500 Questions - General Discussion

[candall]

1 hour ago, DoubleUTeeEff said:

People's gaps in knowledge are interesting to me.  The Color Purple I can see missing but Romanov?  Wow!  Then he probably knew some stuff that he considers basic that I don't know.

Well, there you go. I gargled out Tsar Nicholas II! Rasputin! White Russians! Alexandra Feo-mumble-ova! Anastasia! Ingrid Bergman! but just couldn't stimulate the Romanov brain cell before the clock ran out.

The performance pressure on that show must be tremendous; it's even a tiny bit stressful right here on my couch.

Edited May 27, 2016 by candall

[ottoDbusdriver]

I like how in the intro they announce "Does anybody have what it takes to conquer 500 questions ?"

And that answer is always no because of the time frame allotted.  It's only a 5 night event for a grand total of 8 hours of television (last year was 7 nights for a total of 9 hours) -- one person would have to answer over 62 questions per hour and never lose for the entire 8 hour run.  Since we are onto the 4th champion after only 2 of those 8 hours, it ain't going to happen.

And since a typical hour of primetime TV is only about 42 minutes in length because of commercials, so that means they would have to answer a whopping 1.5 questions per minute, which leaves no time for smalltalk or bantering with the challenger.

 So the whole 500 questions concept is just flawed from the get go -- might as well call it $10 Million Bigfoot Bounty (another show that was never ever ever going to give away the top prize).

I suspect Ken Jennings got an appearance fee so they could hype it in the promos and then he took a dive just to get the hell out with his check.

I missed the start of Thursday's episode -- was there any mention of the guy left standing at the end of last year's run ?

Edited May 28, 2016 by ottoDbusdriver

[Snow Apple]

10 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

I missed the start of Thursday's episode -- was there any mention of the guy left standing at the end of last year's run ?

I was wondering the same thing. I didn't know the show was on so missed 10-15 minutes.That didn't seem to be enough amount of time for two people to flame out, did it?

[WhoisMark]

Richard Mason: http://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=3365&highlight=richard+mason

would have been the returning champ and he expected to be back to start the season.  When it was close to taping time and he had not heard anything he contacted the proper people at the show and found out he was not being invited back.  

Before Ken Jennings was put in place to begin the season someone else was asked and that person declined as a form of protest against the shoddy treatment given to Richard Mason.

[ottoDbusdriver]

3 hours ago, WhoisMark said:

Richard Mason: http://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=3365&highlight=richard+mason

would have been the returning champ and he expected to be back to start the season.  When it was close to taping time and he had not heard anything he contacted the proper people at the show and found out he was not being invited back.  

Before Ken Jennings was put in place to begin the season someone else was asked and that person declined as a form of protest against the shoddy treatment given to Richard Mason.

That kind of takes my respect for Ken Jennings down a notch -- and pretty much hammers home that he probably got a great big check for his appearance.  That's a pretty shitty thing to do by the producers to Richard Mason. If I were Ken Jennings, I would have made sure that the check cleared first in case the producers tried to stiff him.  Then again, maybe Ken Jennings bowing out so early was his own way to protest against this show's treatment of RM.  Who knows ? 

Finally saw Friday's episode.

Did Dan the host pronounce Bifrost of Norse Mythology as Bee-frost ?  That sounded weird.  I don't ride a Bee-cycle.

When Ryan exited Dan the host said "thanks for having you" -- what he really needed to add was "on the show", otherwise it sounds a little creepy.  At least Ryan was entertaining.  #plantbattle

William really is diminishing the term "genius" -- seriously, in the states ending in 'A' battle, Liz says South Dakota, and William couldn't come up with North Dakota.  And then he clams up on the Hangover question when prompted for the correct answer by Dan the Host.

Finally looked up on Wikipedia the differences between last year and this year -- they made quite a few changes, but getting rid of Royals expert/Aviation crash expert Richard Quest was the best move.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_Questions

Edited May 28, 2016 by ottoDbusdriver

[Snow Apple]

Well that stinks about Richard Mason. Why would they do that?

I agree about Richard Quest. He seems a decent fellow, but oy. I do not his miss "Three strikes and you're gone" every five minutes. At least the new guy only says it when they have two strikes already up there.

Edited May 28, 2016 by Snow Apple

[ottoDbusdriver]

2 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

Well that stinks about Richard Mason. Why would they do that?

I agree about Richard Quest. He seems a decent fellow, but oy. I do not his miss "Three strikes and you're gone" every five minutes. At least the new guy only says it when they have two strikes already up there.

It was even worse than you remember -- it was actually "three wrongs and you're gone".

[candall]

After Night Two, I wouldn't mind if they trimmed the chatter fat just a bit.  YES, we KNOW what it means to have two wrongs.  The repetition of that warning will grow increasingly annoying as the nights go on.

But it's the purrrrfect show for listening when you're occupied with other tasks--as opposed to Preacher, which is demanding far too much attention as I'm writing this.  Really, aliens and vampires?

[Kromm]

Wow, this show came back sinking like a rock. Not that it had far to sink.

Not sure if Ken Jennings took a dive or not. But... I have trouble believing, for example, that he didn't know about Choux pastry.

 

As for the show screwing over the guy from last year?  Ugh. Fuck them.

[ottoDbusdriver]

And Liz is gone on the very first question on Night Three since she had two wrongs from the previous episode. And it was a pretty easy battle question to name all 6 regular hosts of the Tonight Show.

And the Jeopardy Alumni show continues -- with Colby Burnett as the new challenger.  Uggggh !!!  Thankfully Colby gets eliminated by William.

Surprisingly, William does well in the lightning round answering 14 of 19 questions right -- so going into the next round he has 49 questions and $35,000.  
As long as answers to the questions have all been referenced in Seinfeld he should be ok.

And we get yet another former Jeopardy contestant in Guy Jordan.

Now that was a tough battle question -- name the top 10 Internet browsers of 2016.  I never would have got Torch, Maxthon, Avant, Deepnet or Seamonkey.

And we end the episode with William still going at Question 61, but he has two wrongs.

[marketdoctor]

I'll say two things in defense of Ken Jennings:

1.  Unlike Jeapordy!, where you can pick whether to answer or not after hearing the question, he was stuck with the questions he got.

2.  It's possible he didn't know what happened to Richard Mason when the show was being taped (he might not have asked, and someone might not have been forthcoming or factual if he did.)

That said, if you didn't bring back last year's contestant, as ottoDbusdriver pointed out, there's not enough time to get through 500 questions, and maybe the genius thing to do is to take the money the first chance you get, and cash the check as soon as you get out of the studio.   Giving out more money often gets more ratings, so if the producers want more attention, "how can we pay out less money?" is exactly the wrong question.

[ottoDbusdriver]

On 5/27/2016 at 2:30 AM, jhlipton said:

Clever, but was Monica, the first winner, on Jeopardy?

Apparently so.  @WhoIsMark put together a nice summary in the 'Who's your Favorite Contestant ?' forum, and yup, Monica was on Jeopardy too.

http://forums.previously.tv/topic/26803-whos-your-favorite-contestant/#comment-2286910

So far it appears that everyone but Nathan Kaplan (who didn't last long) has been on Jeopardy.
 

[Tabasco Cat]

Came late to the party because I just got around to watching the first 2 nights on the DVR this evening. Haven't watched Saturday's yet but will tomorrow. Not too upset about the small spoiler I subjected myself to :)

Over on JBoard.tv there's a bit of discussion about Richard Mason. 500 Questions contestant Ryan is a regular over there. He's not able to spill all the beans, but apparently Mason was at the location and ready for the show when the producers informed him - with a single day's notice - that he would not be appearing on the show this season. There were 2 well-known contestants there in the pool. One was Ken Jennings and the other name isn't known yet. That guy walked out when he learned that they were hosing Richard Mason. Ken Jennings stayed and, as the theory goes, took a dive. He WROTE A FREAKING BOOK about maps and geography so yeah.... no, there's no way he didn't know the other two countries bordering France are Italy and Switzerland. KJ is also involved in politics somewhat and there's also no way he didn't know the Janet Yellen answer.

Of course he'll never admit it, but in my estimation he took a stand for integrity and against game show producers screwing people over in the best way he could: by not allowing them to cash in on his fame at the expense of some poor schmo who had done nothing wrong. Good on Ken Jennings, in my book.

With that said, I like the changes this season a lot. The host is a million times better than Quest. The number of Q per round is less, the Lightning Round is a good change, you've only got 5 seconds to answer instead of 10, and the questions in general seem to be a little harder than last year. The contestants are fine so far. #plantbattle

Still, the biggest improvement (that we're probably never going to get) would be giving the show a run long enough so that it might actually be possible for someone to get through 500 questions.

[jhlipton]

13 hours ago, Tabasco Cat said:

[A]pparently Mason was at the location and ready for the show when the producers informed him - with a single day's notice - that he would not be appearing on the show this season. There were 2 well-known contestants there in the pool. One was Ken Jennings and the other name isn't known yet. That guy walked out when he learned that they were hosing Richard Mason. Ken Jennings stayed and, as the theory goes, took a dive.

Game shows have a lot of legal requirements, so I'm wondering if something came up (from Legal, Standards&Practices or the like) that made them cut Mason.  I can't think why they would cut him at the last minute -- it would be bound to get out and cause nothing but bad publicity, so I really wonder what happened.

[Tabasco Cat]

Looking forward to 2.5 hours of quiz show tonight between Jeopardy! and 500 Questions. I did notice during Saturday's show that Dan Harris dinged a contestant for improper pronunciation and said the judges had high standards. Where were those judges on Night #1 when Monica answered "Arcadia"?

[Snow Apple]

There's an episode tonight? ABC is showing a baseball game in the Chicago area. Anyone know if they are showing this at a later time? I can't find it on the schedule.

Edited May 31, 2016 by Snow Apple

[ottoDbusdriver]

3 hours ago, Tabasco Cat said:

Looking forward to 2.5 hours of quiz show tonight between Jeopardy! and 500 Questions. I did notice during Saturday's show that Dan Harris dinged a contestant for improper pronunciation and said the judges had high standards. Where were those judges on Night #1 when Monica answered "Arcadia"?

After the first hour, William is out at 72 questions, and Guy takes over completing the first round of 30, and besting Muffy in the process, followed by doing well in the lightning round.  Guy has $36,000 and 49 questions with no strikes going into the 2nd round.

 

ETA:  Guy makes it through the 2nd round and lightning round with 97 questions and $66,000.  The only person to clear two rounds so far and is now up against Brandon Alexander.  There's still no way Guy will every complete 500 questions even if he stays until the end of tomorrow night's episode.

Edited June 1, 2016 by ottoDbusdriver

[Saylii]

On May 30, 2016 at 1:56 PM, jhlipton said:

Game shows have a lot of legal requirements, so I'm wondering if something came up (from Legal, Standards&Practices or the like) that made them cut Mason.  I can't think why they would cut him at the last minute -- it would be bound to get out and cause nothing but bad publicity, so I really wonder what happened.

I bet Mason would have had to start over again at 0 questions since he'd a) presumably already paid out and b) the show had a slightly different format.  Once they realized he had to start over, it was easier to cut him in the name of a more diverse pool then let a contestant basically have two shots at 500 Questions.

[Tabasco Cat]

Guy is good. Good board management. A little nitpicking: those "Quantum Physics" questions weren't all about quantum physics. Gravity famously does not fit into a quantum framework yet.

I just looked at the ratings for the 2 seasons (so far). It sucks that this year the program is so much better IMO and the ratings for the first 3 nights are just dropping like a stone. Hope tonight's ratings are better.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Tabasco Cat

[ottoDbusdriver]

And Guy goes into the final night at 110 questions -- will he make it to 500 Questions ?  Uh, no.

[ChiCricket]

5 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

There's an episode tonight? ABC is showing a baseball game in the Chicago area. Anyone know if they are showing this at a later time? I can't find it on the schedule.

@Snow Apple, I saw something somewhere where they mentioned it was going to play at 12:05am because of the baseball game.

I guess In place of the Windy City Live replay.

Edited June 1, 2016 by ChiCricket
Added info

[Snow Apple]

8 hours ago, ChiCricket said:

@Snow Apple, I saw something somewhere where they mentioned it was going to play at 12:05am because of the baseball game.

I guess In place of the Windy City Live replay.

Dang. If so, I missed it. Thanks anyway.

[KellySunshine]

The #1 quiz champion guy got screwed in the first battle today.  The question about birthstones... is Peridot not the birthstone for August?

[marketdoctor]

Quote

The question about birthstones... is Peridot not the birthstone for August?

According to a number of sources (and a very quick Google search), yes, it is. I don't know what you do in those situations, but they probably have an "official" source they use to reduce lawsuits. 

I hope they invite this guy back next year--that would be, you know, smart.  It was funny that they kept saying "unprecedented" about a show that's had as few episodes as this one has, but it's been an impressive run.  They were implying this was it for him, but at least they gave him one more Lighting Round to cash in. 

[Tabasco Cat]

Can't quibble too much, Guy had an impressive run, but in the Mayors Battle he mispronounced Ed Koch's name. Granted there are 2 billionare brothers who, of late, are spreading their money around to pols and causes they support: the Koch brothers pronounce their last name like it rhymes with "joke" and "toke". But Ed Koch pronounced his name as rhyming with "scotch" and "crotch". Even I wouldn't have penalized the pronunciation, but I was surprised Guy didn't know it. Ed Koch was a larger than life personality in New York City.

Congratulations, Guy! Well done. Don't hold your breath looking to be invited back to continue next season, though. I think Guy would have a good chance at getting to 500.

Edit: One other thing tonight didn't seem right. The Department of Justice is NOT part of Homeland Security. No way, no how.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Tabasco Cat

[ottoDbusdriver]

Congrats to Guy -- it was an impressive run.

That one battle where they were supposed to name the scientists who had most recently an an element named after them -- and instead of giving the name of the scientist for some of the answers they accepted the name of the element.  Sorry, not the same thing.

Some the battle questions I didn't like were the "according to" so-and-so's poll these were the top whatever answers -- what is this Family Feud ?  

[Jadzia]

I was disappointed the show just ended without saying it was the finale and the contestant couldn't finish.

Overall, I liked the new host this season. But I laughed every time he said "miss three questions, and you're done" because it always sounded like he was saying "miss three questions and you're dumb!"

[Kromm]

32 minutes ago, Jadzia said:

I was disappointed the show just ended without saying it was the finale and the contestant couldn't finish.

Rest assured, if there's a season 3 we already know he won't be asked back to finish!

[Padma]

On ‎5‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 9:55 PM, Tabasco Cat said:

Came late to the party because I just got around to watching the first 2 nights on the DVR this evening. Haven't watched Saturday's yet but will tomorrow. Not too upset about the small spoiler I subjected myself to :)

Over on JBoard.tv there's a bit of discussion about Richard Mason. 500 Questions contestant Ryan is a regular over there. He's not able to spill all the beans, but apparently Mason was at the location and ready for the show when the producers informed him - with a single day's notice - that he would not be appearing on the show this season. There were 2 well-known contestants there in the pool. One was Ken Jennings and the other name isn't known yet. That guy walked out when he learned that they were hosing Richard Mason. Ken Jennings stayed and, as the theory goes, took a dive. He WROTE A FREAKING BOOK about maps and geography so yeah.... no, there's no way he didn't know the other two countries bordering France are Italy and Switzerland. KJ is also involved in politics somewhat and there's also no way he didn't know the Janet Yellen answer.

Of course he'll never admit it, but in my estimation he took a stand for integrity and against game show producers screwing people over in the best way he could: by not allowing them to cash in on his fame at the expense of some poor schmo who had done nothing wrong. Good on Ken Jennings, in my book.

With that said, I like the changes this season a lot. The host is a million times better than Quest. The number of Q per round is less, the Lightning Round is a good change, you've only got 5 seconds to answer instead of 10, and the questions in general seem to be a little harder than last year. The contestants are fine so far. #plantbattle

Still, the biggest improvement (that we're probably never going to get) would be giving the show a run long enough so that it might actually be possible for someone to get through 500 questions.

I hope you're right about Ken. I have to think that's true, as I knew Janet Yellen and the "bordering France" question, too, (plus that was AWFULLY EASY for a geography wonk and big time Jeopardy champ. Geography is always a category they find easy to master and ... Europe? France? There's no way he didn't know that. I'm sure he knew Janet Yellen, too. Watching him on Jeopardy, he -always- got everything I knew and then, of course, so much that I didn't. I'm sure he wouldn't miss such relatively common kinds of info. Although I'm not sure of the ethics/legality of throwing a game, I guess no one can prove it.  I'm sure they were shocked he went out so fast, probably expecting to hype the show as people tuned in every night to watch him get closer and closer to 500 questions.

This is a hard show, and you could imagine they know the contestants' weaknesses so well toward the end that they could easily include a couple of their weakest categories, improving the odds that they'd lose after all. But last time, it was painful to watch. Now, it's actually enjoyable for all the reasons you all have said--the timing change for one, the personable contestants and -- most of all -- the new host. Richard Quest was fine on CNN but not as a game show host. The new one isn't annoying at all, brings personality but not too much, and moves things along. A great improvement! I wish they'd run it throughout the summer rather than for only one week.

[DrScottie]

3 hours ago, Tabasco Cat said:

Edit: One other thing tonight didn't seem right. The Department of Justice is NOT part of Homeland Security. No way, no how.

"The United States Cabinet includes the Attorney General and the heads of what 14 other executive departments." The Attorney General heads the Department of Justice. I don't know who told Dan Harris it's a part of Homeland Security. 

4 hours ago, KellySunshine said:

The #1 quiz champion guy got screwed in the first battle today.  The question about birthstones... is Peridot not the birthstone for August?

It is, however, the question was "According to Britannica, name the 12 gems on the list of traditional birthstones." The traditional August one is Sardonyx. Technically correct is the best kind of correct so no lawsuit there.   

Edited June 2, 2016 by DrScottie

[J-Man]

Quote

Edit: One other thing tonight didn't seem right. The Department of Justice is NOT part of Homeland Security. No way, no how.

Yeah, that was flat-out wrong. The reason the guy who gave the answer "Justice" was wrong was not because the head of the DOJ isn't part of the Cabinet (which was what the question asked), but because they prefaced the question by saying, "OTHER than the Attorney General," so the head of the DOJ (the A-G), while a Cabinet member, was not a correct answer for that reason.

Shame on the producers of this program for not correcting the error, even if it had no effect on the game.

[Snow Apple]

11 hours ago, KellySunshine said:

The #1 quiz champion guy got screwed in the first battle today.  The question about birthstones... is Peridot not the birthstone for August?

Peridot is my birthstone so when they said it was wrong, I'm like "wait. what?"

[marketdoctor]

Quote

The traditional August one is Sardonyx. Technically correct is the best kind of correct

This made me want to requisition the forms to LOL.  And they gave the source they were using in the question, because there were different lists.  That said, there are other questions they could have asked for a challenge that might have been less subject to that kind of mistake. Questions that have multiple corroborating sources would be better for challenge rounds, though they want to name a source if there's any doubt. 

[illdoc]

I can relate to the "August peridot" poster---I'm "March Aquamarine" (which I probably would have said), but traditionally it's "Bloodstone". The usual birthstones are (in order): Garnet, Amethyst, Aquamarine, Diamond, Emerald, Pearl, Ruby, Peridot, Sapphire, Opal, Topaz and ... Blue Topaz??? Help me out with December, someone!  And, for the record, I believe the t is silent when you pronounce "peridot" (not "dot" (like the contestant said) but "doe")

[Tabasco Cat]

13 hours ago, J-Man said:

Yeah, that was flat-out wrong. The reason the guy who gave the answer "Justice" was wrong was not because the head of the DOJ isn't part of the Cabinet (which was what the question asked), but because they prefaced the question by saying, "OTHER than the Attorney General," so the head of the DOJ (the A-G), while a Cabinet member, was not a correct answer for that reason.

Shame on the producers of this program for not correcting the error, even if it had no effect on the game.

If "Attorney General" was in the clue itself then I agree DoJ was already covered and would be an incorrect answer. I wish I hadn't already deleted the episode from my DVR, but I'll take your word for it. I'd really like to see that question and hear the answers given and Dan Harris's remarks again.

[DrScottie]

6 hours ago, illdoc said:

Help me out with December, someone!

Turquoise. 

http://www.britannica.com/topic/birthstone-gemstone

[jhlipton]

On 6/1/2016 at 9:28 PM, Kromm said:

Rest assured, if there's a season 3 we already know he won't be asked back to finish!

I wouldn't be upset, and I doubt he would be either, if Guy was not asked back.  He won $170,000 -- that's a good haul on any show.

[Eolivet]

I thought this season (LOL, all five episodes) was terrific. Guy was a fabulous contestant -- likable, strategic and really good under pressure. I found Dan Harris to be a terrific host -- dry, but genuinely into the game, and with that hint of "nerd" himself.

I hope this show is back next year, and with Guy. There are so many questions that it really needs a rooting interest, and I think they could promote it with "He's made it halfway -- can he get to 500?"

Other than Ken Jennings, I'd also like to say kudos to the casting department. I saw more women contestants and people of color than I have on many primetime dramas. It was definitely not the bastion of white guys that I feel traditional quiz shows can be. Nice job, ABC. A little progress is better than none at all.

[jhlipton]

4 hours ago, Eolivet said:

'd also like to say kudos to the casting department. I saw more women contestants and people of color than I have on many primetime dramas. It was definitely not the bastion of white guys that I feel traditional quiz shows can be. Nice job, ABC. A little progress is better than none at all.

True dat, but ABC is probably the best at diverse casting of the Big 5.  (SyFy is possibly the best over-all.)

[Good Queen Jane]

The interaction of the contestants was the best part of the show. They were all fun to watch (even Colby!) They owned their nerdiness (#plant battle), had a good amount of trash talk without falling into arrogance, and were respectful of each other in defeat. Even the host was funny without being over the top. I would have enjoyed spending an evening with them.