Apologies for missing Match 3, but things got away from me. I've argued previously on this board that the decision when relaunching the game to shift from all players keeping what they've earned during the game to only the winner doing so makes the Final Jeopardy round merely an exercise in proper wagering. The last true Final Jeopardy now comes from the first game of a two-game match: where you still have the unknown of the second game requiring you to play on your confidence in the category.
That makes when we found out what Ken Jennings wagered on the category "US Political History" the defining moment of this tournament. I don't know if anyone else was shocked when he went all in to create an almost insurmountable lead in Match 3, but both my wife and I yelled out in shock when we saw 25,600 on the display. I I hope the member of Standards & Practices who abruptly decided, in the middle of this tournament, that the players had to verbally announce a wager for Daily Doubles got the stick our of their ass removed safely. I enjoyed the number of people on my Facebook wall who were absolutely thrilled that they knew the Morticia Addams response that was a triple stumper. Watching James go on a six-response run to start March 3, Game 2, only to have the Daily Double take it all away was oddly satisfying, more than it should have been. The category reveal at the start of Match 4 Game 1 Jeopardy round was the first time I felt irritated. Brad finding the first Daily Double, betting it all, and missing became an odd, comforting feeling throughout this tournament. And then Ken goes off and bets it all in Final Jeopardy *again*!!! James bowing down to him as the student became the master. James's murder on network television of Brad before the start of game 2, complete with the evil grin, cemented his place as Jeopardy's ultimate heel. The look on Ken's face as he tried to get to Courtney Love, only to wind up inexplicably on Charles Lindberg is his version of Watson's "What is Toronto???". HOLY CRAP, WE HAVE A NON-TRUE DAILY DOUBLE WAGER, AND IT ONLY TOOK EIGHT ROUNDS TO GET THERE!!! James seemed absolutely frustrated when he was trying to find the second Daily Double. When he did find it, it was the 19th Clue of the round, which was as late as it happened in the tournament I would've killed to see a Zerg Cam on Ken when they revealed James's response on Final Jeopardy. Like a true poker player, James didn't move a muscle. And now we have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday back. I will say that the uncredited masters of these four days have to be the writers. It would've been (relatively) easy to make seven games of brutal, back-breaking clues that would've blown the audience out of the water. But I remember the fact that my Facebook timeline had a few "I knew who Morticia Addams was!" posts from Thursday night. There's something to be said about knowing the answer to a true Triple Stumper, and when the contestants are these three, that makes it even better. I shared this on my Facebook feed: Thursday night, near the end of Double Jeopardy, the 400-point clue in Road Trip was "You're nearing the eastern end of I-44 when you enter St. Louis & see this 630-foot-tall thing". I knew it, but I also thought my six-year-old, Matthew, might know it as well, since we have relatives and friends living there. Given that this was only the fifth Jeopardy game he'd ever seen (the challenge of living in the Chicago market where it airs at 3:30), I knew he didn't know that it was okay to call out responses, but he'd seen my wife and me respond. I am transmitting the mental waves that if he knows it, he should call it out. And with the tentativeness of someone who thinks they're doing the right thing, but is wary of being told otherwise, he said "Arch". The program was paused while high fives were exchanged in triumph. He did it again last night on the "Bazinga" response (though I screwed that up because I responsed at the same time). He was so proud of himself. It was all awesome. On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 11:37 AM Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > I found out over the weekend that they the episodes were hour-long, and > feared to myself that they were going to try to stretch out a single game. > I was very relieved Monday afternoon when I discovered they were going to > the two-game format. > > They were about 20 clues into Game 1's Jeopardy round when I thought to > myself "I don't think they've missed yet." And that's exactly what > happened: the three of them ran that board like nobody's business. > > Ken's True Daily Double call on the second Daily Double of Game 1(and the > look on his face as he was trying to suss out the response) was absolutely > nerve-wracking.. > > James's Nelson Muntz taunt of Brad when he buzzed in on the Dick Clark > clue was great. > > A question for anyone: when Ken answered the Game 2 Jeopardy round Daily > Double, he originally just gave the first name, then there was a pause, > then he gave the full name, to which Alex said "Thank you!", the > implication was that Alex would've ruled Ken wrong had he not given the > full name. I thought a contestant would've been given a "more specific" > request. Was there a rule change at some point, or am I just flat wrong? > > Poor Brad just got whammied (wrong game show, but still) by the two DDs in > Game 2 Double Jeopardy round. He looked like he was just trying to get back > into the swing of things. But there you go: the unbeatable man didn't just > get beaten: he got his rear handed to him. > > And the overnight ratings are in: 14.37 million, which puts it behind only > Sunday's Golden Globes for the highest-rated entertainment show of all > year: > https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/jeopardy-zoeys-extraordinary-playlist-tv-ratings-jan-7-2020-1268031 > On Thu, Jan 9, 2020 at 5:01 PM Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > (I'm just going to keep going in a single thread rather than make a fresh > one for each night.) > > I cannot get over just how badly Brad is getting crushed in this. In Game > 1 Jeopardy, he only buzzed in *four* times, the latest after clue 10. Then > he can't find either Daily Double in Double Jeopardy, which led to this > scoreline after clue 13: James 27,200; Ken 16,800; Brad 4,400. > > Ken deserves no style points for either his Dustin Hoffman impersonation > or his hammer and sickle. > > I encourage more cryptic category names as we saw in Game 2 Jeopardy. > > Then came The Round That Will Give Brad Nightmares For The Rest Of His > Life: getting whitewashed (again!) on the opening-clue Daily Double, then > getting tongue tied and probably losing count of the number of letters for > "uncharacteristically" (though even if Alex hadn't cut him off, it sounded > to me like he failed to pronounce the "al"). He went two-for-six! > > My wife, the Packers shareholder, did not appreciate James's > editorializing on the Green Bay response. > > This was not the night when I would've thought we'd find out how they > compute a two-game score when a contestant fails to qualify for Final > Jeopardy! > > Interestingly, the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune both pushed tweets > on the results during the window between the east and west airings. The > Trib actually spoiled the result in the tweet. > > And the viewership numbers were higher than Tuesday: 14.8 million. > > Personal sidebar: I signed up for YouTube TV so I could watch the episodes > night-of, but after they aired, since my six-year-old has a 7:15 CT > bedtime. But on both nights, Matthew has scammed his way into watching the > recording when I did and became totally gripped by this, telling my wife > last night the best part of the day was "watching Jeopardy with dad". I > have to go pick him up so we can get dinner and watch tonight live so he > doesn't scam me into yet another 9:30 bedtime on a school night. > > > On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 11:37 AM Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I found out over the weekend that they the episodes were hour-long, and >> feared to myself that they were going to try to stretch out a single game. >> I was very relieved Monday afternoon when I discovered they were going to >> the two-game format. >> >> They were about 20 clues into Game 1's Jeopardy round when I thought to >> myself "I don't think they've missed yet." And that's exactly what >> happened: the three of them ran that board like nobody's business. >> >> Ken's True Daily Double call on the second Daily Double of Game 1(and the >> look on his face as he was trying to suss out the response) was absolutely >> nerve-wracking.. >> >> James's Nelson Muntz taunt of Brad when he buzzed in on the Dick Clark >> clue was great. >> >> A question for anyone: when Ken answered the Game 2 Jeopardy round Daily >> Double, he originally just gave the first name, then there was a pause, >> then he gave the full name, to which Alex said "Thank you!", the >> implication was that Alex would've ruled Ken wrong had he not given the >> full name. I thought a contestant would've been given a "more specific" >> request. Was there a rule change at some point, or am I just flat wrong? >> >> Poor Brad just got whammied (wrong game show, but still) by the two DDs >> in Game 2 Double Jeopardy round. He looked like he was just trying to get >> back into the swing of things. But there you go: the unbeatable man didn't >> just get beaten: he got his rear handed to him. >> >> And the overnight ratings are in: 14.37 million, which puts it behind >> only Sunday's Golden Globes for the highest-rated entertainment show of all >> year: >> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/jeopardy-zoeys-extraordinary-playlist-tv-ratings-jan-7-2020-1268031 >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CABru7%2BcUUHVwjBrp4JJ5m7witvKckvOAFAtYmcTyS%2BbkS_jMDg%40mail.gmail.com.
