first choice of category and dollar amount. If there was a tie for the lowest dollar amount, then the last tied contestant to provide a correct response would choose the first clue. This time, most of the dollar amounts and the number of Daily Doubles hidden in the grid were both doubled, though the amounts in the bottom row were increased by more than double to make the five amounts in this round $200, $300, $400, $500 and $1,000.

After all 30 clues in the Double Jeopardy! Round had been revealed or the round ran out of time (a bell would ring when there was one minute left, and it would ring a second time when the time ran out unless the last clue was selected before this happened), every contestant that had a positive dollar amount was eligible to play the last round, which is the Final Jeopardy! Round, but if any contestant finished with either a negative amount or $0, they were deemed to be ineligible and would have no chance of winning the game. The Final Jeopardy! Round consisted of a single clue that was harder than those in the Jeopardy! Round or the Double Jeopardy! Round. The host would begin by revealing the clue's category, after which eligible contestants wrote down on their electronic board how much of the money they had won to that point they wanted to risk on the clue, which took place during a break in production, with the host throwing to a commercial break (If any responses were referred to the show's adjudicator Fran Powell for further investigation, this was allowed to be carried out and any adjustments to the scores arising from the investigation made before the contestants decided how much of their money they wanted to risk on the final clue, with any score adjustments explained by the host after the commercial break). After these amounts had been set, the host would reveal the clue, and the eligible contestants were given 30 seconds to write their response on their electronic boards. When this time was up, the eligible contestant who had the least amount of money was the first to reveal their response through an on-screen graphic of their electronic board. After they were told whether or not it was correct, the host asked them how much they had risked, and this amount of money was revealed underneath. This amount was added to the contestant's winnings if their response was correct or subtracted from them if it was incorrect or not phrased in a question, with the result being that contestant's final total. The other contestants' responses and amounts were then revealed in the same way, with the contestant that had the most money being the last to reveal their response and staked amount. If none of the eligible contestants could come up with the correct response, the host would say what it was after the final response had been revealed.

The contestant who ended up with the highest amount of money after the Final Jeopardy! Round would be the winner. They were the only contestant who kept their winnings, though the other contestants received consolation prizes that depended on where they were placed (if there was a tie for second place after the Final Jeopardy! Round, the contestant that had more money going into the round would receive the second-place prize) and would become or remain the champion, ensuring that they would return on the next episode against two new challengers. Any contestant who remained champion for five nights in a row would retire undefeated but would return for a Jeopardy! Superchallenge at the end of the series, similar to the Tournament of Champions on the US series Jeopardy! (1984).