Jeopardy! Season 40 (2023-2024)

[shapeshifter]

28 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Ken is all-time money winner in regular Jeopardy! play. Brad is all-time money winner including tournaments by $580,736. The Jeopardy! Fan keeps a list of both on his homepage.

Do they factor in the change in the value of the dollar over time?

Edited June 27 by shapeshifter

[Lady Lucy]

Is it my imagination or has there been a lot of poetry on Jeopardy since Drew began? Not being a conspiracy theorist because I'm sure the categories are locked into place well in advance, but it seems a dream situation for an English grad student whose major field is poetry.  (I'd go back and look at the archives for categories/questions if I knew how to do that.)

[chessiegal]

9 minutes ago, Lady Lucy said:

Is it my imagination or has there been a lot of poetry on Jeopardy since Drew began? Not being a conspiracy theorist because I'm sure the categories are locked into place well in advance, but it seems a dream situation for an English grad student whose major field is poetry.  (I'd go back and look at the archives for categories/questions if I knew how to do that.)

It's my understanding that an independent agency chooses what categories/questions are used on the show.

You can go to J! Archive to check on each game's categories and questions (and answers). The info is usually posted before 7 pm ET, so be prepared to be spoiled if you haven't seen the show yet.

[SomeTameGazelle]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

Not Ken.  Brad is the all-time money winner on Jeopardy by around a million dollars if I remember the amount correctly.

The record that Rob was in theory going to break was winnings by one contestant across all game shows. So Ken's record is based on Jeopardy + Millionaire + 5th Grader and whatever else he has been on and Rob's would be based on Survivor + Deal or No Deal Island + whatever (not sure how they count the Amazing Race where he was 1 of a team of 2 with his wife). Apparently Brad is 2nd when you add up all shows. Unfortunately Wikipedia doesn't seem to list the amounts clearly anywhere to validate the claim, but that's what it is.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_game_show_winnings_records#:~:text=Ken Jennings is the highest,the course of twenty years.

[30 Helens]

2 hours ago, astrohip said:

All the contestants have daily "confessionals", one on one with a camera person & producer, and they say all kinds of things. They get them to comment on other players, themselves, possible alliances, etc. Then when the season is done, they go thru hours of tape to find just the right quote, for just the right time.

Yes, but. Anything that aired is something the person actually said, whatever the time or context. That quote most certainly does not sum up the entirety of Drew’s personality, but it does prove that he can be a bit of an annoying humblebragger.

2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I hate Boston Rob and have since his first appearance on Amazing Race.  If he were on any version of Jeopardy, I would not watch.

I don’t think you need to worry about that. I was making a joke when I brought his name into this. Rob is a very intelligent man in terms of strategy, player psychology and overall game savvy, but I don’t think he has the book smarts to qualify for Jeopardy. This is no slam against him. Jeopardy players just have a rare broad base of knowledge that few game players, even good ones, can match. And I’m happy there’s still a place that celebrates that.

[Katy M]

i got FJ at pretty much the last second.

I got the missed clues of Angela'as Ashes, gregarious, and sergeant-at-arms.

I got the entire catergories of science, whose what, and antonyms right.

[ams1001]

June 27:

80% / 40% / 59%

Had a good first round…ran Science and Industrial Revolution, missed one in Inspired by Shakespeare, Starts with Y, and Change the World, and three in Whose What? DJ was only half as good. Missed one in Antonyms, three in Historians, World Cities, and Halls of Fame, and four in Art and US Senate. My zero streak continues for FJ.

TSes: (J had 3 + the DD; DJ had 6 + 1 DD) I got Much Ado About Nothing (DD), Angela's Ashes, blast furnace, the promised land, and Doris Kearns Goodwin (and Yahoo before they reversed it).

Could have done without the "countdown to the debate" box in the corner of my screen the whole game. Whenever they zoomed out to show all three players it covered up Jayaker's face.
 

[Browncoat]

It took me a couple of seconds, and a reminder of the category (so glad they leave that on the screen now!), but I got FJ in plenty of time to write it down.  

I also got the TS of Much Ado About Nothing, Angela's Ashes, the promised land, and muskellunge.

[Bastet]

Another archive game for me due to the debate.

I missed two each in Shakespeare and Y, but had an overall decent first round; I ran science, industrial revolution, and Whose What, and got all but Father Damien in change the world.

Decent DJ, too -- I ran cities and crossword clues and got all but the TS in halls of fame, missing two each in the rest.

At first I just stared blankly at my monitor for FJ, but then Colonel Sanders popped into my mind.

[stonehaven]

I find myself zoning out for much of Jeopardy lately. I really don't like the current champ. I'm sure he's smart but the vibe of him being some amazing trivia warrior doing battle just irks me. A smile and a simple head shake are all you need to acknowledge you won. His theatrics and self applause turn me off. 

[30 Helens]

Various distractions kept me from seeing much of tonight's game, but I did have an instaget FJ at least. Felt bad for Jayaker, who came within a question or two of keeping the game from being a runaway, and in that case could have won with the right bet.  It has to be very frustrating to be the only one to get FJ, yet still lose because of a slight runaway edge. 

[SomeTameGazelle]

59 minutes ago, 30 Helens said:

Felt bad for Jayaker, who came within a question or two of keeping the game from being a runaway

Jayaker got off to a very promising start. I told him Plantagenet but he went the wrong way and he had a few wrong responses after that.

That antonyms category bugged me because in some clues they added the positive definition alongside the antonym and in others they didn't. The antonym conceit was supposed to make it just twisted enough to be a little harder but that just felt messy. 

I don't think of installation as being sufficiently specific to plumbers, so that art clue was a bit weird. 

ETA: I had never thought about Colonel Sanders' rank before and would never have guessed that there was an option other than fake Colonel or real Colonel. Honorary Colonel was not on my radar. 

Edited June 28 by SomeTameGazelle
Colonel

[Prevailing Wind]

I thought of Col. Tom Parker and thought, "That can't be right."  Came up with Sanders just as the music finished. I'm counting that.

 

[proserpina65]

Obviously I had to look at the archive for last night's game.  After seeing the FJ clue, I said Colonel Tom Parker.  Colonel Sanders makes more sense.

[proserpina65]

Looking at the other clues, I would've run Shakespeare, Whose and Antonyms, and gotten all but one in Change The World, World Cities and Arty.

I actual got 3 correct in Science, which truly boggles the mind.

[Katy M]

I said Anne Sullivan.

I got the missed clues of Cape of Good Hope, Doberman, Madison County, Joan Crawford, Travis Bickle, Confucius, and Louisiana.

I got the entire category of TV catch phrases right.

 

[Grizzly]

By beating Drew, I can forgive Cat's answer of Cape Cod. 

For fj, I was trying to think of Helen Keller's teacher.

[ams1001]

June 28:

67% / 63% / 66%

Yikes, that was a rough game! The game dynamics graph goes from negative $2,200 to $11,800. Drew had 9 wrong answers, including all of the Daily Doubles (yet he still had more right answers than the others, with 19. New champ had 13 right and 3 wrong.

In J I ran TV Catchphrases, missed one in Dogs, two in Literary Geography, Alliteration, and "B" Wear, and three in College Newspapers. In DJ I missed one in Stuff About States, AFI's Greatest Villains, and Teen-Letter Words, two in Internet Celebrities, and three in Ancient Names and Greek Myth. FJ was an instaget...my only one of the week.

TSes: (J had 10 + the DD; DJ had 5 + both DDs) I got Cape of Good Hope, fish food, Doberman, Belgian Malinois, bat wing sleeve, Boston College, Madison County, Joan Crawford, Travis Bickle, Confucius (DD), and Louisiana (DD). (That's 11 of the 18 missed clues.)
 

[Quickbeam]

Ah, that Women’s Studies degree came in handy again….my spouse said Anne Sullivan but she was Irish and partly grew up in an almshouse. Helen Keller was a whole lot more likely to have Swiss ancestors.

[SoMuchTV]

Uggh, I overthought it and went with Annie Sullivan. And in keeping with the theme of the evening, I’m off to watch the episode where Drew gets voted out of Survivor.

ETA: in the “talking head” at the end of his Survivor run, he said something like “I hope I’ll be given the opportunity to grow, building off this”. I think he managed to accomplish that!

Edited June 29 by SoMuchTV

[Browncoat]

I waffled between Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller, and ended up flipping the mental coin.  Fortunately, it landed on the correct response.

So many TS!  I got Cape of Good Hope, fish food, park police, San Francisco, Bermuda shorts, Doberman, Belgian Malinois, batwing, Madison County, Joan Crawford (no wire hangers!), Travis Bickle, Confucius, and Louisiana.

[kathyk2]

Drew hit the wall today. I thought of Anne Sullivan but changed to Helen Keller before the music ended.

[shapeshifter]

45 minutes ago, kathyk2 said:

Drew hit the wall today. I thought of Anne Sullivan but changed to Helen Keller before the music ended.

Same, and Helen Keller was my first FJ in 2 weeks.

So many TSs to choose from today, LOL, I got: 
Cape of Good Hope, San Francisco, Doberman Pinscher, Batwing (after the wrong guess), acquisitiveness, Wicked Witch of the West

Thursday I knew Promised Land.

Wednesday: mud wrestling, names changed, and Bob Hope

[SomeTameGazelle]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

I said Anne Sullivan.

Sullivan came into my mind first but the name seemed less Swiss than the Germanic Keller so I switched immediately.

I knew Phaedra, Actium, Bermuda shorts, Confucius, Louisiana, and Joan Crawford. I was with Cat on her Cruella de Vil guess -- the Wicked Witch hated Dorothy with Toto as an afterthought, it was Miss Gulch who had it in for Toto.

I can admit Drew was obviously good to have recovered from such an awful start, but I think that awful start was also indicative of how much he was making educated guesses all along and/or how overly comfortable he had become taking those risks. I was rooting for Cat and she got Final where he didn't, so good for her. Poor middle Andrew had a lot of clues where he buzzed in and then couldn't come up with anything, but at least he got to play Final and also got it correct.

[Bastet]

Cat is my Person of the Day.  This was not a good game (15 TS!), but it ended Drew's run, so that makes it great.  (I cannot wait for the call from my mom when she watches her recording.)  She made a valiant effort at laughing at Ken's terrible "Cat, are you grumpy you didn't get that one?"

The San Francisco TS really surprised me, as did doberman.  I also got the Cape of Good Hope, malinois, Bermuda shorts, fish food, Park Police, the Wicked Witch, Madison, Joan Crawford, and Travis Bickle, but those were the two I never expected to go unanswered even in a game this bad.

The first round was a study in "oh, so close" -- I ran alliteration, but missed one each in everything else (almost always the $1000 clue, so I guess that's some consolation).

Not so much in DJ; I missed four in internet celebrities (I'm impressed it wasn't five, but I correctly guessed Grumpy Cat) and three in myth (I'm impressed it wasn't five there, too).  I only ran villains, but got all but the missed DD in states and all but the acquisitiveness TS in words.  I missed two in ancient.

FJ was an instaget.

 

[PaulaO]

Drew knows mythology but flubbed Helen Keller???  FFS, that was the second easiest FJ! ever.  The first being last week’s Polo.

[30 Helens]

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

Ken's terrible "Cat, are you grumpy you didn't get that one?"

This is the kind of weird Dad joke that Ken excels at, and makes me love him.

My first instathought for FJ was Helen Keller. But that seemed too obvious, so I thought it might be a misdirect and maybe they were going for Anne Sullivan? But then I thought about it some more and the idea of Sullivan's ancestor being a teacher of the deaf seemed more like a family tradition than a "coincidence", so I went back to Keller. 

I'm just surprised Drew lasted as long as he did. Obviously, he's very smart, but he also made a lot of odd wrong guesses that often made me look at him sideways. ("Secret Security", whaa?) And it took him about 4 games to finally get the phrasing down. Kind of funny that he went out in a game that even had a tailor-made Survivor clue.

Anyway. Congrats for what he did, but I'm not sorry to see him go.

Welcome back, @proserpina65!

[Browncoat]

I really felt bad for the middle guy last night.  But I also feel like that's how I'd be if I were ever foolish enough to get on the show -- so excited that I've managed to ring in first that the correct response leaves my brain entirely.

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I'm just surprised Drew lasted as long as he did.…("Secret Security", whaa?)

I think he was going for "Secret Service." If so, that's the kind of error one makes when they're sundowning, and, for many Jeopardy! champs, I think "sundowning" might apply to the 5th game of the day.

 

8 hours ago, PaulaO said:

Drew knows mythology but flubbed Helen Keller???  FFS, that was the second easiest FJ! ever.  The first being last week’s Polo.

Do most young adults of today still know of Helen Keller?
But, yeah, Drew's brain really did not seem to not be firing on all cylinders/neurons by Friday's game. 
Plus, in his initial interview, when Ken asked him about his Survivor experience, I recall Drew saying something about his brain being affected in some way?
I only ever watched the finale of the first season of Survivor, so I don't know much about what happens on the show. Could he have been referring to a concussion of sorts?

Edited June 29 by shapeshifter

[chessiegal]

Oh, happy Friday! Drew is gone and I got FJ.

"Singular coincidence" translated in my mind to ironic, so Hellen Keller seemed obvious.

[DXD526]

Wow, clues referencing The Bridges of Madison County and Mommie Dearest are TS?? Go ahead and make me feel ancient.

While I have to give kudos to Drew for managing to amass a fair amount after falling so far into the red, his smugness annoyed the crap out of me, so not sorry to see him go. 

[bad things are bad]

22 minutes ago, DXD526 said:

his smugness annoyed the crap out of me, so not sorry to see him go. 

You and my husband,  and we live literally 2 miles from Birmingham where he's from.  Usually root for the hometown contestants 

[IdEatThat]

I am sorry to see Drew go.  I like him although I get how some may be irritated by his mannerisms.   He is just a kid though, 23 years old.   
 

I was talking to my millennial future SIL (we watch together nightly) about Helen Keller and whether they teach about her in school.  He thinks not so much, not to the extent they did when I was a kid.  I’m 62.   They also had no idea who Bob Hope was as mentioned in a question this past week.   Makes me feel old.  

[Clanstarling]

On 6/27/2024 at 9:42 PM, SomeTameGazelle said:

ETA: I had never thought about Colonel Sanders' rank before and would never have guessed that there was an option other than fake Colonel or real Colonel. Honorary Colonel was not on my radar. 

That surprised me too - I just thought it was a marketing choice.

[chessiegal]

I had a boss who is from Kentucky. He got me an honorary rank in Kentucky. I have the certificate somewhere, it might be Colonel. 😆 Must not be that hard to get.

[Browncoat]

1 hour ago, chessiegal said:

I had a boss who is from Kentucky. He got me an honorary rank in Kentucky. I have the certificate somewhere, it might be Colonel. 😆 Must not be that hard to get.

My father was an honorary Kentucky Colonel.  He had a certificate (framed!) -- I have it now.

[kathyk2]

5 hours ago, IdEatThat said:

I am sorry to see Drew go.  I like him although I get how some may be irritated by his mannerisms.   He is just a kid though, 23 years old.   
 

I was talking to my millennial future SIL (we watch together nightly) about Helen Keller and whether they teach about her in school.  He thinks not so much, not to the extent they did when I was a kid.  I’m 62.   They also had no idea who Bob Hope was as mentioned in a question this past week.   Makes me feel old.  

I knew Helen Keller because she's one of the few disabled people who became famous. She was never mentioned in history class. I didn't learn about FDR having polio until much later. I think there is generational divide. I knew Bob Hope had no clue about the social influencers.

[Bastet]

9 hours ago, DXD526 said:

Wow, clues referencing The Bridges of Madison County and Mommie Dearest are TS?? Go ahead and make me feel ancient.

Also The Maltese Falcon and Taxi Driver -- yeah, Friday's TS definitely had me feeling my age compared to the contestants.

[Bastet]

On 6/27/2024 at 2:07 PM, Lady Lucy said:

Is it my imagination or has there been a lot of poetry on Jeopardy since Drew began? Not being a conspiracy theorist because I'm sure the categories are locked into place well in advance, but it seems a dream situation for an English grad student whose major field is poetry. 

Two of his games had poetry categories and one game had a FJ clue about a poet. 

As for any additional individual clues about poetry in any of the non-poetry categories in his games, I didn't look closely for them, just searched for clues with either "poet" or "poem" in them, and only found one.

[30 Helens]

21 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I think he was going for "Secret Service." If so, that's the kind of error one makes when they're sundowning, and, for many Jeopardy! champs, I think "sundowning" might apply to the 5th game of the day.

Except he was making that kind of mistake from Day 1. That doesn't discount his many right answers, and I get that nobody's perfect, I was just astounded that he got away with as many of those flubs as he did. 

21 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Plus, in his initial interview, when Ken asked him about his Survivor experience, I recall Drew saying something about his brain being affected in some way?
I only ever watched the finale of the first season of Survivor, so I don't know much about what happens on the show. Could he have been referring to a concussion of sorts?

I didn't catch what Drew said about his brain being affected by Survivor, but I don't recall him having any kind of injury on that show, brain or otherwise. Competitions can get pretty physical and people do get scraped up, but a concussion would have resulted in him getting pulled from the game. That didn't happen.

15 hours ago, IdEatThat said:

I was talking to my millennial future SIL (we watch together nightly) about Helen Keller and whether they teach about her in school.  He thinks not so much, not to the extent they did when I was a kid.  I’m 62.   They also had no idea who Bob Hope was as mentioned in a question this past week.   Makes me feel old.  

Yeah, same here, but I'm not really surprised by either. Helen Keller has been dead for over 50 years, and at least some of her notoriety came from the movie "The Miracle Worker", which also happened back in the dark ages of the 1960's. I'd be surprised if anyone under 40 who's not a film student has seen that movie. As for Bob Hope, he was huge in his day, but how much of his work has really lasted? His "Road" movies came out in the even darker ages of the 1940's, and in his later years he was mostly known for his TV work, which is not available. 

So, yeah. Even the biggest names don't last forever. I just consider myself lucky to have knowledge from multiple generations. I'm not old, I'm steeped in cultural awareness.

[ProudMary]

15 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

Except he was making that kind of mistake from Day 1. That doesn't discount his many right answers, and I get that nobody's perfect, I was just astounded that he got away with as many of those flubs as he did. 

Also, his daily average winnings over his time as champion was only around $18.5K. That's lower than most of the other contestants in line for the TOC. Looks like he'll need to up his game when he's head-to-head against other champions.

Drew didn't bother me but there are others I'd prefer over him whenever we get to the TOC.

Edited July 1 by ProudMary
Corrected an auto-correct error.

[stonehaven]

Good, I can enjoy my show again...till someone else annoys...LOL!

[secnarf]

14 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

Yeah, same here, but I'm not really surprised by either. Helen Keller has been dead for over 50 years, and at least some of her notoriety came from the movie "The Miracle Worker", which also happened back in the dark ages of the 1960's. I'd be surprised if anyone under 40 who's not a film student has seen that movie. As for Bob Hope, he was huge in his day, but how much of his work has really lasted? His "Road" movies came out in the even darker ages of the 1940's, and in his later years he was mostly known for his TV work, which is not available. 

So, yeah. Even the biggest names don't last forever. I just consider myself lucky to have knowledge from multiple generations. I'm not old, I'm steeped in cultural awareness.

I'm in my early 30s, and we learned about Helen Keller in elementary school and also watched The Miracle Worker.

Edited July 1 by secnarf

[kav]

Would the Friday game be the 5th one taped in a day?  Has anyone done any stats on which number game in a day, long time winners lose on?

[chessiegal]

5 minutes ago, kav said:

Would the Friday game be the 5th one taped in a day?  

Not necessarily, but last week it was.

From The Jeopardy! Fan: 

Quote

After winning 3 games last week (the May 8 tape day), Drew Basile has the opportunity to run the May 14 tape day and end the week again as Jeopardy! champion. However, Andrew Fox from Minnesota and Cat Pisacano from New York are both hoping that Drew’s win streak ends at seven games.

 

[proserpina65]

On 6/28/2024 at 11:00 PM, PaulaO said:

Drew knows mythology but flubbed Helen Keller???  FFS, that was the second easiest FJ! ever.  The first being last week’s Polo.

In Drew's defense (ugh, I hated typing that), he probably overthought it the way I did.  Although way more than I did.

On 6/30/2024 at 5:41 AM, 30 Helens said:

Even the biggest names don't last forever.

As evidenced by Ozymandias.

58 minutes ago, kav said:

Would the Friday game be the 5th one taped in a day?  Has anyone done any stats on which number game in a day, long time winners lose on?

They tape a full week of games on a day, so the fifth game taped would be the Friday game.  But that doesn't mean it would be the current champ's fifth game since they could've become champ at any point in that day's taping.  For example, when I was a contestant, the current champ came back on Monday and won the first game taped that day but someone else won the second game taped and remained champ until his fifth game, which was filmed on Tuesday.

[ams1001]

July 1:

67% / 57% / 62%

In J I missed one in Novellas, School, Last Century, and Based on a True Story, two in Rhyme Time, and four in Strange Currencies. In DJ I missed three in We Stand on Guard and two in everything else. I got FJ but had to think a few seconds.

TSes: (J had 4; DJ had 6 + both DDs) I got faster caster, Unbroken, and Yukon.
 

[Prevailing Wind]

Just as DJ was starting, NBC broke in with Biden's speech. Now the talking heads seem to be yammering away the half-hour. Damn.

[Browncoat]

Almost instaget FJ for me tonight.  At first, I thought the new champ made a boneheaded bet of zero, but it worked out for him.  I was surprised the now-former champ missed it.

I also got the TS of faster caster, Unbroken, Bacillus, and Yukon Territory. 

[ams1001]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

Bacillus

I was annoyed by this one because I was listening to a podcast this morning and they mentioned B. Cereus but they didn't say what the B stood for so it didn't help me.