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Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions


Athena
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I actually got FJ today (unlike most of the TOC FJs).  I also got Matt's FDA Daily Double.

 

But overall the clues were hard, and I was blanking on a lot of them.  Noticeably harder than in regular games.  And that's a good thing.  If any Jeopardy producers are reading this, I think I speak for many fans: We want the Tournament of Champions games to be hard.

 

 

Thanks to all 15 contestants and to the show's production staff for another good tournament this year.

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Oh man -- you don't get 38? That sucks!

Sadly no. I'm in Canada, and CBS from Boston is the only channel that carries Jeopardy. I should look into whether Game Show Network is available from my cable provider, if it plays Jeopardy.

 

Last night was so exciting - did tonight continue that way?

Edited by Fex
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Best Tournament of Champions in years. Alex had this locked up from the start. Matt was a fool to bet everything, but there was no way he could have won (barring a miracle), so it really didn't matter.

Back to that awful woman on Mondaaaaaaayyyyy. Ugh.

 

Betting everything was the only chance he had at that miracle you mentioned, so it was the only play to make. Not only would he have needed to double up, he would have needed Alex to bet big on a DD (which he was smart enough to not do) and lose. Kudos to Matt for being a good sport and clapping hard for Alex at the end. 

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Great game.  Thank heavens they didn't dumb it down.  I have to admit that I didn't get FJ, although in retrospect it seems obvious.  I was really surprised it was such a runaway for Alex J - Matt was so good in his regular games (and so quick on the buzzer), I thought it would be a tossup between him and Alex (sorry, Kerry, you didn't embarrass yourself, but I just don't think you're in the same league).  I liked how gracious they all were.  I was really looking forward to this; I wasn't disappointed.

 

I think it's going to be really hard to watch "regular" Jeopardy! now.

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Betting everything was the only chance he had at that miracle you mentioned, so it was the only play to make. Not only would he have needed to double up, he would have needed Alex to bet big on a DD (which he was smart enough to not do) and lose. Kudos to Matt for being a good sport and clapping hard for Alex at the end.

The stars had no chance of aligning so perfectly for Matt to win. Very uncool of Kerry to just stand there without clapping when Alex won. I really did like Matt and his spazzy ways; at least he was a good sport.

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The stars had no chance of aligning so perfectly for Matt to win. Very uncool of Kerry to just stand there without clapping when Alex won. I really did like Matt and his spazzy ways; at least he was a good sport.

 

Yeah, I can't remember if Matt got the DD in DJ before Alex did, If he did, he probably would have still thought he had a shot. I know there were a lot of clues left so he could, and did, build his total back over Kerry's. Agree totally that Kerry was uncool to just stand there and not applaud...very disappointing!

 

I really had liked all three of these folks, as different as they are, I would have been happy with any winning. But watching Alex makes me wish there was a TOTOCC (Tournament of "Tournament of Champions" Champions).

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Sadly no. I'm in Canada, and CBS from Boston is the only channel that carries Jeopardy. I should look into whether Game Show Network is available from my cable provider, if it plays Jeopardy.

 

Last night was so exciting - did tonight continue that way?

Where in Canada are you? I get it on one of the local channels here (YesTV).

 

I really had liked all three of these folks, as different as they are, I would have been happy with any winning. But watching Alex makes me wish there was a TOTOCC (Tournament of "Tournament of Champions" Champions).

I had the exact same thought! I think it would be an incredible way to end the series...or even just every 10 years, the past 10 TOC winners plus the 5 top earners (or the ones with the 5 longest streaks).

 

I loved Alex's reaction to winning. At the end of the DJ round you could see the relief on his face when he knew he won, and then at the very end he kissed his wedding ring. So cute.

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Great game! Congratulations to Alex!

 

 

 

Sadly no. I'm in Canada, and CBS from Boston is the only channel that carries Jeopardy. I should look into whether Game Show Network is available from my cable provider, if it plays Jeopardy.

 

I was also going to mention YES tv.  It has stations in GTA, Calgary and Edmonton and affiliate stations in Newfoundland and BC.  I get Jeopardy! at 7:30 pm Eastern time from their GTA station.  I can also get it at 6:30 pm from the Newfoundland station, NTV.  But I have satellite, not cable so maybe you cannot get those stations. 

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Alex T pronounced cordial as "cor-dee-ull" but I always thought it was "cor-jull."

I was rooting hard for Alex J but I have to admit that I am unsatisfied he never got a FJ in the tournament.

How did Alex lose during his run anyways? I remember it happened right when I started to really like him but I don't recall the game.

Kerry did not impress me at the end AT ALL but I found her almost charming in her interview.

Matt seemed like he was getting choked up in his interview. He's not a robot!

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Loved the category about movie lines censored for TV.  I wish they’d included “Scum bum” from Smokey & The Bandit.  I knew Snakes on a Plane was going to make an appearance; I’ve never seen that movie uncut or censored, but I’ve heard about the TV version many times.

 

The contestants were pretty bad in the Executive Branch category, at least when it came to Cabinets. 

 

I was pretty bad in some other categories, which is why they’re in the ToC and I’m watching on TV.

 

I like the play of all three contestants, so I wasn’t rooting for anyone, and Alex came by his untouchable status brilliantly.  But I nevertheless felt a little sorry for the other two, especially when Matt bet it all on a DD and lost.

 

I hope Kerry clapped when Alex's victory was first announced and just quit before the point at which they switched to a wide shot, because if she really stood there without applauding that's pretty crappy.

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Oh man! That was a good one.

 

I really had liked all three of these folks, as different as they are, I would have been happy with any winning. But watching Alex makes me wish there was a TOTOCC (Tournament of "Tournament of Champions" Champions).

 

They did the Tournament of Decades or whatever a couple of years ago (?). So we'll have to wait another 30 years for them to do it again?

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Yeah, I had never heard that pronunciation. 

 

Yay for me, I got Penny Dreadful. I've never watched it, but I know a teeny bit about it.

 

How did Alex figure out 2 1/2 miles for the Daytona 500 lap? He seemed to have no clue, so I figured he would do a WAG and say 1 mile or 2 miles or 3 miles, but 2 and a half? Where did that come from?

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Kerry was not a gracious loser -- if someone who won $50,000 as the third place finisher in a Jeopardy Tournament of Champions could remotely be considered a loser. It would not have killed her to follow Matt's lead and applaud for Alex, who is simply the best of the best at the game. If you can't beat him, applaud him. He deserves it.

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How did Alex figure out 2 1/2 miles for the Daytona 500 lap? He seemed to have no clue, so I figured he would do a WAG and say 1 mile or 2 miles or 3 miles, but 2 and a half? Where did that come from?

Obviously I don't know his thought process, but in my case, I know the Indy 500 is 200 2.5 mile laps. Not having a clue about Daytona, I probably would have guessed that for lack of anything better.

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How did Alex figure out 2 1/2 miles for the Daytona 500 lap? He seemed to have no clue, so I figured he would do a WAG and say 1 mile or 2 miles or 3 miles, but 2 and a half? Where did that come from?

 

I don't know a thing about auto racing, but my thought process was: 500 seems like a lot of times around the track, so the track must be bigger than a mile in circumference. Five miles around is a really big track, and I don't think I've ever seen anything that big, that's huge, so the number of laps has got to be more than 100. I'll guess 200 laps, so that would be .... counting quickly ... 2.5 miles to make it a Daytona 500. I was shocked that was the right answer.

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Alex was a successful professional poker player who has perfected the poker face. I think he enjoys toying with the audience by seemingly pulling the answers out of nowhere at the buzzer on DD's. I doubt he's struggling. His recall is so instant as he plows randomly through the board that there's no way he's tripped up on the DD's and making lucky guesses. I find him very entertaining.

Edited by Hpmec
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Alex was a successful professional poker player who has perfected the poker face. I think he enjoys toying with the audience by seemingly pulling the answers out of nowhere at the buzzer on DD's. I doubt he's struggling. His recall is so instant as he plows randomly through the board that there's no way he's tripped up on the DD's and making lucky guesses. I find him very entertaining.

Totally agree on your assessment. But my mileage varies on how entertaining it is.

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I'm with ya, Tabasco Cat. I found the tourney to be the very opposite of exciting. I liked Kerry but was never a big fan of either of the guys, but I was hoping for a more competitive match. By Friday, I was barely paying attention. "Meh" is my reaction too. 

I agree, runaway games are boring.  I guess it didn't help that I find Alex's attitude during play very off putting.

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3 hours ago, Abstract said:

I call shenanigans. Since when do 3-time champs get into the ToC?

It's happened occasionally, but usually when there aren't enough 4 and 5 game winners in a year.

I'm intrigued by Jimmy's last sentence in that video--everyone else who would have qualified will be held over for the next tournament.  I wonder just who that includes?

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I hope James obliterates puppy abandoner Ryan in the first round & we're finally rid of him for good. 

Emma has absolutely been shoehorned in. Why? Because she beat James & producers are hoping for a rematch? Ryan Bilger, who lost today, was a 4-time champ in season 35, so it seems like he would be ahead of her. Was the line-up determined before season's end because of concern for Alex's health? Maybe taping was pushed up in order to give Alex more rest, or to facilitate treatment? Nothing at all against Emma, it just seems squirrelly. 

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(edited)

There are strict laws that Jeopardy has to follow.   I'm pretty positive that once there are not enough 4 or 5 times winners, they go to the most money.  Given James's long streak, there were mostly likely less 4 or 5 time champs than normal.  And Emma won almost $100,000.  

And, there is no way of knowing if Emma would even play James.  They could both lose in their first game. 

Edited by M. Darcy
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1 hour ago, M. Darcy said:

There are strict laws that Jeopardy has to follow.   I'm pretty positive that once there are not enough 4 or 5 times winners, they go to the most money.

The thing is, they skipped several 4-game winners to get to Emma, including Jackie Fuchs, Dave Leffler, Jonathan Dinerstein, and a few others.  I imagine those are the "everyone who could have qualified" that are mentioned at the end of the announcement video.

I'm not sure there are any laws specifically about the Tournament of Champions.  The fine print at jeopardy.com says "final selection is up to the producers' sole discretion."

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(edited)
2 hours ago, M. Darcy said:

I'm pretty positive that once there are not enough 4 or 5 times winners, they go to the most money. 

They had plenty of 4 time champs, some of whom made it in and others who were already out even before James came along.

I don't think Emma's inclusion is putting anyone else out, since Larry Martin passed on and left a vacant spot.  I guess they could have gone for the second place in his teacher's tournament but then they would have two teacher's tournament contestants.  Or they could have had one more 4 time winner. 

I can see that TPTB wanted Emma for some publicity - JAMES AND EMMA FACE EACH OTHER AGAIN - but she did make a decent amount of money and won't be out of place at the ToC.

I believe this is the current list of contestants, not in order of games/money won:

Francois Barcomb: Teacher $100,000
Dhruv Gaur: College $100,000

James Holzhauer: 32x $2,462,216

Gilbert Collins: 5x $84,201
Rachel Lindgren: 5x $75,999
Ryan Fenster: 7x $156,497
Rob Worman: 6x $133,900
Josh Hill: 7x $163,721
Kyle Jones: 7x $145,403
Alan Dunn: 5x $120,802
Anneke Garcia: 4x $104,497
JEric R. Backes: 4x $105,602
Lindsey Shultz: 4x $101,002
Steven Grade: 5x $115,501
Emma Boettcher: 3x $97,002 

Edited by Trey
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I'm watching Gilbert's run again in reruns on Saturdays, and still love him, but I couldn't remember how many games he won, so every week I've been so stressed hoping he would win (for 15 minutes while watching J! reruns, so it's a relative stress...).  I'm so happy to see him on this list.  I like Josh too, but I really really love Gilbert.

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Oh, there’s very little doubt in my mind that Emma is there because of the publicity potential. That said, I don’t think she’s an undeserving choice.

When I first read the story about this year’s TOC, it was in the context of how angry people were because James would be playing Emma, not Ken! They want to see a James/ Ken matchup, dammit! To which I say...huh? Who watches Jeopardy and doesn’t understand how the TOC works?

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Found this article and thought it was quite interesting and a good read for the day the TOC starts!!!

https://www.theringer.com/tv/2019/11/4/20944447/jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-james-holzhauer-alex-trebek

I don't think I had seen this fact anywhere before though.

In the end, the combined performance of Boettcher, Holzhauer, and research engineer Jay Sexton, who came in third with a respectable $17,000, was the single best sum performance in the history of Jeopardy! in terms of its combined coryat score, a measure of total clues answered correctly. The highest possible combined coryat score is $54,000; the Holzhauer–Boettcher–Sexton matchup came in at $53,200. The three missed just one clue through the whole game, a $400 entry in Double Jeopardy: “Paternalism is restricting freedom in our (supposed) best interests, like state taxes on these, which began in Iowa in 1921.” (Answer at the end of this section, if you’d like to test your wits.) In essence, the Holzhauer–Boettcher–Sexton game had the best competition of any matchup in the 36-year history of the game show’s Trebek era.

I also had never seen the hilarious football category before! Boy, those guys did not know football.

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