Did you know that before the second and third-place runners-up on Jeopardy! went home with a cash consolation prize, they gave away actual prizes, The Price Is Right-style?
The winner of the game show goes home with the amount they have after Final Jeopardy!, but the second and third-place contestants go home with $3,000 and $2,000, respectively. These prizes rose in August 2023, from $2,000 and $1,000.
In former host Alex Trebek‘s The Jeopardy Book, he explained that before 1984, contestants took home whatever they won. This changed when a man in 1967 said he needed money for an engagement ring. He stopped playing halfway through to protect his prize pot. Rules were changed, and in the 1980s, contestants had to keep playing until the end to take home any money.
However, the cash consolation prizes only started on May 16, 2002. Before that, the losers took home actual prizes including trips, tech gear, gift cards, and even lotion. One Jeopardy! fan wanted to know if those contestants accepted their prizes and if so, what were they?
“To Those Who Were on Jeopardy! pre-2002: Did You Accept Your Merchandise Prize(s)?” a Reddit user asked.
“Hi all – since 2002, Jeopardy! has offered cash prizes only, but before that, contestants who placed 2nd and 3rd won merchandise prizes or trips, in addition to the standard game show ‘parting gifts’ that were plugged at the end of the show,” the person wrote. “With that said, to our J! contestants who were on before ’02, did you accept any such prizes, and what did you do with them (or, if you won a trip, did you take it)? Thanks.”
A lot of users said they received tech items such as computers, VHS players, and stereos. Other prizes were a bit odd. “Hell yeah! I got a suitcase full of Tootsie Rolls for some reason!” one former player revealed.
“Mom got some hard candy, lotion, and an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System),” said another.
One user said her dad received a telescope as well as “stacks of coupons for Oscar Mayer lunch meat, whitening toothpaste, and instant lunch cups with rice and beans and a million grams of sodium.”
Others received trips to Universal Studios, Sheraton Bal Harbour in Florida, and Maui. Some received gift cards.
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