Jeopardy! Season 38 (2021-2022)

[HyeChaps]

Since this was a Monday, it was the first taping of the day. They should all have been fresh and rested. 

[853fisher]

3 minutes ago, possibilities said:

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??

I thought she said "I feel like, why would anyone do that?  But that's awesome."  I would have absolutely hated that she said it, without the second sentence.  I still agree with you that she didn't need to say anything, but she saved it for me.

By the way, I did a reading of one of these with friends, just at home sitting around the sofas with maybe 15 or so people/. It was fun!  So that's why. ;) 

[Prevailing Wind]

In case anyone's wondering WTH a Mattsterisk is...it's because you don't read the FJ Contest thread.  We award ourselves asterisks if we get the FJ when no contestant did. Then we started awarding ourselves Mattsterisks if we got the FJ and Matt didn't, regardless of the other two responses.  Today was a Mattsterisk if you got FJ.

[CraftyHazel]

I’m sad.  I loved Matt. .😢

I had taken to spoiling myself, too, and when I saw the new champion pictured, I thought I was being punked.  I didn’t even watch the show yet, because I really had grown to enjoy Matt and I don’t know if I can enjoy the game knowing he lost.  I’ll probably just delete it and start watching again tomorrow.

Maybe I’m an oddball, but I actually like a long winning streak on Jeopardy.  It takes a lot of skill just to get on the show, but then to follow that taping schedule and keep on winning…and usually by quite a lot…is something special.

 I’m going to miss Matt.

[GreekGeek]

20 minutes ago, 853fisher said:

I thought she said "I feel like, why would anyone do that?  But that's awesome."  I would have absolutely hated that she said it, without the second sentence.  I still agree with you that she didn't need to say anything, but she saved it for me.

 

I thought it was an attempt at humorous teasing that didn't quite come off. It's not the first time a host has done that. Remember when a contestant said her hobby was nerd rapping and Alex asked what sort of people did that. After her response, he said, "In other words, losers."

[853fisher]

17 minutes ago, GreekGeek said:

I thought it was an attempt at humorous teasing that didn't quite come off. It's not the first time a host has done that. Remember when a contestant said her hobby was nerd rapping and Alex asked what sort of people did that. After her response, he said, "In other words, losers."

Oh, I have no doubt it was intended good-naturedly.  Nobody will stick the landing 100% of the time.  I just don't like those kinds of comments no matter who makes them.  I roll my eyes wondering why that person is so unimaginative.

[Bastet]

This shows (starting at 2:21) what was said between Mayim and the contestants after the sign-off:

 

[MrAtoz]

Matt looked tired, and he may well have been.  I've heard that, to accommodate the Mike Richards firing and Mayim's schedule, they went to filming three days a week, rather than the normal two.  Playing in all five games two days in a row has got to be tiring.  Having to do another day after that would have to take a toll.

It's weird to think, when Matt was giving those interviews where he said that he'd like to win one more game than Ken Jennings, he must have already known that that wouldn't happen.

Maybe after the TOC, they'll ask him to join The Chase. 

[shapeshifter]

17 minutes ago, Bastet said:

https://youtu.be/6Mk5Mj43xIk?t=77

I can't tell what Matt crossed out. Anyone else? (not that it matters; just curious; maybe he'll tell on Twitter)

 

 

9 minutes ago, MrAtoz said:

Maybe after the TOC, they'll ask him to join The Chase. 

Isn't Matt too nice to be a Chaser?

 

Edited October 12, 2021 by shapeshifter

[kathyk2]

I was unspoiled for tonight. I knew gaggle nose and bushel and Final Jeopardy due to Danube in the clue. I think Jonathan and Jessica were smart and quick on the buzzer. He won not because of anything Matt did.

[Hpmec]

There's no way Matt didn't know the correct FJ answer. Geography and history are two of his strengths. The clue mentioned Danube and Alps. I suspect he was tired, had been beaten at the buzzer numerous times, and was generally off his game throughout. He was simply throwing in the towel and calling it a streak. 

[opus]

5 minutes ago, MrAtoz said:

Maybe after the TOC, they'll ask him to join The Chase. 

I thought about that, wondering what his nickname would be.

[zoey1996]

I don’t want to sound too gleeful, but I’m not sorry Matt finally lost! I don’t mind long winning streaks, but I don’t like too many runaways, where the challengers are just so much fodder with barely a chance.

I liked Jessica, but I’m OK with the new champion, for now at least. Also liked I wasn’t spoiled for this game’s outcome.

[saber5055]

4 minutes ago, opus said:

I thought about that, wondering what his nickname would be.

I can think of a couple. :-))

[opus]

28 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

I can think of a couple. :-))

I came up with The Valedictorian 

[sd dude]

Poland did seem like an unlikely response, especially from Matt.  I wonder if he just overthought it, or really did decide to take a dive on FJ after a less than stellar performance in the first two rounds.  I find the latter a little hard to believe.  And let's remember that he did not lose the game in FJ, in that his performance on that clue turned out to be irrelevant. Even if he had written the correct response and bet his entire bank (a perfect FJ, if you will), he still would have lost the game.

I do think he could have overthought the answer, as that is exactly what happened to me. The two responses that came to mind for me were Austria first and then Czechoslovakia.  I couldn't remember for sure which of those countries the Danube runs through but the Alps should have given it away (I might have just recalled that rather obscure Julie Andrews musical about the Von Trapp family).  At any rate, I wrestled in my mind for most of the 30 seconds until finally mentally locking in Czechoslovakia, final answer, at the buzzer.  Wrong choice.  Sticking with one's first intuition usually pays off.  Not sure what Matt had crossed out, but that first letter may have been a C, and he was worried about possibly misspelling or missyllablizing the name of the country?  At least he was sure about how to spell Poland. . .

[Blakeston]

2 hours ago, 853fisher said:

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.

This makes total sense to me. He felt like his only chance of winning was if the clue was trickier than it appeared, and he was the only contestant to guess it, so he went with the longshot.

I, for one, am really glad that we might have some actual close races this week. Watching Matt steamroll everyone over and over was sucking the joy out of the show for me.

[The Wild Sow]

58 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I can't tell what Matt crossed out. Anyone else? (not that it matters; just curious; maybe he'll tell on Twitter)

 

 

Isn't Matt too nice to be a Chaser?

 

It looks like he crossed out Germany (which would make no sense.)  Poland is nowhere near the Danube, and it doesn't have any Alps!

[SomeTameGazelle]

4 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Jonathan looks like a young John C. Reilly.

I saw him as Jason Alexander with hair. 

I liked Matt and had hoped he would last until an episode with Ken Jennings as host. But he had a great run. 

Edited October 12, 2021 by SomeTameGazelle

[The Wild Sow]

4 minutes ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Jonathan looks like a young John C. Reilly

That's it!

[30 Helens]

Agreed that Matt wasn’t himself all game. He looked really unhappy. I was sure he was going to pull through at the end, though, because I hadn’t seen anything about him losing. I’m shocked I missed all spoilers— or was the Internet/news media just not as taken with him as some of his predecessors and so it wasn’t as big of a story?

Either way, I’ll miss him. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

4 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Jonathan looks like a young John C. Reilly.

Yeah, I can see that. But I was thinking Will Ferrell, in his SNL days.

47 minutes ago, opus said:

I came up with The Valedictorian 

”The MegaWhat”?  (Megawatt)

”What’s-his-name”?

Edited October 12, 2021 by 30 Helens

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Isn't Matt too nice to be a Chaser?

They put on personas as The Chaser.  I doubt they all enjoy talking trash but that's what the producers want them to do.  It's why some of them come off as more natural at it than others. 

I doubt Matt threw the game.  If you're going to throw a game, why would you do it on the show's equivalent of a Monday?  I think you'd just ride out the day and tank on the Friday. 

[DrSpaceman73]

Two good challengers and Matt was just locked out and a best too slow all double Jeopardy it seemed.  

Well still an amazing run.  I'll miss him 

[shapeshifter]

Did anyone here watch when Ken Jennings lost? 

[GreekGeek]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Did anyone here watch when Ken Jennings lost? 

I did. There were the same suspicions that he threw the game because he was tired of playing, that there was no way he didn't know FJ. In his case, he lost because of betting too much on DD's and missing them. Like Matt, I think he was the only one to miss FJ.

[bybrandy]

I don't, by the by, think he threw the game.  I think he had a bad day.  He couldn't win if everybody got FJ right and FJ was easy so he tossed out on a hope and a prayer that FJ was too easy and picked something else as a hail Mary. 

 

[ams1001]

3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Did anyone here watch when Ken Jennings lost? 

I did but I had no social media or forums to see much comment on it.

7 minutes ago, bybrandy said:

I don't, by the by, think he threw the game.  I think he had a bad day.  He couldn't win if everybody got FJ right and FJ was easy so he tossed out on a hope and a prayer that FJ was too easy and picked something else as a hail Mary. 

I agree. Without hitting the DDs he didn't get the chance to really build up his lead in big chunks. Add in the others being quicker on the buzzer several times and a handful of wrong answers, and...

I asked my brother if he was happy now and he said "Very. Guess he can't handle it when there's real competition." I told him I await his never-ending winning streak.

[shapeshifter]

From an interview with Matt by the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/10/11/jeopardy-matt-amodio-loses-interview/

Quote

…In a phone interview on Monday, Amodio said his final episode was taped in mid-September, when he showed up to set after a break of a couple of weeks. (The show films a week’s worth of episodes in one production day.) On his previous trip to the set, he reeled off 15 victories over three days, many of them decisive “runaways” in which he could not be caught entering Final Jeopardy! But this time he found he couldn’t settle back into the groove of filming yet, and he was still feeling a bit “disheveled” that early in the day.

“I got off to an early good start, but Double Jeopardy! went terribly for me. I was pretty soundly defeated,” Amodio said. “It was weird because in previous games, there were stretches where I lost the timing of the buzzer, but it was early enough in the games where the dollar values weren’t so high that I could recover later. … It had never been that long a stretch during a crucial point of time in the game.”…

 

[Clanstarling]

13 hours ago, 853fisher said:

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.

Had to laugh. So MR is He Who Shall Not Be Named?

13 hours ago, saber5055 said:

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.

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

Sad day at the Starling household as well, though Mr. Starling wasn't as sad.

13 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Jonathan looks like a young John C. Reilly.

Yes!

11 hours ago, 853fisher said:

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.

I have personal reasons why FJ should have been an instaget for me, I thought of Austria, but it took me until nearly the end to say it. The Danube and Alps, check. The partitioning however threw me, even though I knew about it, and it actually impacted my life in a roundabout sort of way. 

That's the long way around of saying that Matt, like me, could have overthought the question and just put down Poland since nothing came to mind.

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Did anyone here watch when Ken Jennings lost? 

I did. I don't remember my response though. I was neutral, I think.

I don't think Matt threw the game. He looked tired, and didn't hit the daily doubles. Sometimes you're off your game, and when the opponents are as good as these two, that's enough to end it.

I liked both Ken and James, but I wasn't particularly sorry to see them go. On the other hand, I was really sad to see Matt go.

I have no problem with runaways, because it's never about the contestants, but the my own personal contest (I did not do well yesterday). I like it when I like the contestants, and do want to see them do well, but the ending scores never really matter to me.

Anyway, we'll see Matt at the tournaments, and he can get on with his studies. He posted a very gracious tweet last night, just after we watched it on the west coast.

[rubaco]

5 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Did anyone here watch when Ken Jennings lost? 

I did. Unfortunately, my local news-radio station spoiled it for me that morning. At that time, I had to listen to the news before work because of needing to hear the traffic report. With no warning they said Ken's winning streak would end on that night's show. I am still pissed all these years later.

I was mostly OK with Matt, but never really connected with him quite like I did with Ken. Great run for him, though. I really wanted Jessica to win. 

[illdoc]

During the game, I said "Picky" instead of "Finicky" in the "Icky" category. Acceptable?

[Katy M]

9 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

It looks like he crossed out Germany (which would make no sense.)  Poland is nowhere near the Danube, and it doesn't have any Alps!

Not to mention part of the question, wasn't it?  Or was it just Nazis?  Either way, obviously Germany wouldn't be the answer.

[M. Darcy]

5 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Did anyone here watch when Ken Jennings lost? 

We actually had a get together in the DC area of the local KenVictims to watch it together. We made the news! I was interviewed by the local station and CNN showed the clip.  We knew the date it would happen because the second he lost, it was on the internet 2 seconds later. 
 

I think people who are saying Matt threw the game aren’t being fair to the other two contestants who played an awesome game.  Sometimes is comes down to someone having a bad game and someone having a good one. 

Edited October 12, 2021 by M. Darcy

[Katy M]

2 minutes ago, illdoc said:

During the game, I said "Picky" instead of "Finicky" in the "Icky" category. Acceptable?

I said that too.  I did NOT give myself credit.  I don't think it was acceptable.

Just now, M. Darcy said:

I think people who are saying Matt threw the game aren’t being fair to the other two contestants who played an awesome game.  Sometimes is comes down to someone having a bad game and someone having a good one. 

I agree.  Nobody wins forever.  He was going to lose sometime.  He's the second highest winner in terms of games.  it just wasn't his night.

[catlover79]

9 hours ago, Blakeston said:

Watching Matt steamroll everyone over and over was sucking the joy out of the show for me.

That's a good way of putting it, and I feel the same way.

[ams1001]

26 minutes ago, illdoc said:

During the game, I said "Picky" instead of "Finicky" in the "Icky" category. Acceptable?

Picky is listed as a synonym of both finicky and fastidious (the word used in the clue) so I say yes. (I feel like that might be something they'd rule incorrect initially and challenge during the break, though.)

24 minutes ago, Katy M said:

Not to mention part of the question, wasn't it?  Or was it just Nazis?  Either way, obviously Germany wouldn't be the answer.

It was; the clue said "Nazi Germany annexed..."

24 minutes ago, M. Darcy said:

I think people who are saying Matt threw the game aren’t being fair to the other two contestants who played an awesome game.  Sometimes is comes down to someone having a bad game and someone having a good one. 

Agreed. I'd hate to be the one who finally dethroned a long-time champ and have people saying it was just because they let me win.

Edited October 12, 2021 by ams1001

[TaraS1]

That was such a fun game!  I admit, my family cheered at the outcome, not because we hated Matt personally, just because we hated all the runaways with only one contestant answering the vast majority of the questions.  I'm really looking forward to tonight's show.

[3 is enough]

Well, I am sad.  I really wanted Matt to hit 50 wins or 2 million dollars.  I have been reading his tweets and he seems like a genuinely nice guy, not full of himself at all.  I hope he can settle back into his grad student routine fairly quickly. I do wonder how much more time he has before he defends his thesis?  My son got his PhD in a different field, and it took him 4 1/2 years.  Matt never mentioned how long he has been at Yale.

My husband thought he threw the game, but I do not.  Interesting that it was the first taping after a break.  I thought he would have lost later in the week, at the end of a taping day when he was tired.

I was pleasantly surprised that there was no leak about his loss until just before the game aired here in the West.  I remember leaks when Ken lost ( before Twitter and Facebook), and James.  I had checked out The Jeopardy Fan around 11 am PDT, so I knew ahead of time, but that was my choice. 

[ams1001]

12 minutes ago, 3 is enough said:

My husband thought he threw the game, but I do not.  Interesting that it was the first taping after a break.  I thought he would have lost later in the week, at the end of a taping day when he was tired.

Don't know how early they start taping, but if you're not a morning person the first game of the day might be the worst slot for you.

[janieberd]

11 hours ago, Hpmec said:

There's no way Matt didn't know the correct FJ answer. Geography and history are two of his strengths. The clue mentioned Danube and Alps. I suspect he was tired, had been beaten at the buzzer numerous times, and was generally off his game throughout. He was simply throwing in the towel and calling it a streak. 

Totally agree.  He's been so strong on geography.  I also thought he seemed tired and was "off" this game.  He rarely rang in without knowing the answer and that happened several times.  :(  

I will miss Matt.  I liked that he was calm, humble and seemed like a decent person.  He didn't flail his arms, sway, make faces or gestures or wave at the camera.  

[proserpina65]

Hallelujah!  I can finally watch Jeopardy again!  I've been checking j-archive to see if it was safe so I saw last night's game and enjoyed it immensely.

I think all the nonsense about Matt tanking the game is just that - nonsense.  He finally hit a game where the other contestants were able to ring in as fast as he could and where he didn't get all the daily doubles.  And, like me, he probably had a brain fart on FJ.  I actually know the European capitals through which the Danube flows, am quite familiar with the Strauss VIENNESE waltz the Blue Danube, knew that the Nazis annexed Austria just before WWII and still couldn't come up with it.  I said Hungary.  It was a total "d'oh!" moment for me.

I'll confess to not being that fond of the new champ, not because of anything he did or didn't do, but because he reminds me of another actor for whom I do not care.  But I can live with him for a few games.

[proserpina65]

12 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I can't tell what Matt crossed out. Anyone else? (not that it matters; just curious; maybe he'll tell on Twitter)

Looks like it started with a G, maybe?  Could be a C, though, so Czechoslovakia?

12 hours ago, Hpmec said:

There's no way Matt didn't know the correct FJ answer. Geography and history are two of his strengths. The clue mentioned Danube and Alps. I suspect he was tired, had been beaten at the buzzer numerous times, and was generally off his game throughout. He was simply throwing in the towel and calling it a streak. 

Anyone can know something and yet not be able to come up with it in the time allotted.  I very much doubt Matt threw in the towel.  I think he just had one of the those brain fart moments at the end of a game where the other contestants were both very good and beat him on the buzzer a lot.

11 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

  15 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Jonathan looks like a young John C. Reilly.

Maybe that's who I was thinking of.  Definitely somebody, though.

 

[MrAtoz]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

Don't know how early they start taping, but if you're not a morning person the first game of the day might be the worst slot for you.

Assuming they're still on the same schedule, you have to get up pretty early.  We had to be ready for the shuttle to pick us up at the hotel between 7 and 7:30 in the morning.  There's a lot of stuff that goes on before you actually start taping, which probably happens at about 10:00 or so.  But you will have gotten up early.

I had assumed that this was the first game on the third day in a row of taping.  But it being the first game after a somewhat lengthy break also makes sense.  It might not be easy to get back into the rhythm of things right away.  Not to compare myself to Matt, but I will note that my losing game was also the first game back after a break of almost two weeks in taping.

There are always accusations of "throwing the game" when a long-time champ loses--I can remember them when Holzhauer lost as well--and I can never take them seriously.  It's also pretty disrespectful to Matt's opponents, both of whom played an excellent game.  

[ams1001]

4 minutes ago, MrAtoz said:

I had assumed that this was the first game on the third day in a row of taping. 

I thought they had done the one day with Mike (Week 1), then cancelled day 2 and did three days the next week to catch up (Weeks 2-3-4). We're in week 5 now so it should be the first day of the week. (Unless I'm wrong about the schedule.)

[shapeshifter]

8 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

I thought they had done the one day with Mike (Week 1), then cancelled day 2 and did three days the next week to catch up (Weeks 2-3-4). We're in week 5 now so it should be the first day of the week. (Unless I'm wrong about the schedule.)

"In a phone interview on Monday, Amodio said his final episode was taped in mid-September, when he showed up to set after a break of a couple of weeks" (washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/10/11/jeopardy-matt-amodio-loses-interview).

I am now also proud of my fake Internet Son for continuing to be so gracious on social media for these 3-4 weeks since he lost.

I just realized that the night I noticed he was more active later than usual on Twitter was the night before the world knew he lost. I wonder if he'll talk about that in a future interview.

Edited October 12, 2021 by shapeshifter
seemingly requisite typo

[30 Helens]

I felt bad for Matt not meeting his goals (although not too bad, because he got a pretty nice consolation prize), but the person I felt the worst for in that game was Jessica.

Imagine how exciting it would feel in that moment to know that you were the one to take down the champ! After so many others had failed, you beat his score! YOU DID IT! Bring on the champag—

Oh, wait, what’s that? Oh. Well, congratulations, Jonathan.

(That must have been crushing.)

[Phebemarie]

West Coast fan here.  I was spoiled via a Facebook post from TV Insider around 5:00 PST.  

I always thought it would take two good opponents working in tandem to beat Matt.  They were quick on their buzzers and made few mistakes when it counted.  Getting to the DD first and controlling the flow of the game must have really broke up Matt's concentration.  Like any other game, the team that controls the ball usually wins.  The opponents controlled the "ball".  

I knew Austria because I directed The Sound of Music many years ago and still watch it when it's aired every year for sentimental reasons.  

[DonnaMae]

15 hours ago, laredhead said:

  Seemed like what could go wrong, did.  

Maybe he was awake all night worrying about the next game, or maybe he was just tired and ready for it to end.  I really liked him and wish him well.

[Grundoon59]

I admired rather than liked Matt - I am more of a James fan but have no problem with his streak being bested.  

I have great respect for the depth and breadth of Matt's  knowledge and for most of his game play (what's vs. who's drove me batty but that is likely more me than him) but I never quite warmed up to him as so many others have (I am now ducking out of the way of the many Matt fans). 

I will give him full props on one of my most important criteria however - he handled his defeat with extreme graciousness.  For me being a good loser is important (likewise being a good winner).  He had an amazing run, seemed to have a good time, won a boatload of money and gets to come back for TOC - all in all, good for you Matt!

[Blakeston]

33 minutes ago, 30 Helens said:

I felt bad for Matt not meeting his goals (although not too bad, because he got a pretty nice consolation prize)

What goal did he miss?