The Weakest Link (2020) - General Discussion

[gsnrocks92]

Kaya was the best contestant of this run, no surprise she was on Jeopardy as well. Spencer was dumb to not vote her out (with no bank building round in the F2, there is no reason to not vote out the obvious best player at 3) but it turned out to be a close battle in the end (though the questions seemed pretty easy).

Edited November 10, 2020 by gsnrocks92

[Katy M]

59 minutes ago, gsnrocks92 said:

Kaya was the best contestant of this run, no surprise she was on Jeopardy as well. Spencer was dumb to not vote her out (with no bank building round in the F2, there is no reason to vote out the obvious best player at 3) but it turned out to be a close battle in the end (though the questions seemed pretty easy).

The only reason I can think of for Spenser not to vote for Kaya is if for some reason he thought Andrew was going to vote for him.  If he'd voted for Kaya, Andrew had voted for him and Kaya for Andrew, Kaya may have changed votes for revenge.  if Kaya and Andrew voted for him, whatever he did would make no difference.  But, there wasn't any real reason for Andrew not to vote for Kaya either. I think he was honestly surprised.  After the second round I thought there was zero chance of Kaya making it to the final round.  

Edited November 10, 2020 by Katy M

[iMonrey]

Quote

but it turned out to be a close battle in the end (though the questions seemed pretty easy).

What was that question again? It was a very good final round, I was surprised he did as well as he did against Kaya. I just wish we would get a crop of contestant good enough to build up that chain higher than a couple thousand dollars. They are all so skittish they keep banking really low amounts. They had a similar problem in the original show as I recall. It's very frustrating. There's a chance to get all the way to $25,000 and they keep banking at $1000 or $2000.

[Katy M]

19 hours ago, iMonrey said:

What was that question again? I

About PT Barnum's elephant's name--Jumbo. 

[saber5055]

I thought Spenser got a lot of softball questions for the final round against Kaya. This after he was Weakest Link multiple times. I guess they do that so the show will last longer than a one-question final round. Also shocked Kaya wasn't voted out. A final between the two weakest-link boys could have been fun.

It might be just me, but the novelty of this show has worn off and I find Jane's constant digs and bad jokes tedious, boring and not funny nor clever. I flipped the channel while she was droning on. And on. And on some more. *snore*

[853fisher]

I had to give Spencer props for preferring to face Kaya over taking the easy way out.  Unless those who think maybe he was strategizing differently are right, in which case I take it all back. 😉

I think those recalling the way alliances etc used to be played are right on the money.  I never recognized it much unless it was explicitly mentioned by Anne, or occasionally a contestant, but it seemed to happen more in the days when games started on a shot of the team getting to know each other.  Much was made of the "strangers, and how will they do when thrown together" angle that was popular on a lot of these shows around 2000.

I dare the show to book eight Kayas and really give some cash away.  I know, don't hold my breath!

[Skyfall]

I think what would fix the show is giving $10k per right answer in the head to head. This would incentivize keeping stronger players (I would've been listed if Perfect Kaya didn't get a chance to win) but also help make the absence of the f2 building round make sense.

in Andrew's case: Would you want a potential 3-0 (30k) sweep or a nail biting 5-4 (90k)?

[dvr devotee]

I couldn't believe Spencer voted out Andrew instead of Kaya. I was literally shocked, and was sure he'd have his ass handed to him in the final round. So I was once again shocked when he got his first...seven, was it? questions right. I wondered at that point if blowing the earlier rounds had been strategy, but that seems like a really risky and stupid strategy, since he easily could have been voted off in any of those rounds.

I'm glad Kaya and her perfect game won the money.

[cinsays]

On 11/9/2020 at 11:01 PM, Katy M said:

I am shocked that Spenser didn't vote for Kaya.  She hadn't missed a question the entire game.  Did he really think that was going to work out for him?  Although, he did do incredibly well in the final round but ended up losing on what I thought was a pretty simple question.

Yeah, that was the stupidest move he could make.  He would no doubt won if against the other person.  Kaya was a strong player all the way thru.

 

[cinsays]

On 11/12/2020 at 3:23 PM, 853fisher said:

 

I dare the show to book eight Kayas and really give some cash away.  I know, don't hold my breath!

Yeah, that would be nice, but then not much room for Jane's humor on their dumb answers.

[Meedis]

On 11/12/2020 at 2:23 PM, 853fisher said:

I had to give Spencer props for preferring to face Kaya over taking the easy way out.  Unless those who think maybe he was strategizing differently are right, in which case I take it all back. 😉

 

Wow.  Very intense game.   I too have to give my props to Spencer.     But I'm glad Kaya won.    She definitely had to work for that win.

[Swenson]

I got one more lame joke to add to all the predictably lame jokes.  This show is the weakest link on all of tv.  Goodbye.

[saber5055]

I had this on last night but I only watch during the question portion and skip the unfunny Jane "comments" portion. It was down to three payers and the third was going to be voted off and the final two go head to head on rapid-fire questions, my favorite part of the show, when all the NBC stations/affiliates dropped their signals and all I got was a black screen. The stations came back on when the closing credits were rolling.

I don't care who won since I didn't pay attention to any of the players. I'm just bummed to not see the final quiz off and how much  money the winner got. I wish Jane would quit with all the BS unfunny comments, they drag this show down. I watch for the trivia, can't tolerate Jane's scripted not-humor.

[Katy M]

9 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

I had this on last night but I only watch during the question portion and skip the unfunny Jane "comments" portion. It was down to three payers and the third was going to be voted off and the final two go head to head on rapid-fire questions, my favorite part of the show, when all the NBC stations/affiliates dropped their signals and all I got was a black screen. The stations came back on when the closing credits were rolling.

I don't care who won since I didn't pay attention to any of the players. I'm just bummed to not see the final quiz off and how much  money the winner got. I wish Jane would quit with all the BS unfunny comments, they drag this show down. I watch for the trivia, can't tolerate Jane's scripted not-humor.

Travis and Anna both voted Scott(?) out.  Travis got his first three questions right and Anna missed her first 3 questions.

[saber5055]

2 hours ago, Katy M said:

Travis and Anna both voted Scott(?) out.  Travis got his first three questions right and Anna missed her first 3 questions.

Wow, missing the first three questions. Harsh. I didn't pay attention to anyone's name, just noticed one dude had long blond hair that didn't move when his head moved. Hairspray, anyone? I hope that wasn't Travis.

[Katy M]

7 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

Wow, missing the first three questions. Harsh. I didn't pay attention to anyone's name, just noticed one dude had long blond hair that didn't move when his head moved. Hairspray, anyone? I hope that wasn't Travis.

I think it was, yes.  Anna was the one with blue hair.  I don't remember the questions, but I remember thinking at least one of hers was easy-peasy, even taking into consideration that we all have different areas of expertise.

[saber5055]

2 hours ago, Katy M said:

Anna was the one with blue hair. 

I do remember Blue Hair lady. Thanks!

[853fisher]

I had to laugh when Krystal said she voted for Shaun in part because he had passed rather than just trying any old answer.  Has she been reading our spirited discussions on passing? 😉

I really liked a few of these contestants.  Anna, the rock and roll bartender or whatever she said she was with blue hair, tried and failed not to look like the cat who got the cream the couple times she got music questions.  Tough ending, but the guy she beat had previously seemed pretty solid too.

Thanks, by the way, to those who pointed out above that Jane probably says stuff like "I will accept that answer," whether or not there was a bank at the end of the round, for stat calculations.  Makes sense.  I do wish they would always give an answer, even when the contestant doesn't make it that far.

Did anyone find the audience noise a bit much on this episode?  I hadn't noticed it much on the earlier ones, but this time some of the transitions out to commercial sounded positively rhapsodic.  If nobody would be generally cheering there, don't have the computerized crowd do it, show!

[ByaNose]

I’m actually enjoying the show. I know a lot of the answers but I think I would freeze having to know it right away. I wanted Scott the bartender with to win. He was dressed so nicely and knew a lot of the answers. Which is why he got squeezed out at the final 3. The other two were like, “No fricken way!” LOL!!!

[Katy M]

8 hours ago, ByaNose said:

I’m actually enjoying the show. I know a lot of the answers but I think I would freeze having to know it right away.

That and you don't get all the questions so you just know that the ones that you got would be the ones you don't know.

[ByaNose]

2 hours ago, Katy M said:

That and you don't get all the questions so you just know that the ones that you got would be the ones you don't know.

Yeah, I see that when the other contestants appear to know it when another one doesn’t. The luck of the draw. It looks like it averages to be 3 questions per contestant so even if you miss one you stand out. 

[Racj82]

Oh my fuck God this has to be the worst crop of contestants put together. That last round was world class bad. And then just ignoring how terrible Aaron was cost them so much money.

[ams1001]

7 hours ago, Racj82 said:

Oh my fuck God this has to be the worst crop of contestants put together. That last round was world class bad. And then just ignoring how terrible Aaron was cost them so much money.

They kept banking after one question. Drove me nuts. (Though at the rate they were going, if they didn't they wouldn't have had any money.)

[Racj82]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

They kept banking after one question. Drove me nuts. (Though at the rate they were going, if they didn't they wouldn't have had any money.)

Yes, the constant low banking was killing me. On the other hand, like you said, these people were never going to get a long string going. Erica banking after Aaron bombed another question was icing on the cake.

[saber5055]

On 11/20/2020 at 1:20 AM, 853fisher said:

I had to laugh when Krystal said she voted for Shaun in part because he had passed rather than just trying any old answer.  Has she been reading our spirited discussions on passing? 😉

Actually, that's backward thinking because a fast PASS keeps the clock moving while stalling around trying to come up with a dumb wrong answer runs the clock out. Not that any of these players know anything about more time equals more banking. Or how this show should work.

Last night's show was a real capper. The stupidest guy there went home with more than $44,000, a reward for being a dumbass and self-absorbed moron. His "look at me" attitude was barf inducing. Any creep off the street can get on this show, obviously, and win enough to continue unemployment for a few more years.

[853fisher]

Sounds like I'm in for a treat when I get to last night's episode.  I'll be sure and watch after my nightcap and not before. 😉 

49 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

Actually, that's backward thinking because a fast PASS keeps the clock moving while stalling around trying to come up with a dumb wrong answer runs the clock out.

Right, exactly!  If you can spit something out immediately if you're blank, fine.  Like, have a common last name you'll shout if the question asks for a person and you don't have one.  Otherwise, pass and get on with it.

[saber5055]

28 minutes ago, 853fisher said:

Sounds like I'm in for a treat when I get to last night's episode.  I'll be sure and watch after my nightcap and not before. 😉 

Make that nightcap a double. Or better yet, a triple.

[iMonrey]

This was, without a doubt, the dumbest group of contestants yet. I wish I had kept a running list of easy questions they couldn't answer but I wouldn't have been able to keep up. OMG. Please, please get smarter contestants! Clearly this show is just picking players for diversity and entertainment value rather than getting applicants who are good at trivia. I don't know that anyone actually had the chance to apply for this show. I suspect they are casting out of a reality show casting agency. I honestly don't know where else they'd be getting these morons.

Look, I'm no genius, but I feel confident in saying I regularly know 75% of the answers on this show. These contestants were batting around 10% collectively.

That was was an embarrassing, painful final round to top off an embarrassing episode altogether.

[Katy M]

7 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I don't know that anyone actually had the chance to apply for this show.

They had an open call back in August. The two requirements were that you were 18 and that you live within a 2 hour drive of L.A.

[Racj82]

I forgot one of the best on this episode. Erica who kept answering questions with people's names whether that made sense or not.

What is the name of the Bruno Mars song with this lyric?

Well of course Nikki Minaj is the answer to that question.

[Violet Penner]

That was cringe worthy and made me consider quitting the show. My 6-year-old niece would have gotten yield sign, spelling respect, Uptown Funk and the pizza question. I thought I was being punked! May have to abandon and stick with Jeopardy. It’s bad enough when they suck at banking money, but this was legit awful and not fun to watch. 

[dmeets]

That batch of contestants deserved to lose to a guy who missed two 50/50 questions, including one for which he decided to choose neither option!

Edited November 25, 2020 by dmeets

[geauxaway]

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.  Not that hard 😂

[Eolivet]

They always claim the contestants have never met, but about halfway through the show, I start getting weird "alliance" vibes. Maybe they're just insta-alliances, formed of nothing but "you didn't vote for me," like the show turns into Survivor and people start keeping around who they can beat. But not always. It's confusing, and it always takes me out of the action when I can't figure out the vote.

I continue to enjoy Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester-lite act, though.

[ams1001]

On 11/28/2020 at 10:06 AM, Eolivet said:

I continue to enjoy Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester-lite act, though.

lol...one of her little pre-vote insults tonight was "who is still confused that I'm not wearing a tracksuit?" 😄 

[ams1001]

This group wasn't nearly as stupid as last week (at least judging by my frustration level as I watched), and definitely seemed to be having a lot more fun, but at one point they had 8 correct answers in a row but no one banked. Then later on they kept banking after one question. 

Despite the man-bun, I was rooting for Matt. He had nice arms. After that, Hasanna. I was kind of hoping it'd be down to the two of them. If only for the romantic tension. 😘

 

[iMonrey]

Hasanna was robbed! But it was probably smart game play to vote her off. Much better lineup in this one. The first round they actually built up a long chain. That's the longest one I've seen so far in the revival. Too bad they couldn't keep up that momentum, I guess they lost confidence in themselves. 

[Spunkygal]

Jane is crushing it as host. Love her!

[853fisher]

"The Goldbergs" is pretty execrable these days: if you're not already on that train by habit, don't get on it.  But they had a guest actor playing the cruise director the other night, Mona Mira, and I thought she looked terribly familiar.  I didn't recognize any of the other acting credits on her IMDB page, but I was interested to learn that she is a writer for this show.  She is also doing Lilly Singh's late night shows and has, of course, a podcast.  She is trying way too hard for me, but here's her website.  I thought that was interesting.

[DB in CMH]

On 11/11/2020 at 3:42 PM, saber5055 said:

It might be just me, but the novelty of this show has worn off and I find Jane's constant digs and bad jokes tedious, boring and not funny nor clever. I flipped the channel while she was droning on. And on. And on some more. *snore*

Watching this episode, I clicked in to me why I stopped watching the original: exactly this. there's a huge novelty factor, and once that wears off, it grates.

 

[Shelbie]

I record the show and fast forward so I only watch the questions and answers part. Makes it much more enjoyable. Life is too short to listen to endless insults.

[ams1001]

Aw, man, I was rooting for Jack. He's smart and cute in a nerdy sorta way.

 

[ByaNose]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

Aw, man, I was rooting for Jack. He's smart and cute in a nerdy sorta way.

 

And, Emilio, too.
 

BTW! I wanted to hate this show but I really like it. While Jane Lynch isn’t come up with the one liners they totally apply to the contestants. The one girl who kept banging her buzzer for each answer was cracking (annoying) me up. I didn’t think the show would call her on it but they did. It was hysterical. Jack did deserve to win but it was smart of the other two to vote him off. Goodbye!

[ams1001]

9 hours ago, ByaNose said:

And, Emilio, too.

I would have accepted a Jack vs. Emilio final matchup. 🙂

[iMonrey]

Quote

Aw, man, I was rooting for Jack. He's smart and cute in a nerdy sorta way.

Yeah that was a tough call. Clearly Jack could mop the floor with any of them, so maybe he should have pulled back a little. I felt bad for Emilio too but he did miss the last couple of questions. Overall this was a better batch of contestant than we usually have.

Question: In each round Jane gives a dollar amount which she describes as the "maximum" amount possible to bank. Does that mean in the round or per chain? For instance, the first round goes up to $25,000. But what if (by some miracle) they actually manage to build the chain all the way up to $25K and there's still time on the clock? Couldn't they conceivable bank even more than $25K by starting a new chain?

[saber5055]

It was smart to vote Jack off (wow, don't read that sentence out loud) but I thought John -- was that his name? -- did well and I was glad he won the money. It would have been fun to see a Jack vs. John final that kept going and going and going.

I was rooting for Emilio too. I really liked him. I thought all the players were pretty good on this episode.

About @iMonrey's question ... I'd say the show has the time down so a chain can't start over if it ever reaches the top. While Jane makes fun of the piddly money amounts, and I'm sure they are to her, going home with more than $80,000 (about $50,000 actual money after taxes) is a pretty good day's work IMO. I wouldn't turn it down. But yeah, it's barely lunch money for Jane.

Does anyone know the max amount of banked money in the original show? Since the contestant pool isn't the strongest right now, I'd hesitate to let a chain get too long on this version.

[Katy M]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Question: In each round Jane gives a dollar amount which she describes as the "maximum" amount possible to bank. Does that mean in the round or per chain? For instance, the first round goes up to $25,000. But what if (by some miracle) they actually manage to build the chain all the way up to $25K and there's still time on the clock? Couldn't they conceivable bank even more than $25K by starting a new chain?

If they actually get to the top of the chain that round is over regardless of how much time is left on the clock.  That's the max amount for that round.

[iMonrey]

Yeah, I can understand the temptation to just keep hitting bank, but just once I'd love to see them get to the top of the chain. I don't think I've ever seen them do it - not once on any iteration of this show.

[853fisher]

The contestants did seem a little stronger than usual last night.  I think they had enough correct answers in a row at one point, in the third or fourth round, that they would have earned the full value had they not banked midstream.  I was surprised this wasn't mentioned.  The game has always been played this way, but when the contestant voted off at the last hurdle is head and shoulders stronger than the others, it's a bit less fun for me.  I have great respect for those who choose to face a stronger final player in the end.

15 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Just once I'd love to see them get to the top of the chain. I don't think I've ever seen them do it - not once on any iteration of this show.

I have watched the show on and off in different iterations for years.  I have seen it probably fewer than a dozen times but more than a half-dozen, almost always in the first round.  It is so infrequent that it is very exciting, but with the current crop of contestants I don't think we should hold our breath.

6 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Does anyone know the max amount of banked money in the original show?

I believe the maximum in each round of the American primetime series was $125K and the last two players did one last round before the faceoff, in which the values were doubled.  So six rounds plus the doubled seventh made the same potential top prize as today, $1M.  The British show which came out first and lasted longer was usually played with nine rather than eight players for much less cash, as is the norm on the publicly-funded BBC. They did up to £1K a round in seven rounds with an eighth final round before the faceoff in which the values were, as Anne said, trebled, for a maximum total of £10K.  The final round before the face-off decreased incentive to vote off a stronger player at the end, which was a positive in my eyes.  When the American syndicated run dropped it, it became far more common to get rid of the MVP at that point.

Edited January 12, 2021 by 853fisher
forgot last point

[ByaNose]

I will add the first girl voted off was really bad. She must have had major game show-itis. Very similar to Cindy Brady. LOL!!!