Merv Griffin Earned An Insane Fortune Off "Jeopardy" Theme Song Royalties… And Thanks To A Shrewd Business Move, His Family Still Gets Paid!

We love writing about song royalties on Celebrity Net Worth. It's probably our favorite topic of all time. Who wouldn't want to get rich off song royalties? Write a hit song once, then earn direct deposits forever. It just seems like the best life ever.

For example, did you know that for roughly two decades, Sting earned an average of $2,000 per day in royalties off "Every Breath You Take"? Those royalties were largely powered by Puff Daddy's song, "I'll Be Missing You." Diddy infamously didn't seek permission before using the sample and had to hand over ALL THE ROYALTIES to Sting. Before he sold his catalog for $300 million in late 2022, Sting earned at least $40 million in royalties off that one song.

But as crazy as that sounds, if you really want to understand the power of royalties, don't look to rock stars. Look to a game show host. Specifically, Merv Griffin — the creator of "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune," and the man who wrote the most profitable little jingle in television history.

That jingle? The "Final Jeopardy" theme, officially called "Think." You know the one. Da da da da, da da da, da da da da, da! Every time it plays, money flows to Griffin's estate. And the story of how it came to be — and how much it earned — is even better.

(Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images.)

Creating Jeopardy

Merv Griffin created Jeopardy! for NBC in 1964, though the idea actually came from his wife, Julann, during a flight from Minnesota to New York. When the plane landed, Griffin pitched it to NBC executives, who bought the concept on the spot. The first version of the show aired during the day before evolving into the iconic nighttime syndicated program we know today.

Since then, Jeopardy! has aired more than 9,000 episodes, spawned 30 international versions, and won more than 30 Daytime Emmy Awards. When Alex Trebek took over in 1984, the show's format solidified into the enduring cultural fixture that still draws millions of viewers every week.

Merv Griffin Net Worth /Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Final Jeopardy Theme Song

Over the last five decades, Jeopardy has used a few different songs for its main theme music, but the tune that's played during Final Jeopardy has always been the same. That tune is a song called "Think."

Merv wrote "Think" in 1963 as a lullaby to help his five-year-old son Tony fall asleep. The song's original title was actually "A Time for Tony," and, according to Merv, it only took around 30 seconds to write. Since 1984, re-worked renditions of "Think" have been used both for Final Jeopardy and as the show's main theme music.

Retaining the Rights

In 1986, Merv sold his production company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, to Coca-Cola for $250 million — about $770 million in today's dollars. The sale included Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune… BUT!!!!…. Griffin was shrewd enough to keep ownership of the "Think" theme.

Just like a pop song, Merv got paid every time the song was used commercially. In other words, every time an episode of Jeopardy airs around the world, including reruns and foreign adaptations, Merv got paid. He also got paid any time the song was played publicly, like during a sporting event or in a movie. Technically, his estate gets paid now since Merv died in 2007 at the age of 82.

The Payday

So, how much had Merv earned in royalties up until that point? Luckily, in a 2005 interview with the New York Times, a reporter asked Merv this exact question.

"You don't want to know…That little 30 seconds has made me a fortune, millions!… Probably $70-80 million."

$70-80 million!

Let's use $80 million. That's the same as around $125 million in today's dollars. From ONE SONG!

And that was just through 2005! Twenty additional years of royalties have poured into the Griffin family's bank accounts since Merv gave that interview. By this point, it's likely that the Griffin family has earned well over $200 million off "Think." A song that took 30 seconds to write.

$200 million!

To put that into perspective,

Ken Jennings, the most famous Jeopardy! contestant of all time, earned $2.5 million from his record 74-game winning streak. In order to match Griffin's $80 million in royalties, Jennings would have had to win 2,368 games in a row — every game for more than a decade.

Vanna White's salary is around $10 million a year. To make Griffin's "Think" money, she'd need to work 8 years straight, taping more than 1,600 shows. Merv Griffin didn't have to lift a finger. He just cashed checks.

Beyond Game Shows

And the royalties were just part of his empire. Griffin used his Coca-Cola payout to dive into real estate. At one point, he owned the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the Golden Globes are famously held. He became a billionaire through savvy investments, far beyond television.

When he died in 2007 at the age of 82, Merv Griffin's net worth was $1.3 billion. Not bad for a former talk show host who once scribbled out a lullaby for his son in under a minute.