Jeopardy! Season 38 (2021-2022)

[ams1001]

5 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

I had luck catching an episode I missed last week on YouTube later that evening, so good luck to you. And an early happy birthday to your mom. That's a special event and worthy of a YouTube search later.

It's interesting to me how many viewers don't watch this show to play along to see how many clues/answers they can get correct. Contestants and how they play aren't important to me, I remember only a handful of past players, and no One And Dones. I watch to see how much I know and maybe learn something. And if I know a category (say, Purebred Dogs), starting at the low-dollar clues is not smart play. These contestants are on the show with the objective to win, not to make viewers at home happy.

I will add, however, that my current teevee boyfriend is making me very happy.

She'll be 77! (Also, filet mignon. 🥩)

When they had the governor debate on recently I found the episode later the same night, too, so whoever does it gets it up quickly. If I don't get home in time for my other shows I'll just wait until the weekend to watch on demand, but I'll want to watch J! before I read any comments about it. I go through withdrawal from this thread so I don't want to wait too long.

I, too, watch for the game. A player I like is bonus. Tired of people complaining about "what's" though. Especially when they frame it as it should be against the rules. It's not so quit whining. (I get how it can be annoying, though.) The last-name-only thing I'm a little iffier on, depending on the clue.

Edited October 11, 2021 by ams1001

[HyeChaps]

If it's a president and they say Adams or Roosevelt, they should specify.

[sd dude]

On 10/8/2021 at 7:26 PM, possibilities said:

I also said "giraffe" for FJ, because I had heard a story about how no one believed such a creature was real when first discovered. But as soon as I saw "platypus" I knew that giraffe was not what they were looking for.

I found the FJ category to be much stranger than the clue.  Southern Hemisphere?  And the answer had nothing to do with geography, geology, meterology, other earth science, or the like?  It was an animal that happens to be indigenous to the Southern Hemisphere?  It honestly left me thinking they could make their jobs much easier by simply making the FJ category The Universe, The Space-Time Continuum, or maybe just Final Jeopardy in perpetuity since every single possible answer to every single clue would appropriately fit under the category.

Now, I did guess that FJ correctly, and I suppose it begs the question whether the category assisted me in responding correctly, in contrast to whether the FJ category had been Biology, Zoology, or Fauna.  The truth is I'm not sure.  Duck-billed platypus did occur to me primarily based on the clue, although I suppose knowing the category at least left me assured that my best guess was consistent with same.  At any rate, given the category, the clue did seem like a bit of a non-sequitur, if not technically inaccurate.

[Katy M]

I said kangaroo for FJ, because sewing made me think of pockets (pouches).

[Bastet]

12 hours ago, JMarie99 said:

ringing in before he knows the answer

That's just Strategy 101.  Contestant after contestant has said most contestants know most of the answers, either immediately or with enough seconds to think about it, so the strategy to playing the game is in how one traverses the board and, ultimately, buzzer timing (which is both strategy and luck) can become the determining factor.

If odds are - based on the category and the fact you made it onto J! in the first place - you're going to know the answer to a given clue, of course you buzz, hope you got in first, and then hope the odds being in your favor mean you indeed can spit out the correct response in time.  It's nothing specific to any one champion.

[ABay]

Ken Jennings did the same thing.

[Clanstarling]

4 hours ago, HyeChaps said:

If it's a president and they say Adams or Roosevelt, they should specify.

Or Johnson

[Prevailing Wind]

41 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

Or Johnson

Or Harrison

[j5cochran]

5 hours ago, HyeChaps said:

If it's a president and they say Adams or Roosevelt, they should specify.

 

50 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

Or Johnson

 

9 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Or Harrison

Or Bush

[SoMuchTV]

10 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Or Harrison

Ooh, I'll play.  Or Bush.

ETA:  Dang it, I got beat to the "enter" button.

Edited October 11, 2021 by SoMuchTV

[Bliss]

Well dangitall... Knew it would happen eventually.

Hopefully, it won't be another 17 years until the next serial winner.

Enjoyed you so much, Matt... thanK you!

On a more positive note, Happy Canadian ThanKsgiving and may y'all stuff yourselves with pumpKin pie.

[Roaster]

This was the best game since the Tournament of Champions.  Jonathan and Jessica trading the lead several times.  Jonathan missed the (I thought easy) George Washington DD to fall behind, but immediately rebounded with the English Patient DD to take a small lead into the Finals.  All three contestants finished DJ with over 10,000, and that doesn't happen often.

If J! had more games like this, their ratings would go up.
 

[Bliss]

Can't help but wonder what Jonathan's bowing thoughts were... for me, it would be, "Holy ****... WTF just happened?"

[853fisher]

I was disappointed to have the game spoiled for me.  I watch on YouTube and, depending on my lunch schedule, sometimes catch it while the uploader is still "live."  The top comment in the chat window, before I could close it and well before the game's "live" conclusion, was "shame Matt lost today!"  Some people are, at best, very thoughtless.

Anyway, congratulations to him.  I enjoyed watching him play and hope he will make fruitful use of his newfound platform.  I think we should all be grateful that he came along when he did, even those who would have preferred fewer runaways or a different personas.  That reads pointed, but I just mean that it was probably a good thing the media had something else to discuss besides the behind-the-scenes turmoil we're still not entirely out of the woods on, and we all benefit when the show is strengthened, or at least its detractors sidetracked.

I'm not sure just when it fell apart, but that seemed sort of like an odd game.  Is there any chance Matt was Mike Richards' last horcrux?  I bet the remaining 8 contestants for the week took a deep breath out.  I'll look forward to what happens next.

[Bastet]

I'll be watching football tonight, so I checked the archive;  I'll have to have to switch over around 7:25 to see everyone's reaction to Matt losing!  In fact, since none of "my" teams are playing, I may watch the whole episode to see how things played out - from the archive what I can tell is that Matt didn't land on a single DD, so wasn't able to pull way ahead with big wagers on those, and Jessica and Jonathan had strong trajectories in DJ (while Matt's was rather flat with some dips) and wagered smartly in FJ.  I kind of wish they could have both won.

Thankfully, there weren't many clues with visual hints, so not being able to see them was irrelevant - I either knew it anyway (Mubarak) or wouldn't have known it even with the picture (Venom and Boise).

There only being one guess in the nose TS surprised me since there are only a handful of sense organs to choose from (I picked the right one as a lucky guess).

I ran 2011, biographies, and anagrams, and missed one each in the other first round categories, so I was off to a good start.  In DJ, I only ran meaning and abbreviations, but missed eight across the other categories, so not bad for that round.  And FJ was nearly an instaget, so I had a great game.

[853fisher]

RE "Recent Movies," when a category is really in my wheelhouse, I like to consider whether I "agreed" with the difficulty suggested by the dollar amounts. The only one I hadn't even heard of was "Resistance" in the $2000 slot, so that scans (although I note it was at-home on-demand only, and I don't enjoy watching movies that way, so I don't bother).  I might have moved "The Meg" up a few boxes, especially since it was the least recent, but otherwise I think the placements made sense.

One last thing: I hated the little plug for the new "Venom" movie, which is of course a Sony affair.   Yes, I know we have full categories sometimes, but that seems less gratuitous to me somehow.  I hope we don't get a lot of that moving forward.  I think it's a slippery slope.

[saber5055]

Well, it's a sad day* at the Saber household. Combine 24/7 rain, tornado warnings and the most depressing Jeopardy episode ever, I guess it was a fitting ending.

If Matt had spent a few days with me during his break, I would have taught him all that farmer lingo so he would have had $4,800 more in his bank and I wouldn't have had to keep yelling the answers to those three Farmer Lingo TSs. (And yes, "toad" deserved a BMS.)

As Matt W. posted over at TJF: "... I hope the people who were “sick” of Matt enjoy the next 17 years of (relative) mediocrity."

*sad day, sad week, sad month and year.

[ams1001]

Is this the first time Mayim didn't say Johnny Gilbert's full name? She had a couple pretty good quips tonight (don't expect me to remember what they were, but she got a couple small but genuine laughs from me). Also got a "genre"!

Jonathan looks like a young John C. Reilly.

Wow, Matt got none of the DDs!

Round 1 wasn't too bad; I missed one in each category except Potpourri where I missed three.

Round 2 wasn't too good; I ran Med. Abbrev. Missed 2-3 in every other category except Literary Titles where I missed 4. (However, I'm giving myself the point for saying "shark" for megalodon.)

Got 2 DDs and my only TS was bushel.

I got FJ but I thought it was too obvious; glad I stuck with it.

73% / 63% / 64%

That was a good game. Sad to see Matt go. :( I accidentally saw the beginning of Bliss's comment that led me to believe he lost but clicked away before I could verify it wasn't about something else (though I didn't know what else it could be).

I had to give Jonathan a small round of applause from my couch.
 

Edited October 11, 2021 by ams1001

[Katy M]

i got FJ. I wanted to say Switzerland, but don't really know why.

I got the missed clues of gaggle, nose, and survey.

And I have nothing against Matt, but glad to see him go.  I get sick of long-term champs.

2 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Ooh, I'll play.  Or Bush.

ETA:  Dang it, I got beat to the "enter" button.

But they both have the same first name:)

[GreekGeek]

53 minutes ago, 853fisher said:

I was disappointed to have the game spoiled for me.  I watch on YouTube and, depending on my lunch schedule, sometimes catch it while the uploader is still "live."  The top comment in the chat window, before I could close it and well before the game's "live" conclusion, was "shame Matt lost today!"  Some people are, at best, very thoughtless.

 

I was about to comment that the big news seemed well contained; I was online for a large part of the day and did not stumble across any spoilers.

 

31 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

 

As Matt W. posted over at TJF: "... I hope the people who were “sick” of Matt enjoy the next 17 years of (relative) mediocrity."

 

That's unfair; nobody has any idea what sort of contestants are waiting in the wings. James Holzhauer's streak was just a little over two years ago.

[M. Darcy]

It’s finally over!! At least he beat James‘s record.  Ken’s record is safe! 

The local channel totally gave it away when they had a commercial and asked if Matt was in Jeopardy. 

Edited October 12, 2021 by M. Darcy

[SoMuchTV]

5 minutes ago, Katy M said:

But they both have the same first name:)

Be more specific!

[bad things are bad]

Matt was not at all sharp today, he looked like he had checked out early.  Makes Ken's streak all that more impressive 

[blueray]

I'm glad to say I was not spoiled for this.

I have to admit I cheered when the guy got both double jeopardy and I believe she got the first one. I was kind of glad to see them take Matt down. Its also interesting that this was the first game also to be the closest and only one I remember that wasn't a runaway for Matt.

I also got FJ. I knew that to be a country that boarders the alps based on the question. And I was able to eliminate Italy and Switzerland right away and knew that Poland doesn't boarder it. 

 

[Browncoat]

Yay!  I was getting so tired of/bored with the runaway games.  This was a real contest!  And it really did come down to FJ.  Which I got.  Good for me!

I also got the TS of bushel and milking, and the missed DD of survey.

Genre!

 

[bankerchick]

34 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

Jonathan looks like a young John C. Reilly.

Yes!  Or, I was thinking the kid from Bad Santa, all grown up.

[Mindthinkr]

I had a good game. I got the TSs of gaggle, bushel, milking, nose, the missed DD of survey and Austria came easily to me. I thought Matt was off. He seemed subdued and I can’t imagine that he didn’t know FJ or try to ring in on the medical abbreviations. 

[Prevailing Wind]

8 minutes ago, bad things are bad said:

Matt was not at all sharp today, he looked like he had checked out early.  Makes Ken's streak all that more impressive 

Perhaps he missed Mike Richards.  Bwahahaaaahahahhaha.

I was kind of apathetic about Matt. Hated the "What's..." but he seemed like a nice guy who knew his stuff. But after a while, runaway games get boring.  I'm not happy, but satisfied that he's no longer champion. It was a decidedly good run for him. As AT would say, "Good for you!"

When they introduced the challengers, I had a fleeting thought that the guy from Coral Gables might be the one to take Matt. I don't know why I thought that.

Near the beginning of the game, my local station ran a banner across the bottom of the screen that Wednesday's show will be aired on their sister station because of the Atlanta Mayoral debate.  So TAKE NOTE, Metro Atlantans - Wednesday, Channel 36.

[NoReally]

11 minutes ago, bad things are bad said:

Matt was not at all sharp today, he looked like he had checked out early.  Makes Ken's streak all that more impressive 

Agree that he seemed to check out.

He was off on his buzzer work and answered incorrectly more times than I can remember. 

Plus, FJ was a total instaget, especially for someone with his knowledge of history and geography. I can't imagine how he missed it.

Unless he was just tired of playing and wanted to get back to his Ph.D. work.

[Mondrianyone]

I haven't posted here in ages, but I wanted to pop in and say how happy I am that our long national nightmare is over.

I won $10 grand on TV when I was in my early twenties (back when that was enough money to finance a year's vacation), so if that makes me mediocre, I'm okay with it. I couldn't stand this robotic form of play, and I'm very glad it's over till next time.

[ams1001]

3 minutes ago, NoReally said:

Plus, FJ was a total instaget, especially for someone with his knowledge of history and geography. I can't imagine how he missed it.

Maybe he overthought it? I felt like it was obvious and I'm not that great with geography; I went with it because I couldn't think of anything else. Oh, well, at least he left me with a Mattsterisk for his last game. 

Maybe he was just getting tired. It did seem like the others managed to buzz in a lot more than his previous challengers did.

[Quickbeam]

Poland! Come on. I got a “I am over this” vibe. And good for him, get on with your life.

[Katy M]

25 minutes ago, blueray said:

I have to admit I cheered when the guy got both double jeopardy and I believe she got the first one. I was kind of glad to see them take Matt down. Its also interesting that this was the first game also to be the closest and only one I remember that wasn't a runaway for Matt.

I feel like there was another game that wasn't a runaway, but he was head and all 3 ended up getting FJ wrong.  But, I could totally be making stuff up.

[M. Darcy]

While I think the other two played a really great game and not to take anything away from them, Matt might have also just hit the wall mentally.  It’s exhausting playing that many games (through a million different hosts) and that was a lot of traveling he had to do. 

[Snow Apple]

I had urgent work matters so missed everything except final jeopardy. I turned on the tv, saw the scores, and thought "what the heck?"

 I'm happy though. Hope nobody else picks up the "what's" habit as the answer to every person, place, or thing.

Edited October 12, 2021 by Snow Apple
spelling

[DonnaMae]

Matt's gone? 😪

 

[ams1001]

1 minute ago, Snow Apple said:

 I'm happy though. Hope nobody else picks up the "what's" habit as the answer to every person, place, or thing.

Me, too, if for no other reason than people will start whining about how they're trying to be Matt. It's not like people don't occasionally use contractions, or "what is" for a person or whatever, but it's really noticeable when it's consistent like that.

[Bastet]

35 minutes ago, blueray said:

Its also interesting that this was the first game also to be the closest and only one I remember that wasn't a runaway for Matt.

I looked this up earlier; there were only six games prior to this one where it was possible heading into FJ that someone could beat Matt (in one of those the best someone could do was tie him, so they could have beat him if they did that and then won the tie-breaker).

Five of those six were last season; until today, there was only one this season that wasn't a runaway for Matt.

[bybrandy]

I mean wouldn't the last serial run have been James Holzhaur?  So not a 17 year wait, really.  I'm glad I got the final Matstrisk but I'm confused that he didn't.

 

Edited October 12, 2021 by bybrandy

[secnarf]

I am so sad Matt lost. I really liked him and enjoyed watching him win.

I had recently taken to checking ahead of time if he won, so I wouldn't be stressed while watching the game. Did that today just after the game started and gasped out loud, thus ruining it for my family watching with me 🤦‍♀️ Even NYT waited until 8:02 before pushing out the phone notification.

I did find Austria to be quite easy, and was surprised Matt missed it, though it wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome of the game. He seemed extremely off tonight.

[laredhead]

It seemed that everything went wrong for Matt, and then he missed several questions which was unusual for him.  It was like his buzzer skills weren't sharp, and then he missed the 2 DD's in double jeopardy which usually built up a big lead for him in past games.  One or two mistakes he could overcome, but he was playing against 2 good opponents.  Seemed like what could go wrong, did.  

Edited October 12, 2021 by laredhead
Correcting spelling

[catlover79]

It was nice to see a "real" game and not a runaway. Nothing against Matt, nice guy, hails from my state but I was more than ready for his streak to end. He had a great run, he'll probably win ToC later and I'm sure they'll be putting together specials in the near future so he can face off with Ken and James. 

Maybe it's just me, but I get bored watching long winning streaks. At least I wasn't spoiled about the end of this streak like I was James'.

[ams1001]

4 minutes ago, catlover79 said:

It was nice to see a "real" game and not a runaway. Nothing against Matt, nice guy, hails from my state but I was more than ready for his streak to end. He had a great run, he'll probably win ToC later and I'm sure they'll be putting together specials in the near future so he can face off with Ken and James. 

Except Ken works for the show so he can't play again (unless it's some kind of exhibition thing with no cash prize, maybe...)

[catlover79]

1 minute ago, ams1001 said:

Except Ken works for the show so he can't play again (unless it's some kind of exhibition thing with no cash prize, maybe...)

Wasn't he already working for the show when they had the GOAT tourney?

[shapeshifter]

Feeling a little...
defeated.

I've been sleepless due to reasons and noticed last night Matt was seemingly spending too much time on Twitter. I considered tweeting a motherly Go to bed! at him. IDK. Might've been a factor.

I recently read an interview in which Matt mentioned the importance of getting into a "rhythm" of buzzing in, and how when that was interrupted, it was hard to get it back.

My first thought for FJ was Austria. Didn't Matt cross out something? Austria?

I got the missed DD of survey.
For the noisome TS, I said smell. Wrong, right?

Looking forward to seeing Matt in the next TOC.

Hope he completes his PhD. 
 

 

[Katy M]

4 minutes ago, catlover79 said:

Wasn't he already working for the show when they had the GOAT tourney?

No, he started working on he show in Sept 2020.  

[catlover79]

Just now, Katy M said:

No, he started working on he show in Sept 2020.  

OK, thanks. Maybe J! could put together a Ken/James/Matt game where all the winnings go to charity?

[ams1001]

6 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

My first thought for FJ was Austria. Didn't Matt cross out something? Austria?

I got the missed DD of survey.
For the noisome TS, I said smell. Wrong, right?

 

The archive just says "a few letters crossed out."

I missed survey and then said "duh."

It was asking for the sensory organ, so yes, wrong.

 

[853fisher]

I've seen it argued elsewhere that Matt will have known Austria was the obvious answer, and suspected that the other players would bet big, so he chose Poland thinking that his only hope was being the only one to get it right with a non-obvious answer.  I don't know, that's a few orders of thinking too intricate for me.  I think he just ran out of gas, but I thought it was an interesting suggestion.

[possibilities]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

Jonathan looks like a young John C. Reilly.

 

He really does! I kept wondering who this contestant was that I knew from somewhere!

I knew nose, bushel, gaggle, and nematode. 

Matt seemed off his game all episode. Has he ever been beaten to the buzzer this many times? And not just by only one of the challengers, either. Plus, he got a bunch of stuff wrong, which also seemed not like him. I'll miss him. I wanted him to exceed James in $$ and Ken in # of wins. I like other players, too, though.

I thought Mayim was rude when she exclaimed that she didn't know why anyone would do a Star Trek to Shakespeare conversion. For fun, obviously. If it's not your thing, that's fine. But since when is the host supposed to disrespect the contestant's story on this show? He handled it okay, so good for him. It could have felt like a punch to the gut. If you can't have a hybrid SciFi/HighLit nerd hobby as a Jeopardy person, where can you??