Jeopardy! Season 40 (2023-2024)

[30 Helens]

I had mixed feelings going into yesterday’s game. I like Adriana, but I didn’t want her to bump Ryan out of the Top 10. So I wasn’t too sad when she lost. She’ll be back soon enough.

As for Drew, I am a big Survivor fan, have never missed a season, but I suffer from Competition Show Amnesia. During the season, I will know who everyone is, root enthusiastically for my favorites, but within a week after the finale I will have completely forgotten all of them. So while Drew looked vaguely familiar, I had to look him up. I think  I remember him now, and I think I liked him, so I’m going to root for him here. And odds are I’ll remember him after he’s done, since for whatever reason I do much better with Jeopardy players! (Not all, though. There are always people in the TOC who are a mystery to me.)

[Bastet]

7 hours ago, possibilities said:

I only noticed HOW TALL HE IS!! Either that, or the other two contestans were very short. 

He's tall, because Ken said he's the most giant of the giant killers.

[PaulaO]

Some day when a contestant begins their pick with the insufferable “can I have <category for x>?” I want Ken to reply “no”.  

[IdEatThat]

I’m surprised they didn’t come back after commercial and ding Bob for Mariana’s Trench.   It’s Mariana Trench.    

[ams1001]

June 20:

70% / 63% / 66%

Again, I did so well in the first round except for one category! Ran Named by Lit Lovers and Orange, missed one in Shortened Words and Numbers, two in Stevie Wonder, and failed Sir Duke. In DJ I missed one in Modern Products. Broadway Opening Casts, and Body Parts, two in Museums, and three in Jacques and You Can't Spell….

Had no clue for FJ.

TSes: (J had 5 + the DD; DJ had 3) I got Waverly Place, Cyrano de Bergerac, Tears of a Clown (DD), fourteen, and Kristin Chenoweth & Idina Menzel.

Did I hear Ken say Drew is 6'6"? That seems more likely than 6'2".

Was this a record for number of after-the-fact corrections? Geez.

[Diana Berry]

27 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

June 20:

70% / 63% / 66%

Again, I did so well in the first round except for one category! Ran Named by Lit Lovers and Orange, missed one in Shortened Words and Numbers, two in Stevie Wonder, and failed Sir Duke. In DJ I missed one in Modern Products. Broadway Opening Casts, and Body Parts, two in Museums, and three in Jacques and You Can't Spell….

Had no clue for FJ.

TSes: (J had 5 + the DD; DJ had 3) I got Waverly Place, Cyrano de Bergerac, Tears of a Clown (DD), fourteen, and Kristin Chenoweth & Idina Menzel.

Did I hear Ken say Drew is 6'6"? That seems more likely than 6'2".

Was this a record for number of after-the-fact corrections? Geez.

He’s definitely 6’6 and not 6’2

he lives to see another day. I do appreciate he shakes hands with his fellow contestants.  

[Browncoat]

Another one of those "I could have sat here all night and not gotten it" FJs for me tonight.  I had absolutely no clue.

And the only TS I got were Cyrano de Bergerac, and Kristen Chenowith & Idina Menzel.  Although I always want to call her Adele Dazeem now.

[possibilities]

Heavy rain killed the broadcast here, but in the beginning of the show, which is all I saw, there were a lot of goofs. Nevertheless, my streak of liking everyone has continued. 

I don't recognize myself. 

[Bastet]

There were some ... hmm, let's call them interesting wrong guesses tonight.  Add in Ken accepting things he should never have accepted (including Marianas Trench, which inexplicably did not get reversed as noted above) and this was a somewhat annoying game.

I missed three in lit and two each in dukes and numbers, so it was not a good first round.  But not terrible, at least; I ran orange and Stevie Wonder and got all but opp in words.

But I kicked ass in DJ; I missed two each in Jacques and museums, but ran everything else.

I had absolutely no idea for FJ, though.

[Bliss]

FJ was so easy... an instaget!

NOT!

 

[30 Helens]

3 hours ago, IdEatThat said:

I’m surprised they didn’t come back after commercial and ding Bob for Mariana’s Trench.   It’s Mariana Trench.    

I have always known it as Marianas Trench (no apostrophe), and apparently I'm not alone. Encyclopedia Brittanica even recognizes it as an acceptable alternative. 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Mariana-Trench

Quote

Mariana Trench

trench, Pacific Ocean

Also known as: Marianas Trench

Other sources tell me the singular version is the official name, but because the islands are known collectively as the Marianas, the name Marianas Trench has long been in common usage, to the point where it is now entrenched (sorry.) There's even a Canadian pop band called Marianas Trench.

3 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Kristen Chenowith & Idina Menzel.  Although I always want to call her Adele Dazeem now.

If I were the contestant, I would have said Kristen Chenowith and Adele Dazeem, which is also the best I could do at home. Damn that John Travolta.

[Prevailing Wind]

I, too, said Zelda Fitzgerald.

[Katy M]

2 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I, too, said Zelda Fitzgerald.

I didn't get to watch last night and I've seen the question, but not the answer and it's driving me crazy. What was the answer?

[GreekGeek]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

I didn't get to watch last night and I've seen the question, but not the answer and it's driving me crazy. What was the answer?

Nora Joyce, wife of James Joyce.

 

[chessiegal]

2 hours ago, Katy M said:

I didn't get to watch last night and I've seen the question, but not the answer and it's driving me crazy. What was the answer?

Both The Jeopardy! Fan and J! Archive have the answers posted.

[Kimmmmmm]

On 6/19/2024 at 10:31 PM, Bastet said:

Well, boo - finally no preemption, and I have to watch Adriana lose to some guy who pouts every time he's beat to the buzzer or gets a response wrong.  Oh, well; he earned it with that DD wager, and she has a nice round 15 wins, almost cracked the top ten for all-time longest winning streaks, and may very well, depending on how the season goes, be the person most feared in the ToC.

The seismic TS surprised me, but I guess it helps to live in earthquake country.

Damn poetry; if not for that category, I'd have run the entire first round.  But I did better than I expected in it, only missing two.

I didn't run a damn thing in DJ, though.  The closest I got was getting all but Duma in Russian (I knew it, but could not get it from my brain to my mouth).  I dreaded the ships category and indeed missed three.  I was even worse in TV; I don't watch any of the shows, and only correctly guessed LEGO.  I missed two each in the rest.

FJ was an instaguess I was wholly confident was correct, so at least I ended on a high note.

I actually thought Adriana looked pretty pouty, herself. She was bested, plain and simple.

[MrAtoz]

16 hours ago, IdEatThat said:

I’m surprised they didn’t come back after commercial and ding Bob for Mariana’s Trench.   It’s Mariana Trench.    

I looked it up, and you're right, but this is astounding to me. I don't think I've ever heard anyone call it anything but the Marianas Trench.

Edited to add: I pre-guessed Zelda Fitzgerald on seeing the name of the category, and stuck with that guess after seeing the clue.

Edited June 21 by MrAtoz

[30 Helens]

2 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

I pre-guessed Zelda Fitzgerald on seeing the name of the category, and stuck with that guess after seeing the clue.

I said Zelda Fitzgerald because she’s the only author’s wife I know from that period. Never heard of Nora Joyce. Who knows writers’ spouses names??

[zapper]

3 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I said Zelda Fitzgerald because she’s the only author’s wife I know from that period. Never heard of Nora Joyce. Who knows writers’ spouses names??

perhaps not James Joyce - they were only married 10 years.

[SomeTameGazelle]

16 minutes ago, zapper said:

perhaps not James Joyce - they were only married 10 years.

Their marriage ended with James Joyce's death. They were together for closer to 30 years and had two children before they married. In fact they were not yet married when Ulysses was published in 1922.

For some reason I had been reading or hearing about Nora recently so I was not surprised that she was the correct response. I couldn't remember the surname Barnacle though.

[laredhead]

I didn't understand Drew's bet in final Jeopardy today.  He went for a tie by betting zero.  Josh bet it all and had the correct answer.  Why wouldn't Drew bet just $1 which would have him winning outright since they both had the correct answer?  Of course, if Josh hadn't fallen under the "I'll make it a true daily double" when he had a lot of $$ riding on that bet, and gave the wrong answer, he might have won.  The DD clues are usually harder than the rest of the category, or at least I think they seem to be.    

[Katy M]

i think FJ was an extremely poorly written clue. I had no idea what they were asking. I thought Vin Scully broke a record and we were supposed to figure out what record it was. So, when Hank Aaron was revealed, I thought he broke Hank Aaron's record. Obviously sports is not my thing and I wasn't going to get it, but they should have changed "he" to "this man."  Then again 2 of the contestants got it right, so I guess it was just me.

I got the missed clues of refrain, patellar, Get Ready with Me, Zebedee, and Million Dollar Mile.

I got the entire categories of smile and EE right.

6 minutes ago, laredhead said:

I didn't understand Drew's bet in final Jeopardy today.  He went for a tie by betting zero.  Josh bet it all and had the correct answer.  Why wouldn't Drew bet just $1 which would have him winning outright since they both had the correct answer?  Of course, if Josh hadn't fallen under the "I'll make it a true daily double" when he had a lot of $$ riding on that bet, and gave the wrong answer, he might have won.  The DD clues are usually harder than the rest of the category, or at least I think they seem to be.    

Because he didn't know he was going to get the correct answer. Tie breakers are easy and Drew might have had more confidence in ringing in faster than he did in sports.

[Grizzly]

Vin Scully told me it was baseball and I might have murmured Hank Aaron when time was called. Not with any confidence. But I knew Doppler and Delta.

[Hab]

I got weirdly emotional when Ken announced that Alex is getting a memorial stamp.

[ProudMary]

We all need to order our Alex Trebek stamps! I'm delighted to learn he's been given that honor.

I'm surprised they accepted just "Benedict" without the associated number.

[Browncoat]

27 minutes ago, Katy M said:

i think FJ was an extremely poorly written clue. I had no idea what they were asking. I thought Vin Scully broke a record and we were supposed to figure out what record it was. So, when Hank Aaron was revealed, I thought he broke Hank Aaron's record. Obviously sports is not my thing and I wasn't going to get it, but they should have changed "he" to "this man."  Then again 2 of the contestants got it right, so I guess it was just me.

Sometimes I think you and I are the same person, @Katy M, because I thought exactly the same thing.  It took me nearly the whole think music to figure out what the clue was looking for, and then I didn't have time (or any idea) to figure out the correct response.

I got the tiebreaker easily, though, along with the TS of Jacob, refrain, and patellar tendon.  I am embarrassed to admit I knew Jacob even before the incorrect answer of Edward.  And no, I have neither seen the movies nor read the books.

I love that we had a whole "Genre" category -- Ken did and outstanding job with Alex-esque pronunciation.  And I made a note about the postage stamps so I can (hopefully) remember to buy some.

[zapper]

2 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Their marriage ended with James Joyce's death. They were together for closer to 30 years and had two children before they married. In fact they were not yet married when Ulysses was published in 1922.

For some reason I had been reading or hearing about Nora recently so I was not surprised that she was the correct response. I couldn't remember the surname Barnacle though.

I stand corrected. 

[ProudMary]

Here's the USPS link, for anyone who'd like to pre-order Alex Trebek stamps. The release date is 7/22.

https://store.usps.com/store/product/alex-trebek-stamps-S_485304

[ams1001]

June 21:

73% / 60% / 67%

Decent first round…ran Fictional Characers, missed one in Icons on Stamps and Company's History, and two in Smile, One the Map, and Multiple Meanings.

In DJ I missed one in Genres, Letter, Human body, and Ends in "EE", and four in Mile and Abdications.

Had no clue for FJ but the tiebreaker was an instaget.

TSes: (J had 4 + the DD; DJ had 5 + 1 DD (all in the bottom two rows)) I got Jacob (it was a guess of one of the few character names I know, but I'm still not proud I knew it), refrain, and Get Ready With Me.

Alex getting a stamp! That's so cool! And we got a "Genre" to boot!
 

41 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

Here's the USPS link, for anyone who'd like to pre-order Alex Trebek stamps. The release date is 7/22.

https://store.usps.com/store/product/alex-trebek-stamps-S_485304

His birthday! I like how the sheet has category titles across the top.

Edited June 22 by ams1001

[SomeTameGazelle]

2 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Vin Scully told me it was baseball and I might have murmured Hank Aaron when time was called. Not with any confidence. But I knew Doppler and Delta.

I never remember that Doppler is called after a person and somehow imagine that it is just intended to be descriptive of something doubled. I was foolishly trying to think of a mixture of Lumière and Méliès.

 

[Prevailing Wind]

1 hour ago, ProudMary said:

Here's the USPS link, for anyone who'd like to pre-order Alex Trebek stamps. The release date is 7/22.

https://store.usps.com/store/product/alex-trebek-stamps-S_485304

I bought a bunch of Forever Stamps a few years ago, so I don't keep up with postage prices. It's 73¢ for the first ounce of First Class Mail?

I wish the clues were different for each stamp on a sheet.

3 hours ago, Katy M said:

I think FJ was an extremely poorly written clue. I had no idea what they were asking. I thought Vin Scully broke a record and we were supposed to figure out what record it was. So, when Hank Aaron was revealed, I thought he broke Hank Aaron's record. Obviously sports is not my thing and I wasn't going to get it, but they should have changed "he" to "this man."  Then again 2 of the contestants got it right, so I guess it was just me.

It's not just you. I couldn't figure it out, either

[ProudMary]

58 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I bought a bunch of Forever Stamps a few years ago, so I don't keep up with postage prices. It's 73¢ for the first ounce of First Class Mail?

The rate is increasing from .68 to .73 effective July 14th. 

(Also, TIL that the keyboard on my phone doesn't have a "cents" sign.)

[30 Helens]

6 hours ago, Hab said:

I got weirdly emotional when Ken announced that Alex is getting a memorial stamp.

But would it have killed them to put Alex’s face on the stamp? The clue box is clever, but I think they could have made room for an actual image of him as well. Everyone else gets that. 

[shapeshifter]

55 minutes ago, 30 Helens said:

But would it have killed them to put Alex’s face on the stamp? The clue box is clever, but I think they could have made room for an actual image of him as well. Everyone else gets that. 

I’m wondering if Alex or his family did not want his image used on a stamp?

7 hours ago, Hab said:

I got weirdly emotional when Ken announced that Alex is getting a memorial stamp.

😭

I couldn’t parse the Vin Scully FJ clue. Isn’t there some sensible grammatical rule about not using a pronoun without a previously stated noun?
Or is that just a rule I made up to prevent confusion in asynchronous communication?
I assumed “he” was Vin Scully, so I was making wild guesses about what announcing record he could have broken in the Deep South:

• 50 years ago Vin Scully announced he got "a standing ovation in the Deep South" for breaking a longtime record

Shouldn’t the clue have used “this athlete” instead of “he”?

[MrAtoz]

I had no trouble with the Final Jeopardy clue; I think that the way Ken read it aloud emphasized the "he" in a way that made it clear that it was distinct from "Vin Scully." It helps that Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record on my seventh birthday, so I know what year it happened in.

On the other hand, I did not get the tie-breaker. I saw "moving light" and very confidently said "Brownian motion." Because you can see dust particles moving in light.

[ams1001]

34 minutes ago, MrAtoz said:

 I think that the way Ken read it aloud emphasized the "he" in a way that made it clear that it was distinct from "Vin Scully." 

Yeah, I read it in the archive first (sometimes I get impatient and just read ahead). I was confused until I heard Ken read it; the emphasis on "he" was what made me realize what they were looking for (didn't know it, anyway).

[Trey]

17 hours ago, Katy M said:

Then again 2 of the contestants got it right, so I guess it was just me.

Definitely not just you.  I kept reading the clue trying to figure out what the heck they were asking.  "This man" would have been a big help, rather than just "he". I might actually have got the answer if it had been written a little better.

But I did get the tiebreaker.

eta: I was a little slow un-muting the tv so I missed Ken emphasizing the "he" in the clue. So that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it😀

Edited June 22 by Trey

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I couldn’t parse the Vin Scully FJ clue. Isn’t there some sensible grammatical rule about not using a pronoun without a previously stated noun?

Or is that just a rule I made up to prevent confusion in asynchronous communication?
I assumed “he” was Vin Scully, so I was making wild guesses about what announcing record he could have broken in the Deep South:

• 50 years ago Vin Scully announced he got "a standing ovation in the Deep South" for breaking a longtime record

Shouldn’t the clue have used “this athlete” instead of “he”?

Following up: 

To be fair to the clue writers, Jeopardy! has a very long-standing Final Jeopardy! clue format of putting the pronouns "this" or "that" directly preceding the object of the answer, and here "longtime record" is only preceded by the article "a."
However, new-to-Jeopardy! viewers would never *clue in* to a missing "that."

But I also found this YouTube video of Ken's reading where he does indeed emphasize "he," although I'm not sure whether or not that would have helped me, since now that I know the meaning, I can't unknow it.

Maybe somebody could play it for someone who missed it, being sure to stop by the 40 second mark?

 

[Cotypubby]

The FJ must have been easy because I know very little about baseball and even I got it!

Ken emphasized the “he” in the clue so I knew they wanted a person, and I just did the math. 2024-50=1974. Famous Black athlete who broke a long held record in the 1970s? Hank Aaron.

[Clanstarling]

On 6/20/2024 at 5:18 PM, Browncoat said:

And the only TS I got were Cyrano de Bergerac, and Kristen Chenowith & Idina Menzel.  Although I always want to call her Adele Dazeem now.

I tried to say that - but couldn't remember the actual mispronunciation. Boo.

20 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

For some reason I had been reading or hearing about Nora recently so I was not surprised that she was the correct response. I couldn't remember the surname Barnacle though.

Seems like a name that would stick. 😉

18 hours ago, ProudMary said:

I'm surprised they accepted just "Benedict" without the associated number.

Maybe they give up when it gets up to 3 Roman Numerals (Pope Benedict XVI)

Edited June 22 by Clanstarling

[Bastet]

FJ was one of my most instant of instagets, so the wording posed no problems for me.

I watched with friends, but at the end of movie night instead of the beginning, so we were expecting a disaster but we did fairly well.

I think the only TS that stumped all of us as well was the one about influencers (something about videos of them getting ready), and we all said we were perfectly content with that one getting by us.  (We also all laughed at Ken saying there were a bunch of teenagers yelling at their screens right now.)

[shapeshifter]

25 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I think the only TS that stumped all of us as well was the one about influencers (something about videos of them getting ready), and we all said we were perfectly content with that one getting by us.  (We also all laughed at Ken saying there were a bunch of teenagers yelling at their screens right now.)

This Gramma was yelling at the screen because I got as far as "Get Ready…" when they took the clue off the screen to focus on the players' nonplussed faces. I'm giving myself credit for it:

• GRWM for short, this genre of video on TikTok or Instagram follows as your fave influencer begins their day

[proserpina65]

On 6/21/2024 at 7:40 PM, Grizzly said:

Vin Scully told me it was baseball and I might have murmured Hank Aaron when time was called. Not with any confidence. But I knew Doppler and Delta.

My best friend and I were watching together and both said Hank Aaron right away.  It's not often that a sports clue is an instaget for me but that definitely was one.  I had no trouble figuring out what the clue was looking for.

On 6/22/2024 at 8:05 AM, MrAtoz said:

I had no trouble with the Final Jeopardy clue; I think that the way Ken read it aloud emphasized the "he" in a way that made it clear that it was distinct from "Vin Scully." It helps that Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record on my seventh birthday, so I know what year it happened in.

On the other hand, I did not get the tie-breaker. I saw "moving light" and very confidently said "Brownian motion." Because you can see dust particles moving in light.

I got the Doppler Effect because of The Big Bang Theory.

 

[Katy M]

I said Ceres, too.

I got the missed clues of pep/peep and Reagan.

I got the entire category of music wrong.

[chessiegal]

Thank you, Ken, for pronouncing Guy Fieri's name without Guy's affectation. 🙏

[ams1001]

June 24:

77% / 47% / 61%

Pretty good J! round…ran Prehistoric Animals, missed one in Poetry, Let Him Cook, and Feeling Positive, and two in Director's Cut and A One E and a 2 E. Not good DJ round…missed two in Meeting and Olde Cars and three in everything else. No clue for FJ. I thought it was maybe something in the area of Pluto, at least, but I wasn't even confident about that and couldn't think of any names of things out there.

TSes: (J had 3; DJ had 6 + 1 DD) I got pep/peep, Brandi Carlile, and Hudson Hornet (total guess, just trying to think of a likely racecar name that started with H)..

Sorry, Ken, I did not get Ken/Keen. But I did meet Emeril Lagasse once.

[Browncoat]

I did not get FJ.  I was in the area of Pluto, but not in the orbit.

But I did get the TS of nicoise, rise, Reagan, Hearst, and the Hudson Hornet.  I would like to thank the movie Cars for that last one -- Doc Hudson was a Hudson Hornet.  I knew being owned by Pixar would pay off sometime!

[Prevailing Wind]

When I was 1, my family bought a Hudson Hornet. I loved that car. Behind the rear windows that rolled down, there were stationary window, sort of triangular shaped with rounded corners. When I lay on the shelf in front of the rear window, I could look out those windows, except Mom stuck decals of places we'd been on the windows. How well I remember Delaware Water Gap's decal. LOL

[stonehaven]

I'm sorta sad that Brandi Carlilse was a triple stumper. She's a talented musician who seems to make all the tribute shows I see. 

[Bastet]

Archive game for me thanks to hockey.

The Brandi Carlile TS was a bummer; I like her music, but I love how much she respects and supports other women in music.

If not for the directors category, I'd have nailed the first round in its entirety, but I only came up with two (not terrible, I suppose, since I'd only seen one of the films).

I only ran music in DJ, but it wasn't a bad round; I got all but "His Accidency" in presidents and all but Milan in Italy and missed two each in the rest.

I had absolutely no idea for FJ, though.