Jeopardy! Teen Tournament

The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament is one of the traditional tournaments held each season on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Contestants in this tournament are primarily high school students, and between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. A field of 15 players compete in this tournament; one alternate is invited as a standby, but the alternate has never entered competition. The daily syndicated version of the show has conducted Teen Tournament each season since 1987 (Season 3), with two being held in Season 23 (2006–07). In the last two weeks of July 2007, a second Teen Tournament took place which was known as the Summer Games Tournament, making this the first (and only, to date) time in the daily syndicated Jeopardy!'s 23-year history that there were two Teen Tournaments held in the same season. Because of the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades, the Season 30 Teen Tournament aired after regular non-tournament play has ended (July 21 to August 1, 2014). There was no teen Tournament in both season 31 (2014–15) and season 32 (2015–16).

The format used by the Teen Tournament format is identical to that of the Tournament of Champions and the College Championship: 5 quarterfinal games produce 5 semifinalists (winners) and 4 wildcard semifinalists (high scorers among nonwinners); 3 semifinals produce 3 finalists who compete in a 2-game final.

Would-be contestants mailed postcards with their names and addresses to Jeopardy!. 1,200 teens were selected at random from the postcard entries and were invited to come (at their own expense) to one of four regional test centers (e.g. Houston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles) to take a timed written qualifying examination with the 50 clues read by Alex Trebek on a video monitor at the front of an exam room. Passing scorers were invited back for an interview and mock game using an electronic buzzer system. Their photographs are taken for their files, and they are asked to fill out a short information sheet with interesting facts about themselves that may be later used by Alex Trebek during the interview portion of the show. Selected contestants and alternates were notified that they had been chosen to appear on the show one to two months later. They are then flown to Los Angeles to tape the show. Taping occurs over a period of two days, with the five quarterfinals played on the first day and the three seminfinals and two final games played on the second day. Accommodations were provided for the contestants at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, with taping taking place at the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.

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