The Jeopardy! Teachers Tournament is an annual tournament on the American television game show Jeopardy! It features full-time teachers of students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. The tournament debuted during Season 27 (2010-2011) and has been played every season since (except for Season 37), always during any of the three ratings sweeps periods (November, February, or May), with the exception of being held from May 25th to June 5th 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Teachers Tournament follows the same 10-game format as the Tournament of Champions, College Championship, and Teen Tournament. The first five games are the quarterfinals, where all fifteen participants play in groups of three. The winners of the five games advance to the semifinals. The players with the four highest scores among non-winners advance as "wild card" players. The nine semifinalists compete in the next three games. Then the three semifinal winners advance to the two-day finals, in which cumulative scores from the two games are added to determine the championship (contestants' scores start at $0 in each game).
The person who wins the tournament receives a $100,000 prize. The first runner up gets $50,000; and the second runner up gets $25,000. Teachers who are eliminated during the semifinals go home with $10,000, and teachers who are eliminated during the quarterfinals go home with $5,000.
In addition to the aforementioned cash prize, the winner also earns an automatic spot in the next Tournament of Champions, although one winner (Larry Martin in 2018) died from pancreatic cancer before reaching that tournament. So far, two Teachers Tournaments winners have made it to the finals of the Tournament of Champions (Colby Burnett in 2013 and Francois Barcomb in 2019); only Burnett won the event. 2016 winner Jason Sterlacci is only other winner to advance to the semi-finals of the Tournament of Champions. Burnett was also invited back to the Battle of the Decades in 2014 where he advanced to the semifinals, and was team captain in the All-Star games in 2019, where he drafted 2017 Tournament of Champions finalist Alan Lin and November 2000 College Champion Pam Mueller as his team members. His team finished as the second runner-up in the event. He was invited to the Invitational Tournament in 2024. 2015 winner Jennifer Giles also competed in the All-Star games, as a member of Team Buzzy Cohen. John Pearson was the alternate in the All-Star games.
^1 Catherine Whitten and Justin Hoffstetter in February 2012 are the first pair of contestants to marry each other. Their marriage took place in January 24, 2015. Maryanne Lewell and Michael Townes in 2013 are the second pair of contestants to marry each other. Their marriage took place in Canada in August 2017.
^2 Mary Parker and Cody Vest are the first two teachers contestants that teach in the same school.