The first winner was Greg Hopkins, an energy demonstrator from Waverly, Ohio; his winnings of $8,400 were fairly typical of the first season. Because there was no returning champion, he was selected to choose the first clue after the contestants drew numbers. The game was a runaway win (one in which the victory is clinched before the Final Jeopardy! question), as he led $8,100-$3,800-$2,500 going into Final Jeopardy!.
Due to frequent applause after correct responses, and more talking by Alex Trebek between clues than later became typical, only 23 clues were uncovered in the first round and only 24 in the second.
Alex calls the winner a "chicken" for risking only $300 in Final Jeopardy.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the syndicated series, this premiere episode was rebroadcast on 7 September 2009 with interstitial comments from Alex Trebek about how the show has changed since its debut.
The first clue selected was for $100 in the category "Animals": "These rodents first got to America by stowing away on ships" (Greg Hopkins correctly answered "Rats").