What are... Jeopardy! experiences?

[peeayebee]

teebax, do you use Donors Choose?

[teebax]

2 hours ago, peeayebee said:

teebax, do you use Donors Choose?

I have in the past. I haven't done one this year, but I'll be doing another one next school year.

[saber5055]

Wow, @teebax, that's some major suckage that the teacher grants went away. WTHeck, this show gives away millions of dollars yet can't spring for what's a fraction more than a second-place finish on a regular game. And to go cheapskate on teachers is pitiful, everyone knows educational/school budgets are in the tank and teachers buy classroom supplies  out of their own pockets. That's just so wrong, this show getting all cheap wad on teachers. And a tournament on top of it.

That's weird about no kids being filmed to wish their teacher good luck. The school doesn't have to be identified, they could have said "Here are Ms. Teebax's classroom kids wishing her good luck from Arizona." I mean, geesh, come on show. It's 30 seconds. What's the deal.

Yeah, I can see why you are a bit down, even more than just the expected "down from a high" emotional let-down. It's like winning the lottery and the lottery commission telling you, oh, guess what, we don't have any money so you don't get any money.

In fact, Illinois did that a while back, the state was broke and wouldn't pay out on winning tickets. Didn't sit well. But a lot of what happens in Illinois doesn't sit well.

Well, we still love you here. Right, PTV gang?

[Prevailing Wind]

Absolutely!!

[Jesse]

That really sucks about the classroom grants!

On 4/9/2019 at 6:45 PM, teebax said:

Thanks for the kind words. I have been super busy since I got back and am feeling a little Jeopardy'd out. Other former contestants will have to let me know if they felt that way. I tried to watch a couple of episodes this week, and I'm kinda over it right now.

On 4/14/2019 at 4:13 PM, HelenBaby said:

I was a contestant in 1997 and I didn’t watch the show for at least 10 years after that. 

And yeah, I also didn't watch the show for years after being on it in 1996.

[lb60]

1 hour ago, saber5055 said:

Well, we still love you here. Right, PTV gang?

 

Boo hiss about the grants!

[Toothbrush]

I will add in my boo hisses for no more classroom grants. I always loved hearing what the teachers' plans for them were. Like the show isn't making Sony & generations of Merv Griffin's heirs big bucks hand over fist 😠 And I was looking forward to seeing your students giving Ms @teebax a shout out. 

I'm sorry to hear that the post-Jeopardy blues is a thing. 

2 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Well, we still love you here. Right, PTV gang?

 

😘

[teebax]

I think the grants were a thing when the sponsor was State Farm. The new sponsor is Amazon. I did receive an Echo in a gift bag, which was nice (no sarcasm intended; it's a very cool device.) However, I think it'd give them some goodwill to be continuing with the grants. Even more goodwill could come from increasing them. I used to swipe office supplies to take home. Now I swipe supplies from my home to take to school. Don't get me wrong; I love my job and can't see myself doing anything else at this point in my life. But one of the reasons I was so excited to make the tournament was the grant.

[Trey]

We need a "hugs" emoji.  Yes, that really is sad that Amazon didn't pick up the grants.  They can certainly afford it.

[saber5055]

From MacroTrends.com:

• Amazon revenue for the quarter ending December 31, 2018 was $72.383B, a 19.73% increase year-over-year.

• Amazon revenue for the twelve months ending December 31, 2018 was $232.887B, a 30.93% increase year-over-year.

• Amazon annual revenue for 2018 was $232.887B, a 30.93% increase from 2017.

• Amazon annual revenue for 2017 was $177.866B, a 30.8% increase from 2016.

• Amazon annual revenue for 2016 was $135.987B, a 27.08% increase from 2015.

Amazon paid zero in taxes. All the above money goes right in its pocket.

And they couldn't cough up anything for the Jeopardy Teacher's Tournament. Wow, great sponsor. NOT.

[teebax]

8 hours ago, saber5055 said:

From MacroTrends.com:

• Amazon revenue for the quarter ending December 31, 2018 was $72.383B, a 19.73% increase year-over-year.

• Amazon revenue for the twelve months ending December 31, 2018 was $232.887B, a 30.93% increase year-over-year.

• Amazon annual revenue for 2018 was $232.887B, a 30.93% increase from 2017.

• Amazon annual revenue for 2017 was $177.866B, a 30.8% increase from 2016.

• Amazon annual revenue for 2016 was $135.987B, a 27.08% increase from 2015.

Amazon paid zero in taxes. All the above money goes right in its pocket.

And they couldn't cough up anything for the Jeopardy Teacher's Tournament. Wow, great sponsor. NOT.

To be fair, they're paying the money won. They also paid our expenses to travel to the show and put us up in a hotel I could never afford on my own. I think the grant is the only thing that they didn't continue. 

[Prevailing Wind]

Nice of you to be fair, but it still sucks considering the BILLIONS they make.

[j5cochran]

15 hours ago, teebax said:

To be fair, they're paying the money won. They also paid our expenses to travel to the show and put us up in a hotel I could never afford on my own. I think the grant is the only thing that they didn't continue. 

A totally unrelated question . . . where did they put you all up?  They recommended the Doubletree in Culver City, with a secondary recommendation of the Four Points Sheraton across the street.  If you stayed in one of those, the bus would pick you up in the morning.

[teebax]

9 hours ago, j5cochran said:

A totally unrelated question . . . where did they put you all up?  They recommended the Doubletree in Culver City, with a secondary recommendation of the Four Points Sheraton across the street.  If you stayed in one of those, the bus would pick you up in the morning.

I stayed at the Doubletree for my audition, at my expense. For the tournament, we were at the Culver Hotel. It is gorgeous, and I think it runs about $350 a night. I had a suite. It at one time was owned by John Wayne and Charlie Chaplin. Pretty cool.

They flew me out on a Saturday and home on a Wednesday, although they said I could fly back at a later date if I wanted. 

Since we were all at the same hotel, we were able to have drinks and dinner in the evenings, which was also cool. 

They also had a wrap party, which I unfortunately couldn't attend because I was really sick. 

Overall it was a fantastic experience. 

ETA they paid for the hotel for the tournament. 

Edited April 18, 2019 by teebax

[peeayebee]

What a shame you got sick, but I bet it was nice to sit and relax with other contestants. 

[saber5055]

15 hours ago, teebax said:

They also had a wrap party, which I unfortunately couldn't attend because I was really sick. 

Well, this isn't something I wanted to hear. I'm sure you were bummed too. I hope your illness did not affect your game.

Hotels: Most nice hotels will comp rooms, our magazine and office staff got free rooms at Hiltons, Mandalay Bay, and other plush places when we had an event in that city. I still think Amazon was a tournament tightwad.

Did you get to stay to watch games after your tournament taped? Or were they another day/week so once the TT was finished, so were you?

Were you able to see anything else in the LA area? Inquiring minds want to know!

Edited April 19, 2019 by saber5055

[teebax]

9 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Well, this isn't something I wanted to hear. I'm sure you were bummed too. I hope your illness did not affect your game.

Hotels: Most nice hotels will comp rooms, our magazine and office staff got free rooms at Hiltons, Mandaly Bay, and other plush places when we had an event in that city. I still think Amazon was a tournament tightwad.

Did you get to stay to watch games after your tournament taped? Or were they another day/week so once the TT was finished, so were you?

Were you able to see anything else in the LA area? Inquiring minds want to know!

You can't watch until your episode tapes. We were watching The Princess Bride in the green room. No cell phones were allowed, either. I was lucky to be in the second group so I wasn't sequestered for long. 

I spent most of my free time at the Getty Museum. We went on two different days. It was fabulous. I'm an East Coast snob who was blown away to see a museum of that quality on the West Coast. I need to spend more time in LA. I usually go to San Diego when I go to California. 

I'll talk more after the tournament airs so as not to reveal any details. 

[Miss Chevious]

I’m a little late to the party but congratulations to you @teebax. I’ll definitely be watching (and cheering for you!) when your episode airs. 

[teebax]

16 hours ago, Miss Chevious said:

I’m a little late to the party but congratulations to you @teebax. I’ll definitely be watching (and cheering for you!) when your episode airs. 

Thank you very much. I have so many people coming to my house for the broadcast. It's cool to have so much support, online and in IRL. I just hope some major event doesn't happen that day. Jeopardy gets pre-empted quite a bit where I live, and most of the time it's stuff that could wait.

[teebax]

I received this from the show today!

[saber5055]

Yeay, you look WONDERFUL, @teebax. How tall is Mr. Trebek do you guess? He has to be the most photographed host in the world. It's also the coolest souvenir in the world, one only a very select group of people have. Congratulations.

Edited April 29, 2019 by saber5055

[teebax]

1 hour ago, saber5055 said:

Yeay, you look WONDERFUL, @teebax. How tall is Mr. Trebek do you guess? He has to be the most photographed host in the world. It's also the coolest souvenir in the world, one only a very select group of people have. Congratulations.

I'm 5'4" and was on a raised platform, so he's a few inches taller than I. 

[saber5055]

4 minutes ago, teebax said:

I'm 5'4" and was on a raised platform, so he's a few inches taller than I.  

You must have been on a raised platform behind your podium during the game, too, I am guessing. I hope you were careful and didn't "step off!" Alex would have to be on the raised platform if he took a photo with me.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 4/23/2019 at 2:05 PM, teebax said:

Thank you very much. I have so many people coming to my house for the broadcast. It's cool to have so much support, online and in IRL. I just hope some major event doesn't happen that day. Jeopardy gets pre-empted quite a bit where I live, and most of the time it's stuff that could wait.

Can’t wait to see this, @teebax.  How exciting to see a real PTVer. 

[Grundoon59]

Teebax- how exciting!  I can't wait to watch.  I agree with you about the Getty.  It has probably been 20 years since I was there but agree how impressive it was.  

[suebee12]

Wow, I always thought Alex was tall but no, he is listed as 5'8". That really surprises me!

[teebax]

AZ Daily Star Article

Here's a link to the story the local newspaper ran today. I never said I wanted to trade places with Alex, but otherwise it's fairly accurate.

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, teebax said:

Here's a link to the story the local newspaper ran today. I never said I wanted to trade places with Alex, but otherwise it's fairly accurate.

Nice. I hope you get more publicity as the tourney grows closer. I wouldn't mind changing places with Trebek on pay day. All I'd need is one to change my life!

[teebax]

29 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

Nice. I hope you get more publicity as the tourney grows closer. I wouldn't mind changing places with Trebek on pay day. All I'd need is one to change my life!

Oh, I think it'd be a great job, but I don't like that the reporter completely made up a quote I never said. I was a sports writer for half a decade and would never do something like that, just to make a story better. I'd like to think my story is solid enough without needing embellishment!

[saber5055]

5 minutes ago, teebax said:

I don't like that the reporter completely made up a quote I never said.

Doing interviews for magazine cover stories, we taped all conversations. Then we still checked facts before publication. I wonder if your interviewer just took notes and heard things differently, or couldn't read his/her notes afterward. Or took no notes at all. If you said, as above, hosting Jeopardy would be a great job, he/she might have ignored your follow up, "But I would never want to trade places with Mr. Trebek." Just guessing. I'm sure your heart dropped like a rock when you read that misquote. It would have been nice if that reporter had run the story past you before publication since it was not time-critical.

You can clarify that "quote" when you are interviewed on tv, hopefully!

[JudyObscure]

I'm getting so excited about it all, Teebax!  I'm glad to have the picture so I wont be saying to myself, "That must be her, but she isn't wearing glasses, maybe it's not, oh but the name fits," all while missing something.  You have a gorgeous smile!

[Tabasco Cat]

I'm also getting excited and ready to root for @teebax next week!

Does anyone from the show mention the history of the 40 Acres backlot where the studio is located? It has a long and storied history before they knocked it all down for the industrial park that seems to be there now. In addition to other businesses, I think Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen studio is right in that same area.

The 40 Acres backlot was where many old movie and TV exteriors were shot. It was Skull Island in King Kong. It was the site of Gone With The Wind's Tara plantation. It was Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show, scenes from Batman, Star Trek, Gomer Pyle USMC, Hogan's Heroes, and more were filmed there.

In this picture, looking west, that's Jefferson Blvd running on the left alongside Ballona Creek, and Higuera St. running vertically on the right side of the photo. There are a lot more pictures on the site I linked above. If I ever went on Jeopardy! and was in Culver City I'd be geeking out over the history of the lot itself as a Hollywood legend.

Good luck next week, @teebax (even though the results are pre-ordained at this time). Your students are extremely fortunate to have a teacher like you.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Tabasco Cat

[peeayebee]

4 hours ago, teebax said:

AZ Daily Star Article

Here's a link to the story the local newspaper ran today. I never said I wanted to trade places with Alex, but otherwise it's fairly accurate.

That's weird that the reporter wrote that.

Did you really check your spam mail just in the nick of time?

And now we know where you got the user name teebax.

[Bliss]

5 hours ago, teebax said:

AZ Daily Star Article

Here's a link to the story the local newspaper ran today. I never said I wanted to trade places with Alex, but otherwise it's fairly accurate.

Lovely article, @teebax, and beautiful photo of you with Alex. I met him when I was a teenager on a Reach For The Top tv show - many moons ago - and he was also much younger. Wish I had a photo like yours 😉

I can totally understand your reaction to being misquoted. I'd be miffed.

I'm so looking forward to watching you in the tournament, and will be cheering for you!

[teebax]

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

That's weird that the reporter wrote that.

Did you really check your spam mail just in the nick of time?

And now we know where you got the user name teebax.

Yes, that part is absolutely true. I wasn't "trolling" my email. I don't even know what that means. Something told me to check my spam, which I rarely do, and I made it just by a few hours.

My phone records every conversation I have, so I listened back to ours just to make sure I wasn't crazy. Yeah, she totally made stuff up. I was a reporter in the 90s and wouldn't have done that. Surely the recording technology is better now!

[saber5055]

40 minutes ago, teebax said:

I wasn't "trolling" my email. I don't even know what that means.

I thought that was such a strange thing to say, "trolling" isn't something one does to their own emails. I can only guess the interviewer was/is very young and inexperienced. (And not very bright if a young person doesn't know what trolling means.)

[EtheltoTillie]

6 hours ago, teebax said:

Oh, I think it'd be a great job, but I don't like that the reporter completely made up a quote I never said. I was a sports writer for half a decade and would never do something like that, just to make a story better. I'd like to think my story is solid enough without needing embellishment!

I used to work for magazines too. Fact checking is better where there are longer deadlines. But I now tell people just don’t talk to the press!  

5 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Doing interviews for magazine cover stories, we taped all conversations. Then we still checked facts before publication. I wonder if your interviewer just took notes and heard things differently, or couldn't read his/her notes afterward. Or took no notes at all. If you said, as above, hosting Jeopardy would be a great job, he/she might have ignored your follow up, "But I would never want to trade places with Mr. Trebek." Just guessing. I'm sure your heart dropped like a rock when you read that misquote. It would have been nice if that reporter had run the story past you before publication since it was not time-critical.

You can clarify that "quote" when you are interviewed on tv, hopefully!

Ditto. It’s not the kind of journalism where you’re looking for a scoop or a gotcha moment. 

Edited May 1, 2019 by GussieK

[Prevailing Wind]

Maybe she meant "trawling" the email, like dragging a net through it to catch the good stuff.

[30 Helens]

The classic definition of trolling actually means searching for something in various places.

But considering she’s the type of person who makes up quotes, she probably thought you were just trying to provoke a response from your inbox by being contrary and stirring up the spam.

Congratulations, Teebax, whatever the outcome.

[Toothbrush]

I'm so excited to watch you next week (and hopefully beyond!) @teebax! Great picture of you & Alex. You look great & have a fabulous smile. 

Sorry about you being misquoted. And misquoting aside, it was in poor taste to write that anyone would want to trade places with one who is suffering from stage 4 pancreatic cancer. If she must misquote, write that teebax thinks AT has a fascinating job & leave it at that. 

Edited May 1, 2019 by Toothbrush

[saber5055]

Here's an article on how to be chosen to get on a game show. It can help those who actually make it through the online test and get an audition.

[Abstract]

2 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Here's an article on how to be chosen to get on a game show. It can help those who actually make it through the online test and get an audition.

Thanks for posting. It confirmed everything I've thought about the auditions. I'm eligible to test again in March 2020, so hopefully I'll have figured out a way to be more interesting by then!

Guess I could start by spending less time on Jeopardy forums....

Edited May 2, 2019 by Abstract

[SoMuchTV]

I've been noticing they have been showing the audience more lately (maybe I'm just noticing it more) but now I'm wondering - I know they tape several episodes in a day, but does the same audience stay for all of them? Or do they swap out the Monday audience for the Tuesday audience, and so on?

[j5cochran]

2 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I've been noticing they have been showing the audience more lately (maybe I'm just noticing it more) but now I'm wondering - I know they tape several episodes in a day, but does the same audience stay for all of them? Or do they swap out the Monday audience for the Tuesday audience, and so on?

As I remember (and y'all who have also been there are welcome to correct me!), a group are brought in to watch the first three games of the day - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.  Then everyone gets tossed out and a new group is brought in for the afternoon - Thursday and Friday's games. However, if you are friends and family of a contestant (or a contestant herself!), you get to enter in the morning and stay for all the games. But you still have to leave the studio during the lunch break.

[MrAtoz]

On 6/10/2019 at 10:36 PM, j5cochran said:

As I remember (and y'all who have also been there are welcome to correct me!), a group are brought in to watch the first three games of the day - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.  Then everyone gets tossed out and a new group is brought in for the afternoon - Thursday and Friday's games. However, if you are friends and family of a contestant (or a contestant herself!), you get to enter in the morning and stay for all the games. But you still have to leave the studio during the lunch break.

That's what I remember as well.  Lunch break comes after the Wednesday game, and that's when they switch out audiences.