S02.E06: Quarterfinal #6: Dulé Hill, Sheryl Underwood and Peter Facinelli

[Athena]

Quote

Quarterfinal #6: Dulé Hill, Sheryl Underwood and Peter Facinelli

 

[BuckeyeLou]

I am slapping my forehead at how dumb these 3 were!  At least Dule redeemed himself at the end, but I cannot believe the dumb answers they gave!  And they all took too long deciding which category & then Sheryl was busy talking over everyone.

[vibeology]

I know everyone winced, but if you read the book you'll be glad when Jennette McCurdy's mom dies too. 

It started off promising but there were some really bad answers in there. And I think the celebrities need more coaching in how to wager and how to spot the secondary clues. The "cheesesteak" clue comes to mind. 

[Browncoat]

Dule Hill was the only one I am familiar with, so I'm glad he managed a win in the end.

[shapeshifter]

Sheryl Underwood started out fine; she just didn't have a handle on wagering and when *not* to buzz in, which then got her flustered. 
It was like watching Adam Rodriguez continue to give wrong answers to the Equator category after doing so well with foods.

These celebs should watch this before playing:

22 hours ago, ProudMary said:

I don't think anyone's mentioned this yet. Season 4 of CNN's Who's Talking To Chris Wallace, which streams exclusively on Max, is now in its fourth season. The fourth episode of the latest season dropped on October 20th and features Wallace's interview with Ken Jennings. It's 26 minutes in length. If you have access to Max, its an enjoyable watch.

[Glitches]

I may be just about done watching CJ if the contestants continue their attention seeking behaviors. 

[ams1001]

I wasn't home last night; will watch later but these comments at least have me prepared for frustration, so thanks for that. So far this season has been refreshingly lacking in excessive shenanigans, for the most part. I guess I should have known it couldn't last.

[chessiegal]

It's CJ and they are playing for charity. I appreciate they are having fun. I'm enjoying it.

[rejnel]

Most fun episode yet. JMHO.

[proserpina65]

12 hours ago, vibeology said:

I know everyone winced, but if you read the book you'll be glad when Jennette McCurdy's mom dies too. 

It started off promising but there were some really bad answers in there. And I think the celebrities need more coaching in how to wager and how to spot the secondary clues. The "cheesesteak" clue comes to mind. 

I haven't read the book, but I've read things about her life and yeah, I'm glad her mother died too.

I honestly think Celebrity Jeopardy has two kinds of contestants: ones who are there for the challenge of the game and those who are there to have fun.  (Of course, they're all there to win money for their charity.)  I do prefer it when a game has more of a mix of fun/smarts/challenge, like Steven Weber's game did, but I try not to hold celebrities to the same standard as regular contestants.

12 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Dule Hill was the only one I am familiar with, so I'm glad he managed a win in the end.

I knew of Peter Facinelli, wasn't he in those dreadful Twilight movies?  Which I think was what he referenced with his Gigli answer.  But I was definitely rooting for Dule Hill, because I both enjoy him as an actor and as a damned fine-looking man.  Which never hurts.

[sugarbaker design]

13 hours ago, vibeology said:

It started off promising but there were some really bad answers in there. And I think the celebrities need more coaching in how to wager and how to spot the secondary clues. The "cheesesteak" clue comes to mind. 

Facinelli, who fucked up the "cheesesteak" clue, readily admitted he did zero prep for CJ.  He doesn't need coaching.  Some celebs are just there to get their charities some air time and the minimal $30K.

[vibeology]

37 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

Facinelli, who fucked up the "cheesesteak" clue, readily admitted he did zero prep for CJ.  He doesn't need coaching.  Some celebs are just there to get their charities some air time and the minimal $30K.

I'm not talking about at home studying. My understanding is that they do a bit of a practice round before they start the actual game to get a feel for the buzzer and stuff. I just think for the celebrities who aren't all going to be Jeopardy nerds that a bit more coaching in that 10-15 minutes about a few specific things would be helpful. Sheryl had no business wagering as much as she did in the composer playlist category seeing as she didn't know any answers in the category up to that point.

I know that most of the celebrities are there to have fun, but I can't imagine any of them like getting very obvious questions wrong or ending up in the negative and getting pity money. For the most part, people don't like to look dumb. And for the ones who don't care at all, they can just ignore the advice.

[sugarbaker design]

2 minutes ago, vibeology said:

I'm not talking about at home studying. My understanding is that they do a bit of a practice round before they start the actual game to get a feel for the buzzer and stuff. I just think for the celebrities who aren't all going to be Jeopardy nerds that a bit more coaching in that 10-15 minutes about a few specific things would be helpful.

I mentioned Facinelli doing zero prep to show his apathy about doing well.  If he didn't care about prepping, he's not going to care about extra coaching.

 

4 minutes ago, vibeology said:

Sheryl had no business wagering as much as she did in the composer playlist category seeing as she didn't know any answers in the category up to that point.

No amount of coaching is going to fix hubris.

 

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, vibeology said:

I just think for the celebrities who aren't all going to be Jeopardy nerds that a bit more coaching in that 10-15 minutes about a few specific things would be helpful.

Why should they get that?  If they were serious about playing the game, they'd have done the prep ahead of time just like those of us who've been contestants on the regular game.  If they didn't, they shouldn't get extra help on the day of.

[vibeology]

26 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

Why should they get that?  If they were serious about playing the game, they'd have done the prep ahead of time just like those of us who've been contestants on the regular game.  If they didn't, they shouldn't get extra help on the day of.

Because a race for the bottom isn't good viewing.

You can't hold the celebrities to the same standard as the regular competitors. They aren't serious about playing the game and I appreciate that. This isn't their lifelong dream. They aren't playing for real money. They're there to be entertaining and raise awareness and funds for a charity. It would benefit the show if the producers spent an extra five minutes (when they already are doing buzzer prep) talking about how to read the clues and how to decide how much to wager. 

And I'm not in the studio so maybe they're already getting that sort of coaching and most of the celebrities are just too dumb to benefit. I just think the difference between a bad and a good Celebrity Jeopardy game is if its competitive so the producers should be trying to make the players as strong as possible in the little prep time that they do get.

[chitowngirl]

It must be challenging to do the interviews and not be able to talk about or promote your work…

[ams1001]

Finally watching...I didn't realize Dule HIll grew up about half an hour from me (and we're the same age)!

[SomeTameGazelle]

8 hours ago, vibeology said:

I just think the difference between a bad and a good Celebrity Jeopardy game is if its competitive so the producers should be trying to make the players as strong as possible in the little prep time that they do get.

I don't know if it's partly Ken's knowledgeableness (and very kind but still a bit more in sorrow than in anger disappointed vibe) or an actual difference in the difficulty of the clues this season, but I feel as though some of the clues have not been correctly calibrated for Celebrities at all. Maybe it was partly due to the writers' strike as well but a lot of the clues just seem overly complicated and it takes more effort than most celebrities have in them to pull out the hint. Just put the hint on top. It's got to be softball.

I do think having one category where there are only 3 possibilities is a brilliant idea so that people can pick up rebounds, and it was hilarious that Sheryl lost her mind and rang in even though she had forgotten what had already been ruled out. Her charity was going to get its 30k regardless so I don't feel too bad about it.

FJ didn't matter since it was a lock for Dulé but knowing the category as I FF'd past the commercial the first thing I saw was just LANGSTON HUGHES and I immediately guessed A Raisin in the Sun. 

8 hours ago, vibeology said:

You can't hold the celebrities to the same standard as the regular competitors. They aren't serious about playing the game and I appreciate that. This isn't their lifelong dream. They aren't playing for real money. They're there to be entertaining and raise awareness and funds for a charity.

It doesn't bother me that celebrities tend to be more demonstrative than regular contestants or that they know less trivia and I can't see any reason to want to make someone feel bad for playing a game on TV for charity even if they make mistakes or look foolish doing it.

Edited November 3, 2023 by SomeTameGazelle
@*#^#^#& autocorrect

[shapeshifter]

Was the term "Quaterfinal" invented to hint to the followers of the game that it leads to a "Semifinal"? 
Or is there a mathematical reason behind the moniker of "Quarterfinal"?

[Athena]

8 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Was the term "Quaterfinal" invented to hint to the followers of the game that it leads to a "Semifinal"? 
Or is there a mathematical reason behind the moniker of "Quarterfinal"?

The former probably because there are 9 quarterfinals planned.

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, Athena said:

The former probably because there are 9 quarterfinals planned.

Thanks.
And the Emperor has no clothes.🙃

[SoMuchTV]

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Was the term "Quaterfinal" invented to hint to the followers of the game that it leads to a "Semifinal"? 
Or is there a mathematical reason behind the moniker of "Quarterfinal"?

6 hours ago, Athena said:

The former probably because there are 9 quarterfinals planned.

30 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Thanks.
And the Emperor has no clothes.🙃

What am I missing? I’m not a big sports person but isn’t the round before the semifinals normally called the quarterfinals? Is there something weird about how they’re using it here?

[chitowngirl]

It seems this season is setup differently than last season. Last season, they did 3 quarterfinals-semifinal-3 quarterfinals-semifinal-3 quarterfinals-semifinal-final. This season looks like the setup is 9 quarterfinals-3 semifinals-final. Endgame is the same, execution different.

Edited November 5, 2023 by chitowngirl

[shapeshifter]

21 hours ago, chitowngirl said:

It seems this season is setup differently than last season. Last season, they did 3 quarterfinals-semifinal-3 quarterfinals-semifinal-3 quarterfinals-semifinal-final. This season looks like the setup is 9 quarterfinals-3 semifinals-final. Endgame is the same, execution different.

21 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

What am I missing? I’m not a big sports person but isn’t the round before the semifinals normally called the quarterfinals?

I'm the one missing it.
I've never "followed" sports. 
I know enough to follow the play in a game as it happens, but I'm clueless about those March Madness pools at work, or season-long competitions between too many teams with too many cutesy names for me to keep track of.
I was briefly happy for the Cubs in 2016 and haven't been been enthused about any sport event since.
So.
9 quarters? 
Whatever.
I don't get Wordlebot's rankings for Skill and Luck either.

I'm enjoying playing along with the contestants, and especially enjoying their camaraderie. 

 

 

[SoMuchTV]

38 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

So.
9 quarters? 
Whatever.

Oh I see the confusion (maybe?)  The "quarter" in quarterfinals isn't related to a quarter in a football game or whatever.  It's more like, you're a quarter of the way to making the finals.  Then if you  make it to the semifinals, you're half-way to making the finals...  (Then it's probably further confusing for Jeopardy since there are three competitors but only one winner for each game, unlike the "brackets" you might have seen for tournaments, where one of every two competitors move on so it does look like halves, quarters, etc. come into play.)

Probably someone else could explain it better.

[shapeshifter]

4 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

It's more like, you're a quarter of the way to making the finals.  Then if you  make it to the semifinals, you're half-way to making the finals...

Ah! Thanks.
This makes sense:
1/4 of the way to the end.
Got it. 

But I have no clue about those "brackets" they talked about at work before I retired. They tried to encourage me to participate, but I never did. 
Hopefully Jeopardy! won't start doing "brackets." 
Oof. I hope I didn't just jinks it. 🙃

[SoMuchTV]

15 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Ah! Thanks.
This makes sense:
1/4 of the way to the end.
Got it. 

But I have no clue about those "brackets" they talked about at work before I retired. They tried to encourage me to participate, but I never did. 
Hopefully Jeopardy! won't start doing "brackets." 
Oof. I hope I didn't just jinks it. 🙃

Haha, most of what I know about brackets, round robin, single elimination vs double elimination, I learned from watching one of my kids compete in scholastic quiz bowl competitions. No sports involved!

And I may be wrong but I think technically Jeopardy! tournaments do involve brackets - we just don’t see them drawn out. Maybe picture it like a family tree where each couple has only one child, eventually narrowing it down to a single “winner”. 

[Athena]

35 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

But I have no clue about those "brackets" they talked about at work before I retired. They tried to encourage me to participate, but I never did. 
Hopefully Jeopardy! won't start doing "brackets." 
Oof. I hope I didn't just jinks it. 🙃

Ahh I was confused when you asked but yes like @SoMuchTV mentioned, this is a bracket tournament style which is also used in Jeopardy. Normally in sports and most competitions, it's always 2 vs 2. In the case of Jeopardy, it's 3 vs 3 which is why we have 3 semi-final rounds rather than the usual 2.

This is an example of a bracket tournament from a wrestling website to explain it (Ignore the left side about types of brackets):

 

Standard Jeopardy uses brackets for Tournament of Champions.

[shapeshifter]

Thanks, @Athena and @SoMuchTV.
If absolutely necessary, I will come back to this page with your valliant efforts to teach me about f'in brackets🤣 and try to wrap my head around this.
But right now such talk just wants to make my head do this: 
So, for now:   🙈 🙉 

It's not you guys; it's me.
I feel almost the same about learning opera and finance.

Hopefully someone else will see this and benefit. 

But, hey! At least I now know what a Quarterfinal is! 
Baby steps.

And maybe if Ken mentions a "bracket," this illustration will reappear in my mind's eye and I'll know what he's talking about. 

So, thanks again.

Edited November 6, 2023 by shapeshifter

[proserpina65]

On 11/2/2023 at 1:49 PM, vibeology said:

Because a race for the bottom isn't good viewing.

You can't hold the celebrities to the same standard as the regular competitors. They aren't serious about playing the game and I appreciate that. This isn't their lifelong dream. They aren't playing for real money. They're there to be entertaining and raise awareness and funds for a charity. It would benefit the show if the producers spent an extra five minutes (when they already are doing buzzer prep) talking about how to read the clues and how to decide how much to wager. 

And I'm not in the studio so maybe they're already getting that sort of coaching and most of the celebrities are just too dumb to benefit. I just think the difference between a bad and a good Celebrity Jeopardy game is if its competitive so the producers should be trying to make the players as strong as possible in the little prep time that they do get.

I disagree.  Them taking it less seriously means they shouldn't get more coaching, imo.