At the start of the season, Jeopardy! introduced a brand new state-of-the-art set designed by art director Ed Flesh:
The set consisted of a metal grid on a blue background, where the Jeopardy! logo lights up in a rotation of colors, such as neutral white and red. During Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy!, the stage background changed from blue to red, as the Jeopardy! logo lights up in a rotation of colors, such as neutral white and blue.
The contestant podiums had a new look, while the host's podium gave a similar makeover.
The contestant scoreboards changed to incandescent seven-segment displays fabricated by Vista Electronics, so the scores are still seen even during Final Jeopardy!.
The podiums now display the Final Jeopardy! logo during the last commercial break.
At the end of each episode, we see various shots of the set, and the game board's monitors display the Jeopardy! logo; which no longer flashes, and no longer alternates between the Final Jeopardy! logo, a blue screen, and a red screen, so the game board's monitors used the closing animations between the Jeopardy! logo, a shot of Alex, and the day's winners, just like the one you see on the game board.
Also at the beginning of this season, the 1984-1997 theme is heard at a lower pitch.
This is the last season to have the first version of the 1984-1997 theme; During that season, Classic Concentration ended its run on NBC after 4 seasons (1987-1991), and Alex Trebek hosted To Tell the Truth.
This is the last season where Dick Schneider is the director, as he left the show after this season.
Alex now stands to the right of the Final Jeopardy! category and clue on the game board after the last commercial break.
The opening sequence changed: A new version of the Jeopardy! globe with a blue marble texture. It spins around on the game board. The whoosh sound is heard when the new Jeopardy! globe zooms out. Later, it explodes to a wide shot of the set. An image of Alex appears on the game board as he makes his entrance and breaks up into individual images on the game board before fading to individual images of the Jeopardy! globe.
When the show returns from its first commercial break, the game board is seen with the individual images of the Jeopardy! globe, and the title card of a particular tournament, before revealing the dollar amounts for remaining clues or blank blue screens for those already read. This would continue until the introduction of the Sushi Bar set in November 1996.
The new game board consists of 36 monitors set up like a video wall, with the category names appearing on the top set of monitors, with various types of animation as the category names appear.
The category names changed from red to white. On later episodes, it changed to yellow and remained this way until season 13.
It marks the last full season for in-camera clue zooms for beginning and resuming the 1st round as well as beginning the 2nd round.
On early episodes of this season, the categories popped in on the monitors; later on, by the spring of 1992, they zoomed in from the center of each monitor. The categories were small on early episodes of this season, but as the season progressed, the category text expanded twice before reaching their final, easy-to-read form by the Tournament of Champions.
The onscreen text was replaced with a Chyron Super Scribe with intelligent control.
On early episodes of this season, the Double Jeopardy! logo remained on the board as the dollar amounts popped in. On later episodes of this season, the logo broke up into individual logos as the dollar amounts popped in.
On the first show of the season, the left and right podium lights don't light up when a contestant rings in; in addition, the countdown lights are white, instead of red. These issues would be fixed by the next show.
This is the only season during this set's run where the contestant podium monitors remained blue for the entire show.
The copyright card is changed to a big yellow Jeopardy! logo, with the copyright notice beneath the logo.
The whooshing sound is no longer heard, when the dollar figures pop in on the Jeopardy! round board; the dollar figures simply pop in on the Jeopardy! round board; the popping in sound was rotated for the first two months of this season.
This marks the last season to have the Daily Double clue shown in full screen. It later changed to having the Daily Double clue showing right next to the contestant's right shoulder, as well as the left shoulder for Video Daily Double clues during the 1992 Teen Tournament.
This also marks the last season to have the Audio Daily Double clue text shown under the contestant at the bottom of the screen (a la Final Jeopardy!). It was changed to have the Audio Daily Double transferring to the Audio Daily clue next to the contestant selected it during the 1992 Teen Tournament.
Upon the introduction of the new Daily Double presentation method, the Daily Double graphic doesn't dissolve after the clue was read. It would disappear when the camera turns to the contestants, as well as to Alex.
On early episodes of the season, the contestant's current cash winnings totals were shown in Korinna, accompanied by a star animation, which was removed shortly before the 1992 Teen Tournament.
The winner's post-Final Jeopardy! graphics no longer flashes.
Jim Scott won the Tournament of Champions.
In the Teen Tournament, the contestant interviews are conducted at the conclusion of the first round; it was only done for that tournament only this season. It would not become a regular practice until the following season, and then was scrapped again early in season 13.
Three separate tiebreaker clues had to be played before Chris Montplaisir was declared the winner over Ken Kansa, but the first two tiebreakers were omitted from the broadcast game because neither player gave a correct response to either of them. The whole exercise turned out to be moot, because Ken's score earned him a wildcard spot into the semifinals. Neither player advanced to the finals.
This is the last season where Mr. Guy was credited as Alex Trebek's wardrobe provider.
September 1991[]
September 2, 1991: Season 8 premieres.
September 10, 1991: Steve Newman retires undefeated with $75,502.
October 1991[]
October 16, 1991: Leszek Pawlowicz retires undefeated with $75,400.
November 1991[]
November 4-15, 1991: The Tournament of Champions air.
November 11, 1991: The LAKES & RIVERS category from the Double Jeopardy! Round is shown in the film Groundhog Day.
November 29, 1991: Kirk Ditzler retires undefeated with $43,801.
December 1991[]
December 20, 1991: India Cooper retires undefeated with $68,400.
January 1992[]
January 30, 1992: Dave Willis retires undefeated with $58,001.
February 1992[]
February 11, 1992: Frank Epstein retires undefeated with $73,400.
March 1992[]
February 24-March 6, 1992: The Teen Tournament airs.
March 19, 1992: Phil Yellman retires undefeated with $60,400.
March 30, 1992: Robert Slaven retires undefeated with $53,202.
April 1992[]
April 17, 1992: Bruce Simmons retires with $63,599 despite losing his fifth game.
May 1992[]
May 4-15, 1992: The College Championship airs.
May 4, 1992: Chris Montplaisir became a semi-finalist winner by answering the tiebreaker clue at the end of the game in the first quarterfinal game of the College Championship when she defeated Ken Kansa, and Margaret Bickers. Three tiebreakers were played but the former two were edited out of the broadcast to due to no correct response given.
May 18, 1992: Jerome Vered made his Jeopardy! debut, and it has a full credit roll, with camera shots dissolving to reveal other camera shots, as well as the Jeopardy! logo. For the first time, no Triple Stumper has appeared before Final Jeopardy! (with 5 rebounds).
May 21, 1992: Jerome Vered sets a new one-day record of $34,000.
May 22, 1992: Jerome Vered retires undefeated with $96,801. At this point, Jeopardy! became the highest rated syndicated game show.
June 1992[]
June 10, 1992: Richard Kaplan retires undefeated with $73,202.
July 1992[]
July 2, 1992: John Kelly retires undefeated with $84,701.
