MrAtoz

It can be an effective strategy. Remember that the winner of last season, Keelan von Ehrenkrook, only played in 3 duels total--including the 2 that he won in the "best of 3" final showdown. He won one duel early on, went back to the floor, and then just hung out until he was literally the only person left. Everybody was afraid of his category, the Periodic Table, so they avoided challenging him until there was no other choice. I'm torn on whether that's effective TV or not. Contestants can go on a long run, winning multiple games in a row, becoming popular with the audience, and then end up with nothing, Other contestants who barely get noticed can end up winning the whole thing. It's interesting strategy-wise. But this does not seem to be a show that rewards rooting for a particular contestant. Clearly the fact that you get a bonus for having the biggest territory at the end of each episode is intended as an incentive for contestants to keep playing. Otherwise, since losing a single duel means you're gone, the optimal strategy is to minimize the number of duels you actually have to play.

According to wikipedia, Burma is where Brian Sinclair (the real-life Tristan) actually served.

I should be used to it by now, since it happens every year, but somehow I'm always pleasantly surprised when the opening sequence of the Christmas episode has snow on the ground and sleigh bells mixed into the music. All of Anna Madeley's scenes were exceptionally well done. Imagine the horror of those two weeks of not knowing, searching the casualty lists every day, wanting to hear something and yet dreading what you will finally hear. Yes, a random injured sailor being able to call home was quite unrealistic, but I'll allow it as dramatic license. Unfortunately for those who know World War II history, the mention of Singapore is as big a red flag as the word "Repulse" on Edward's cap was a couple of seasons ago. The fact is, for about six months or so, there was very little good news for the Allies from the Pacific Theater. There weren't a lot of places they could have taken Edward that would have been safe. Those first few months of the Pacific War were a bad time. Tristan's storyline wasn't nearly as emotionally wringing, but I liked it. Turns out that he's a good instructor. Even if he is the jokey kind of teacher, his students are learning, and his superiors clearly respect his ability. He quickly figured out what had caused the pigeons to die, and he showed a nice sense of maturity when he heard that his trainees had been deployed, feeling the weight of knowing that they were being sent into danger while he was in relative safety. Since the real-life "Tristan" eventually ended up in a fairly responsible government position, it's nice to see the fictional Tristan maturing into a man who would be able to do that kind of work. I spot the occasional fox around here, but they never get close enough to even try to make friends with them.

There have been several times when people have obviously not realized that it was their turn. I guess with both people looking at the same picture, it's not always clear. Maybe they should have a light go on in front of the person whose turn it is, or something like that. To go back to another topic, I think "Black & White" proves that some of these categories are assigned to the contestants. First, who would choose that as the area of trivia they're good at? Second, even the guy who had that category didn't seem to have any idea what it would be about. That was mostly a pretty easy category, just identifying common things that are black and white. But then they threw in a couple of stills from old B&W TV shows. That almost seems like it belongs in a different category altogether.

The folks who get to come back for tournaments probably get closer, but even people who just play once can become pretty friendly. There are private Facebook groups for Jeopardy contestants. You spend several hours with the people in your taping group, so you do get to know each other a bit. Several of the people that I completed against are now my Facebook friends. We don't get together or anything, but we still communicate, like each others' posts, and occasionally make Jeopardy-related jokes that no one else gets.

I seem to recall reading (don't ask me where) that a lot of people will come in having chosen the same, or very similar, areas of expertise. A lot of people will want sci-fi, for instance, or movies, or rock music, etc. They can't give everyone their preferred category without a lot of duplication, so they have to assign things to some of the contestants.

I know someone who owns a yarn store. It seems to be doing well enough. I felt sorry for Doug. He seemed a little out of his depth. He goes back to the Art Fleming days, as he said, and according to J-Archive his most recent appearance prior to this tournament was back in 1993. So it's been over 30 years since he last played a game of Jeopardy! competitively. The style of play and the way they write the clues has probably changed quite a bit since then.

I remember Robin Thede from Larry Wilmore's late night show on Comedy Central. She didn't just write for it, but often appeared on camera as well. I recognized Blake Anderson (though I didn't know his name until now) from one episode of The Big Bang Theory, which wikipedia tells me aired in 2016. You will be glad to know that Blake has not changed his hairstyle in 9 years. Pity he lost so much on that last Daily Double. Otherwise it might have been a competitive game. According to TheJeopardyFan, Robin did not have any wrong answers (apart from FJ). Impressive.

Here is his entry in "Backstage," which is a sort of trade publication/website for performers. It lists his age range as 16-25. That's an indication of the ages that he can convincingly play on stage/screen. It doesn't necessarily reflect his actual age. But the fact that he seems to be limiting himself to younger roles is a good indication that he is fairly young. As mentioned, there isn't a lot of personal information about him online. He doesn't have a wikipedia article, and imdb doesn't list his birth date. But given that his credits don't go back all that far, his appearance, and his own professional estimate of the age range he can play, I'm inclined to agree that the TV insider age of 44 is probably an error.

I'm glad that Natalie Morales won. I know that she has an extensive resume since then, but I will always remember her from the wonderful, sadly-forgotten comedy sci-fi adventure series The Middleman. As soon as I saw her, I exclaimed, "It's Dub Dub!" * For a few months after High School Musical came out, Corbin Bleu was HUGE. He seems to have been doing mostly musical theater since then, so he's probably not as familiar to the general public these days. But I knew who he was. "Chrissy" was kind of weird. He seemed shocked that he was doing as well as he did, which I guess is not surprising for a celebrity contestant. But dial it back a little, fella! * Natalie's character on The Middleman was named "Wendy Watson," so her initials were W.W. The Middleman, the mysterious spy who was her partner, called her "Dub Dub," or sometimes "Dubbie."

I thought he did say something like "If you don't mind me asking," but I don't have the episode right here to check. The 1970s series pretty much jumped right over the war, but there was an episode (one of the Christmas specials, I think) that dealt with James's PTSD.

It's one of those things where people don't look as old nowadays as they used to. Plus, in the case of Sunset Boulevard, I'm sure they deliberately did Swanson's makeup and costuming to make her seem older and stranger than she was.

Gloria Swanson was only 51 when she played Norma in the movie. Not that much older. The story is set in 1949, which was only about 20 years after sound came to movies. It's perfectly possible for someone to have been a star in silent movies as a young woman, and already be a forgotten "has-been" by her 40s.

Whenever I have to think of the capital of New Zealand, the incorrect answer that I invariably come up with is Auckland.

I almost said Volga, based on the mention of the river being 1,500 miles long (turns out the Volga is even longer than that). But the mention of monuments saying Asia and Europe meant that it must have been at the dividing line between those two continents. I'd actually never heard of the Ural River, but I knew that the Ural Mountains are the traditional separation of Europe from Asia. So I guessed that there was probably a river named Ural as well.