Jeopardy! Kids Week (sometimes called Back to School Week) was a one-week event that featured children between ages 10-12. It was held every season from 1999 until 2014, except for season 30.
Season | Airdate | Finale |
---|---|---|
16 | September 6, 1999 | September 10, 1999 |
17-A | October 2, 2000 | October 6, 2000 |
17-B | December 25, 2000 | December 29, 2000 |
18-A | September 24, 2001 | September 28, 2001 |
18-B | December 24, 2001 | December 28, 2001 |
19-A | September 16, 2002 | September 20, 2002 |
19-B | January 6, 2003 | January 10, 2003 |
20-A | September 22, 2003 | September 26, 2003 |
20-B | May 3, 2004 | May 7, 2004 |
21 | October 18, 2004 | October 22, 2004 |
22 | October 10, 2005 | October 14, 2005 |
23 | October 2, 2006 | October 6, 2006 |
24 | October 8, 2007 | October 12, 2007 |
25* | September 15, 2008 | September 19, 2008 |
25 | July 13, 2009 | July 17, 2009 |
26 | July 5, 2010 | July 9, 2010 |
27 | July 4, 2011 | July 8, 2011 |
28 | July 30, 2012 | August 3, 2012 |
29 | July 29, 2013 | August 2, 2013 |
31 | December 1, 2014 | December 5, 2014 |
The asterisk (*) indicates the Kids Week Reunion.
Trivia[]
- The winning contestant keeps the amount they have scored like regular play, except they are not returning champions.
- There is also a “house minimum” of $15,000 per winner, and for some years, whoever won the highest total that week would have an extra $5,000 added to their total.
- There was no title card used for Seasons 17 and 19 of Holiday Kids Week and Seasons 16-18 of Back to School Week.
- Kids Week occurred twice from Seasons 17-20 and 25.
- The asterisk indicates that there was a Kids Week reunion for the show's 25th season.
- There was no Kids Week during Season 30, and the event was cancelled altogether after Season 31 due to Gabby Fusco's mother being upset with Alex Trebek telling her she was in the red at the end of Double Jeopardy!, which resulted in Gabby herself running backstage in tears to her mother about the bad news about being eliminated from Final Jeopardy!. Neither returned for the closing credits as is the case with any kid who is eliminated prior from Final Jeopardy!.
- Kids Week in Season 29 also sparked some controversy - the third match, to be more specific. In it, Thomas Hurley III wrote down for his Final Jeopardy! response “What is the Emanciptation Proclamation?” Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was the correct response, Thomas’ response was declined as his adding of a “t” made the answer different, and as such, invalid. After this, Jeopardy! clarified that even though spelling did not matter, pronunciation did; as such, they were unable to accept his response. Even so, he was already down $27,000 going into Final Jeopardy, and would’ve been down double that even had his response been accepted.
- The Kids Week origin happens to have been inspired by Jep!, which was in the process of ending its run, which it officially did by 2000.
- The one-day record for Kids Week is $66,600, set by Skyler Hornback on July 31, 2013, after wagering $30,000 of his already hefty $36,600 and getting the Final Jeopardy! question right. Skyler took great interest in the Civil War, and it paid off when he was asked a question about the Emancipation Proclamation. This was, of course, the same game that caused the controversy regarding Thomas Hurley III's response.
- Skyler’s record was #5 in the one-day total leaderboards at the time, below Roger Craig ($77,000), Ken Jennings ($75,000), and Andy Richter and Jerome Vered tied at $68,000, though Jerome’s total is accounting for the fact that clue dollar values were half of what they are now when he set the record.
- After James Holzhauer’s streak, Skyler’s total was bumped down to #27, and bumped down one more spot after Matt Amodio won $74,000 in his seventh game almost exactly eight years later on July 29, 2021. (Matt ended up surpassing Skyler three more times - winning $67,800 in his nineteenth game, $70,400 in his thirtieth, and $83,000 in his thirty-fourth. Because of this, Skyler’s record now stands at #31.)
- Skyler’s record was #5 in the one-day total leaderboards at the time, below Roger Craig ($77,000), Ken Jennings ($75,000), and Andy Richter and Jerome Vered tied at $68,000, though Jerome’s total is accounting for the fact that clue dollar values were half of what they are now when he set the record.