Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

Dark Waters was really good!

I wondered if it would make you go 100 percent bottled water now.

[Prevailing Wind]

17 hours ago, LennieBriscoe said:

Digression: There are those who think HST was Epsteined, IYKWIM. He was investigating the Bohemian Grove activities. 

He was on the phone with his wife (who was at the gym) when he pulled the trigger.

[MisterGlass]

I knew it had to be Iago.  No antagonist character likes to talk to himself and others quite as much.

Well, good for Ken.  And credit to Hulu for the episode subtitle that the competition "continues," not that it ends.  I was shocked that he went all in on the first FJ, and that he bet nothing on the second. But, he knew that he wasn't going to lose the tournament on this game, and that he had a chance of winning it.

I think James felt it in those last few questions that he odds were against him.  He perked up again when he got to the point where he could conceivably beat Ken with the right wager.

I'm sorry Brad didn't win a game, but as others have said he was charming and graceful in defeat.  There's an article link on the home page in which he says he struggled against to opponents who were quick on the buzzer.  Best wishes to him.

[Browncoat]

8 hours ago, saber5055 said:

I wondered if it would make you go 100 percent bottled water now.

Nope, because of the plastic situation.  I do have a whole-house carbon filter that takes away most of the nasties.  Plus, I’m already doomed regarding the chemical from the movie,

Teflon

, spoilered just in case, since the movie folks don’t figure it out for a while.

[Ray Adverb]

Jumping straight to the comment box without reading anything, to avoid spoilers.

I only got to start watching this yesterday night (January 15th 2020).  They released it on Hulu.  I only saw the first episode.

I never saw Ken Jennings during his original run in 2004.  The only time I have seen him compete is in tournaments and it was never fun.  The problem with Ken is that he is head and shoulders above virtually every other person who has ever been on Jeopardy.  So it's always a complete blowout until the end of the tournament, when he competes against Brad Rutter, who is the only person so far who could match up with him.  But before that was a series of blowout curb stomps against lesser opponents, and even that final match had a third guy who you knew would come in last.  So it was never fun to watch Brad or Ken compete.

For that same reason, I ended up growing bored with James Holzhauer's run after about 15 episodes.

So with these guys, it was always like that part of a Marvel movie where the hero blows away normal people for a while, until late in the film where he goes head to head with the main villain and actually has to struggle.

Watching this special tournament, though, has been a real treat.  It's like watching the World Series.  It's so great seeing titans of the game go head to head.  They're evenly matched; nobody is struggling and nobody is blowing away the competition.  It's a nice, fair fight.  And that's not something you usually see when Ken Jennings is involved.

So anyway, I have only seen the first match.  Those were some tough questions too.  On a normal episode I can usually answer maybe 40 to 50% of the questions.  Here I was down to like 5%.  But I guess if you're playing top level Jeopardy, you have to have top level difficulty questions.

That was unfortunate that Brad kept blowing it on the Daily Doubles.  But that's also a great thing about the format of the tournament.  Each match is a fresh start.

[Fellaway]

On 1/11/2020 at 7:09 PM, xaxat said:

 

Well, not all week, Ken.

I see what people say they dislike about James, but I still like him.  As a Jeopardy contestant, he's astonishing and exciting.  I didn't see Brad's initial run, but I've come to like him as I've seen him in various tournaments.  His grace in his way behind, third place finish is truly admirable.  Ken is the one I've come to dislike since his initial run, mostly because of some things he's said on social media, and how disingenuous he can be at getting answers right.  He plays that note a little too hard.  I hadn't thought about it till it was mentioned here, but I can see either Ken or Brad being host of the show, and Ken does have experience on TV as one of the "experts" on GSN's Best Ever Trivia Show.

I live very close to Lancaster, PA, so it always grates on my ears when people mispronounce it, though it's understandable.  (Kudos to the actor in Gettysburg who got it right!)  It especially bothers me when it's Alex who mispronounces it, as he has done a few times over the years, especially since he pronounced it correctly once, years ago, then went back to the wrong way.  It bugs, because he's so very diligent about correcting other people's mispronunciations.

I feel kind of guilty these days, because I've never found AT to be a great host, just a good one, but with what he's going through now...  As someone who's seen loved ones go through chemo and radiation, one successfully, one not, I know the toll it takes.  That he continues to host with this much energy and engagement and joy is a thing of beauty.

Going in, I was rooting for James to win, and that still would be my druthers (I wonder at the different game it would've been had he hit more of the DDs), but by night 3, I was hoping that Brad would get in there with a win or two.  But there's no denying all three are worthy competitors, the best, and Ken earned his win.  It's very heartening that a contest of brains did so well in the ratings.  My only regret is the tournament didn't go all seven nights.

Edited January 16, 2020 by Fellaway

[ABay]

My interpretation of Ken's buzzing then reacting with relief when he answers correctly is that his game theory is: buzz if you think you might know the answer then hope that you can produce it within the time allowed. I think that's why he pauses. However, I do agree that his reaction to being correct is sometimes overplayed.

[Bliss]

This might be interesting to those of you who are fans of James.

While over at thejeopardyfan site, I noticed Andy's statistics about the entire tournament. Being a numbers person, I found it interesting that although Ken won the tournament, he didn't lead in a lot of categories... e.g., James had more correct answers in total (188 to Ken's 179; Brad had 81) and he was fastest on the buzzer (41.45% to Ken's 37.5%; Brad was 17.11%.)

Also interesting - in stats to date - James has much higher percentages for "correctness". e.g., his incorrect answers are only 3.9% of the time whereas Ken's are 9.01% and Brad's are 10.79%.

For stats to date of FJ answers, James has 41/45 for 91.11% accuracy. Ken has 60/91 for 66% and Brad has 18/32 for 56%.

I congratulate Ken on his luck at finding DDs at the right time - IMO, that's the main reason he won the trophy. I don't personally think of him as the greatest, partly because he's not better than James in accuracy, nor in speed (see stats above), and partly because Brad has beat him many times previously. I think they're all great in their own strengths and I hope if any one of them is chosen to replace Alex that it is Brad. Both James and Ken have polarizing personalities and I understand why some people do not like them as much as others. Add me to the group who finds Ken's responses to DDs slightly over-dramatic.

They are all hilarious and I think their snark is indicative of their being children of boomers!

[annzeepark914]

I just saw this article in today's Washington post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/ken-jennings-talks-james-holzhauer-feud-brad-rutters-losses-and-that-brutal-bloomberg-tweet/2020/01/15/bd51a43c-37ce-11ea-bf30-ad313e4ec754_story.html

[PBnJay]

I just finished watching online and enjoyed all the games. I wish it had gone to seven games, with each person having two wins, then the last game determining the final winner. That would have been exciting. I didn't have a favorite, it was just fun to watch three great players. Congratulations to Ken though!

[proserpina65]

17 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Alex was incorrect when he said nothing changed in this tournament.  Brad has now been beaten by a human.

Idk, Ken played like a freaking machine.  (I mean that in a good way.)

 

[MoreCoffeePlease]

I am not too proud to admit that I have some sort of mental block regarding strategic wagers during Final Jeopardy. You know, when people say "Why did he bet that much?" or "Why did he bet $0?" Even when the smart, strategic people explain it (If so and so got it right, if so and so got it wrong), I usually don't truly understand it, and I don't take the time to write down the scenarios and do the math. 🤷‍♀️

So enjoyed the tournament. I am so dreading Alex's last show, whenever that may be. 😥

Does anyone want Ken to be the next host (far in the future I hope)? What about Brad?

[proserpina65]

3 minutes ago, MoreCoffeePlease said:

Does anyone want Ken to be the next host (far in the future I hope)? What about Brad?

I'd love to see Brad host, and I think he'd be good at it.  I suspect, though, that the producers would probably go in a non-contestant direction.

[Thalia]

On 1/15/2020 at 12:31 PM, proserpina65 said:

Although I did get the very last FJ - Iago was the only non-title character I could think of who was more of the main character in the play than the title character was, and I thought he had a lot of speeches.  I didn't realize it was that many, though.

I remembered reading somewhere many, many years ago, that Iago speaks more lines than Othello.  So after toying with Falstaff for a moment, until I remembered The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry whatever aren't tragedies, Iago popped in my head.  Thus I was flummoxed (Flummoxed, I tell you!) when James got it wrong. 

I wish Brad had won a game, if only to extend it another night, but I was happy Ken finally won a tournament where they went head to head. 

 

[catlover79]

On 1/12/2020 at 2:46 PM, illdoc said:

I'm a Ken!

 

I'm a Brad!! 😁

[Driad]

In case anyone can't get enough of this ...

James: "Brad's score ..."

[Fellaway]

Here's an interview with Brad from our Harrisburg, PA newspaper:

"Jeopardy" Champ Brad Rutter: Alex Trebek is the True "Greatest of All Time"

It's not behind a paywall, so I don't think accessing it will be an issue, but, just in case, a couple interesting blurbs:

Quote

Jennings and Holzhauer are far from just people off the street though, and are set to be some of the fiercest competition Rutter has faced. But it also won’t be the first time the three greatest Jeopardy players have faced each other. Rutter has played against Jennings several times (and won all but once) and he faced off against Holzhauer in a round of “trivia dodgeball” at a trivia convention in Las Vegas a few years ago. Rutter says he won that too, although it was very close.

All three get along too.

“Ken and I have been doing this for years so we’ve gotten to know each other well over the years and James just fit right in,” Rutter said. “We had a lot of fun in the green room and we had a lot of fun on stage as well.”

Quote

Then, of course, there’s the buzzer.

In “Jeopardy!” the buzzer is half the game -- “maybe even more than that,” according to Rutter. Rutter is known for his mastery of the buzzer, but that tends to come naturally and he says he’s never really practiced at it. Instead, the buzzer skills come from watching the show.

“I think the most important thing is being familiar with the cadence of Alex’s voice,” Rutter said. “He’s remarkably consistent.”

Jennings has remarked that Rutter is “almost unbeatable on the buzzer,” but Rutter downplays that, insisting that it’s always close when he plays against the other “Jeopardy!” champ.

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by Fellaway

[saber5055]

2 hours ago, Fellaway said:

It's not behind a paywall, so I don't think accessing it will be an issue, but, just in case, a couple interesting blurbs:

It's a "Subscriber Exclusive" story and you have to log in to read it, which I did not do. So thanks for the blurb outtakes, Fellaway.

[Fellaway]

2 hours ago, saber5055 said:

It's a "Subscriber Exclusive" story and you have to log in to read it, which I did not do. So thanks for the blurb outtakes, Fellaway.

Oh, you're welcome!  But sorry about not be able to access it!  I now see that it says Subscriber Exclusive at the beginning, but it's strange, because I can access it, no problem, either by searching at the site or by clicking the link I posted, and I'm not a subscriber.  Weirdness.

[saber5055]

12 minutes ago, Fellaway said:

it's strange, because I can access it, no problem

I tried to trick it by going to the home page, doing a search for Brad Rutter, then clicking on the story link. I thought it was going to let me stay, but the subscriber-only block came up after a bit. If someone scrolls and reads very quickly, they might make it through before being blocked!

Maybe it just doesn't like people from the Midwest.

[nuraman00]

I didn't understand how to do one of the categories in the first game? It had a french sounding name to it.

Jeoportmanteau.

 

Here are some banned wagers:

$69 is one of them.

metalinjection.net/satanism/contestants-are-now-banned-from-betting-666-on-jeopardy

 

I liked the Tool clue and question.  Good to see a contestant get it right.

On 1/14/2020 at 6:21 PM, Grundoon59 said:

This whole thing was so much more fun than I anticipated when I first heard about it that I am sorry that it's ending.  But congrats to Ken.  They all seemed to have a wonderful time.  Brad kept his sense of humor even when things weren't going his way ( me three for laughing out loud for Aaron Burr) and special thanks to James for correctly answering the Detroit clue.  

Which clue was the Aaron Burr one?

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, nuraman00 said:

I didn't understand how to do one of the categories in the first game? It had a french sounding name to it.

Jeoportmanteau.

They used a lame portmanteau - Jeopardy + portmanteau = Jeoportmanteau - as the category title, and you had to identify the two things being defined/described in the clue and answer in the form of a portmanteau (which is a made-up word created by combining two words).  For example, "Sentient creature like Olaf or Frosty plus 'the #1 kosher wine brand in America'" means Snowman plus Manischewitz, so the answer is "Snowmanischewitz".

[nuraman00]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

They used a lame portmanteau - Jeopardy + portmanteau = Jeoportmanteau - as the category title, and you had to identify the two things being defined/described in the clue and answer in the form of a portmanteau (which is a made-up word created by combining two words).  For example, "Sentient creature like Olaf or Frosty plus 'the #1 kosher wine brand in America'" means Snowman plus Manischewitz, so the answer is "Snowmanischewitz".

Thanks.  So it's like Wheel Of Fortune's "Before And After"?

[Fellaway]

6 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Maybe it just doesn't like people from the Midwest.

Hee!  Maybe!  I'm not in Harrisburg, but very close, so...

[marypat57]

On 1/9/2020 at 12:33 PM, joanne3482 said:

On 1/9/2020 at 12:33 PM, joanne3482 said:

Way back in the 80's there was a Jeopardy toy (for lack of a better word) created that you could keep track of your score on.

I actually owned that 'toy'.  My mom bought it as a Christmas present for me in 1986, while I was undergoing cancer treatment. I think she finally found it at FAO Schwarz and was able to order it over the phone

It looked like a calculator, and I remember having lots of fun with it.  It was called the Jeopardy Challenger Scorekeeper.

OK, being new to the Jeopardy boards, I cannot figure out what TS stands for.  Can someone enlighten me?

 

[saber5055]

13 minutes ago, marypat57 said:

OK, being new to the Jeopardy boards, I cannot figure out what TS stands for.  Can someone enlighten me?

TS is Triple Stumper, meaning none of the three players answered.

There is a handy thread here for commonly used Jeopardy abbreviations: https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/25226-what-is-the-jeopardy-glossary

[illdoc]

13 hours ago, nuraman00 said:

So it's like Wheel Of Fortune's "Before And After"?

No. Before and After (also a J! category, as well as "Before, During, and After") is different. Before and After is: Answer to Part 1 of clue is A B. Answer to part 2 of clue is B C, so answer you give is A B C. (middle parts overlap, so you say middle part only once). Portmanteau is, as I explain to my mother, like "Bragelina" (I think that's how it was spelled: Brad (Pitt) + Angelina (Jolie) when they were a couple). Or, even better, Smog (Smoke + Fog).  And, as long as I mentioned it, Before During and After is: Part 1 answer A B, part 2 answer B C, part 3 answer C D, final answer A B C D (Daniel singer of The Shootist and Let's Make a Deal would be Elton John Wayne Brady) (just made that one up).

[nuraman00]

53 minutes ago, illdoc said:

No. Before and After (also a J! category, as well as "Before, During, and After") is different. Before and After is: Answer to Part 1 of clue is A B. Answer to part 2 of clue is B C, so answer you give is A B C. (middle parts overlap, so you say middle part only once). Portmanteau is, as I explain to my mother, like "Bragelina" (I think that's how it was spelled: Brad (Pitt) + Angelina (Jolie) when they were a couple). Or, even better, Smog (Smoke + Fog).  And, as long as I mentioned it, Before During and After is: Part 1 answer A B, part 2 answer B C, part 3 answer C D, final answer A B C D (Daniel singer of The Shootist and Let's Make a Deal would be Elton John Wayne Brady) (just made that one up).

Thank you.  I had to read that carefully, but I think I understand now.

1 hour ago, saber5055 said:

TS is Triple Stumper, meaning none of the three players answered.

There is a handy thread here for commonly used Jeopardy abbreviations: https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/25226-what-is-the-jeopardy-glossary

Do you remember a Triple Stumper in any Jeopardy! game (even a normal one) where all three contestants gave an incorrect answer?  It's been a while since I remember one of those.

[saber5055]

45 minutes ago, nuraman00 said:

Do you remember a Triple Stumper in any Jeopardy! game (even a normal one) where all three contestants gave an incorrect answer?  It's been a while since I remember one of those.

It's quite common, actually. AT likes to comment that everyone lost the same amount, no loss, no gain.

[Trey]

I didn't watch this tournament first time around so I am watching it now.

Nice coincidence in last night's game - they showed the iconic photo of sailor kissing woman on VE Day, May 8, 1945 - and yesterday was the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

[bad things are bad]

Loved the tournament the first time around, and love it the second time...it's a delight to watch these guys play--fast, bold, and smart as hell

[Driad]

Yesterday, about to reveal Ken's FJ answer, Alex said Ken didn't look happy.  Turned out Ken had the right answer, and had bet all his money.  I half expected Alex to comment on Ken's poker face and ask if Ken had ever played poker against James.

[nuraman00]

10 hours ago, Driad said:

Yesterday, about to reveal Ken's FJ answer, Alex said Ken didn't look happy.  Turned out Ken had the right answer, and had bet all his money.  I half expected Alex to comment on Ken's poker face and ask if Ken had ever played poker against James.

Is it being re-aired, or are people watching on their DVRs / on demand?

[Driad]

15 minutes ago, nuraman00 said:

Is it being re-aired, or are people watching on their DVRs / on demand?

It is being re-aired.  This is the second week.