Today Is Officially JeoparDAY To Honor Show's 58th Anniversary

Happy JeoparDAY everyone!

58 years ago, on March 30, 1964, the very first episode of “Jeopardy!” aired on NBC with Art Fleming as host. The NBC daytime show was created by Merv and Julann Griffin and ran until 1975. The current “Jeopardy” program was picked up in 1984 starring host Alex Trebek, who hosted the show until his death of pancreatic cancer in 2020.

To honor the show’s 58th birthday, they are officially marked March 30, 2022 the first-ever JeoparDAY to celebrate the occasion. They’re giving everyone a one-day-only chance to take the Anytime Test, even if they've already taken it this year. The Anytime Test is the only way to secure an invitation to compete on the show.

For each of the first 10,000 tests taken today, the game show will also donate $5.80 (for the show’s 58th anniversary) to the Alex Trebek Fund at Stand Up To Cancer.

The show will also be airing the full unaired pilot on their YouTube channel today at 5 p.m. PT. If you can’t wait until then, keep reading on to check out an interview with Mary Cabell Eubanks, the very first “Jeopardy!” champion who won $345 dollars on the very first episode aired on March 30, 1964.

Eubanks sat down with "Jeopardy!" to talk about what it was like being the first-ever "Jeopardy!" champion. At the time, she was a 24-year-old homemaker.

Before she auditioned, she had moved with her then-husband to New York City from North Carolina. She said that she and a friend would often go to various game shows to try to win something.

She was actually standing in line for "The Price is Right" when she was approached by a man asking her to try out for a show that turned out to be "Jeopardy!"

“In the front of the room was Merv Griffin, Art Fleming, and executives of the broadcast,” Mary recalled. “We just talked and they listened. They had a standard question kind of thing.”

Ten days later, she got a call to appear on the show. The only instruction she received was being told that she should not wear anything white.

When she arrived at the studio, they put her in the makeup room right next to Merv Griffin himself. “He was sitting beside me doing his makeup,” Mary said. “He was just as nice as he could be.”

“I wasn’t the least bit nervous,” Mary said of her time on the show. “I was just having fun. I think they planned some of those words like food so that it would be funny the way I pronounced it. The audience just had a fit over it and so did Art for that matter.”

Mary had scored a commanding lead by Final Jeopardy! and wagered $115 dollars on the final question. She gave the correct response of "What quote was made to Hamlet?" and won the game, taking home $345 dollars.

“I knew the answer because I had been an English teacher,” Mary said. “I loved reading and was pretty much into all things literary at that point in my life.”

Mary said that she used her winnings in order to attend many different theater shows.

“I went to every show that was in town,” Mary said. “I loved drama and shows and plays and everything. So I spent my money going to those. They were a lot cheaper at that point in time, obviously.”

“I love being a part of this particular show,” Mary, now 84, said of her "Jeopardy!" history. “It’s kind of been like the theme of my life in a sense, to not worry about doing new things because I started out early. As long as you just enjoy it, and as long as you have fun, everything will be good.”

“I’m very proud of it,” Mary added of her historic win. “I was just stunned over the whole thing. It never occurred to me as to whether it [Jeopardy!] would be on for forever and ever.”