Jeopardy! contestants - Seasons 33, 34, 35, & 36 side-by-side

Below are some statistics about the players who appeared on Jeopardy! in its 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 seasons. Some notes:

• The numbers in the "All" columns take account of players who made their first appearace on the show in the respective seasons. Thus, each season's data excludes:
  • The defending champion in the season opener, as that player first appeared in the prior season.
  • Players invited back after a loss. This applies to one player in Season 35 and two players in Season 34.
  • The fields of tournaments made up of players who had previously appeared on the show - the Tournament of Champions in Seasons 34 and 36, and the All-Star Games in Season 35.
• The ten largest United States media markets are: New York (WABC); Los Angeles (KABC); Chicago (WLS); Philadelphia (WPVI); Dallas-Fort Worth (KTXA); Washington, DC (WJLA); Houston (KTRK); San Francisco (KGO); Boston (WBZ); and Atlanta (WXIA). They were the ten largest in each of the four seasons. Although there was some reordering among them, no market moved into or out of the top ten, and there's a signifcant size gap between nos. 10 and 11. Collectively, they represent 30% of U.S. television-viewing households.
• Two markets had players on the show in both Seasons 33 and 34, but were represented in regular play in neither. As the table below notes, Tampa was one, with one player in the College Championship in each season (Hannah Whisnant in 2017, Hannah Sage in 2018). The other is Lexington, KY, represented by only a College Championship player in S33 (Zach Atwell) and a Teachers Tournament player in S34 (Claire Bishop). Both areas had players appear in regular play in Season 35.
• Show/hide instances of a state being represented only in special play during a particular season.
  • Season 36: Arkansas (Joe Coker, College Championship); Indiana (Tyler Combs, College Championship); Mississippi (Ivory Johnson, Teachers Tournament)
  • Season 35: New Hampshire (Caleb Richmond, 2018 Teen Tournament) and Wyoming (Dave Rowswell, Teachers Tournament)
  • Season 34: none
  • Season 33: Wisconsin (Jack Bekos, Teen Tournament; Allison Holley and Julia Marsan, College Championship; Sara Holub, Teachers Tournament)
• All fifty states and the District of Columbia have been represented at least once on Stage 10 at Sony Pictures Studios since the start of the 2016-17 season. As of the 2020 summer hiatus, the state that has gone the longest without having a player appear is North Dakota (Sarah Favorite, October 10, 2017). Seven Canadian provinces have had players on (all but Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Saskatchewan) - six in Season 35 alone.
• For ease of presentation, the two Teen Tournaments in Season 35 are aggregated.
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeopardy! halted production on March 16, 2020, and was unable to resume before running out of new episodes. Thus, Season 36 ran only 40 weeks instead of the usual 46 — and two of those weeks were reruns of the Greatest of All Time primetime special along with two of Ken Jennings's most famous episodes from 2004. This accounts for the reduction in contestants.
• The number listed in parentheses next to media markets is the ranking of its size for that season. There are 210 media markets in the United States, of which 208 have affiliates airing Jeopardy! - and the two that don't comprise 0.03% of all television-viewing households.

		SEASON 36 (2019-20)			SEASON 35 (2018-19)			SEASON 34 (2017-18)			SEASON 33 (2016-17)
		All	Regular		All	Regular		All	Regular		All	Regular
Total contestants		350	320		424	379		428	398		445	400
U.S. contestants		338	308		409	364		418	388		437	392
U.S. media markets		82	77		93	85		97	92		91	86
U.S. states		42 + DC	39 + DC		46 + DC	44 + DC		45 + DC			44 + DC	43 + DC
10 largest media markets		188	174		216	199		206	192		221	201
Media centers (NYC + LA + DC)		113	107		116	107		125	120		136	126
Smallest market represented		Greenwood - Greenville, MS (194)	Missoula, MT (163)		Ottumwa, IA-Kirksville, MO (200)			Casper, WY (198)			Casper, WY (197)
Largest market not represented		Houston (8)			San Antonio (31)	Charlotte (23)		Miami (16)	Tampa (13)		Kansas City (33)	Tampa (11)
Canadian contestants		12			15			10			8
Canadian media markets		4			8			4			4
Canadian provinces		3			6			2			3
Teen Tournament markets		(Not played in Season 36)			26			(Not played in Season 34)			11
Teen Tournament states					19						12
Smallest market represented in the Teen Tournament					Joplin, MO-Pittsburg, KS (153)						Huntsville, AL (79)
College Championship markets		14			(Not played in Season 35)			13			12
College Championship states		12						10			10
Smallest market represented in the College Championship		Paducah, KY - Cape Girardeau, MO - Harrisburg, IL (84)						Baton Rouge, LA (94)			Lexington, KY (63)
Teachers Tournament markets		12			14			15			13
Teachers Tournament states		13			13			13			10
Smallest market represented in the Teachers Tournament		Greenwood - Greenville, MS (194)			Cheyenne, WY-Scottsbluff, NE (197)			Medford, OR (136)			Fort Smith, AR (99)

(Credits: Zap2it & TitanTV for TV schedules for each market; John Coryat (yes, that's actually the last name) for ZIP code maps; ThinkTV for a listing of Canadian market sizes, enabling me to rank them properly with the U.S. markets; and Ads for Carts - Nielsen DMA lookup tool.)