Jeopardy! Megathread

[GeorgiaModerate]

What started as a mere meme proposal on the Jeopardy! subreddit in early/mid-2019 parodying the UToC but for the contestants that James was beating, is now (mostly) a reality: as a result of formatting issues with the primetime College Championship, the 4th highest-winning winner in the semifinalists won't be making the finals, so EP Michael Davies decided to solve the apparent unfairness there - a semifinals winner not being in the finals!? Especially when J! itself already proved in 1990 that a 4-person stage is easily workable - by creating what he first thought about creating when Jessica Stephens beat Matt Amodio but still lost to Jonathan Fisher by $401, & later discovered was proposed on the Internet long before him: a second-chance tournament, composed of the best 'losing' contestants (best in some capacity, anyway: the exact criterion are TBD; I can't imagine it's just those who are otherwise the 16th-30th seeds, though, because Jessica wouldn't qualify for that even though Davies explicitly said that she'll be back), with the winner given a spot in the ToC. Man, freakin' Davo is quickly enshrining himself up there with Merv Griffin & Harry Friedman in J!'s EP Hall of Fame!!

Also, the President of Entertainment at Fox told Deadline that Call Me Kat is getting a S3, so Ken Jennings, c'mon down!!

Having watched Ken host for a while and then going back to Mayim, I'm now firmly on Team Ken as permanent host.  The game seems to flow better with him hosting.

[GeorgiaModerate]

The new champion, Nick, has to be the calmest contestant I've ever seen on the show.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Jackie, now a 4-day champ whose winnings total $115,100, is legit, & I think she's playing in the manner necessary to potentially go on a long-ish winning streak: she's already proving to be a strong player operating upon a wide base of knowledge, she seems to have gotten the hang of the buzzer down, & according to the buzzer data, she knows not to ring in if she doesn't know the correct response.

Yeah, she's a formidable player.  She reminds me a bit of James Holzhauer.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Another day, another superchamp: Mattea Roach secured her 10th win yesterday, bringing her total winnings to $227,601. There've now been 13 players in J! history who've won 10+ games, & 4 of them did so this season. The TOC is so stacked.

Mattea is a very good and very likable player, but she lucked out big time with some brain-dead wagering from the 3rd-place player in Final. 

[GeorgiaModerate]

Mattea Roach pulls it out in Final Jeopardy after being behind the whole game--23 day streak with close to $600,000 in total winnings.  Now in 5th place overall in wins and money earned.

Ken Jennings, among other winners, has said that for a long streak you sometimes have to be lucky as well as good.  This is the second time Mattea's won with an element of luck, specifically bad wagering by an opponent.  The first time was an asinine bet by an opponent in Final, and this one was Sarah's bet on the last Daily Double.  You've got to bet big in that situation, and she could have made the game a runaway.

(I don't count Sarah not knowing the Final to be luck. Knowledge is the key to the game, and Mattea had the critical piece there and Sarah didn't.)

[GeorgiaModerate]

Ryan's hilarious (and appropriate for this site) response in tonight's Final Jeopardy made my son and me LOL.

Category: NOVEL QUOTES

Referring to the book’s title, this character says, "I know it’s a poem by Robert Burns"

Correct response:

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

Who is Holden Caulfield? (from The Catcher in the Rye)

Ryan's response:

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

Who is Ted Cruz?

[GeorgiaModerate]

The 2022 Tournament of Champions will have a major format change: see https://www.jeopardy.com/contestant-zone/2022/tournament-champions.  This will be interesting!

[GeorgiaModerate]

Ken is a far better host and understands that the players, not the host, are the focus of the show.