Seems odd to me that they thought they could have him continue in the EP role. From what I have read it sounds like there was something of an uprising amongst the staff of the show.
A mess. In terms of honoring the Trebek legacy, the show failed at this point. Guest hosts were fine overall. And some good there having each guest host talk about how much the show (and Alex) meant to them. But the host selection has been bad.
From what I have seen, seems like many people think its Ken’s job to lose (though he has some issues in his past that supposedly kept him from getting the nod over Mike). Buzzy and Mayin are also being mentioned. LeVar keeps getting mentioned as well but I just don’t see it. He was terrible at hosting. We shall see. How long will they keep working with guest hosts? At least for 15 shows.
My daughter likened him to Icarus getting too close to the sun. He could have continued to make millions as EP on Jeopardy and Wheel, but decided to push his luck and manipulate his way to the hosting gig.
I remember James being vilified for changing up the game. Going after the daily doubles, using logic and gasp! math to determine how much to bet. I mean, professional gambler - he knew how to bet and how much. Matt is also unconventional. Maybe he’s not neuro typical, maybe he is. He’s efficient - what instead of who or where doesn’t go against the rules and no thinking about which one to use. I’m amazed he’s able to win given all of the different hosts. Reacting to cadence, etc of each one is half the battle.
There’s been some dimmer than usual people on the show this year, but looking at the tournament of champions and how they had to go well into the 4-time winners to get a full slate shows that maybe they’ve been dimmer for a couple of years.
I think they did. But when the executive producer proposed himself, I’m going to think that his opinion of himself and how he presented himself as the best option may have had some influence
Watching the repeats of this year’s Tournament of Champions this week is reminding me how great a job Buzzy Cohen did as host. TOC would have chewed up and spit out some of the lesser guest hosts. Imagine the champions having to wait on Lavar Burton to find out if they’re right? They’d have the next clue chosen by the time he’d rule.
I am reminded how much I like Buzzy as host rewatching this week’s TOC. He would have been the better choice for nighttime and special events (teen, college, teacher tournaments) just for a change of pace.
I did like Mike too, better than Ken and almost all the others.
I’m wondering what happened backstage. If Mike encouraged James to act like the contestants on The Price is Right, I can understand why he would dislike Mike!
I was expecting the Johnnie Gilbert intro to have been edited to something like “guest host of Jeopardy”, but Mike Richards was introduced as “the host of Jeopardy”.
They might not have wanted to call even more drama/attention to the whole thing. He was still the “host.”
At least the two opponents tonight answered some questions correctly . It will be tough to beat him so it will be interesting to see how long he ends up going.
I thought maybe they would have re-taped the intro to introduce Mike as the “temporary host of Jeopardy.” LOL
Makes sense they didn’t want to call attention to the issue though. And I expect that Mike made some type of statement about being honored to be the host (just like he and the other guest hosts made similar statements about being guest hosts) which they edited out. So it was just a statement about the first show from The Alex Trebek Stage which was a nice tribute.
Last night’s contestants seemed to me to be average/below average in terms of contestants Matt has faced during his run. If he wins tonight he will tie Julie Collins for third longest winning streak. Currently ina 3 way tie at 19.
But Matt is number 3 in terms of regular competition winnings behind only Ken and James. While Matt is not as much as a “bet it all” person like James he does make big bets and only once did he get the answer wrong. But he still won.
Two concepts in my last paragraph were separate. One was competition (in response to someone saying at least two opponents in yesterday’s show answered questions correctly). Based on my recollection, I think the two contestants were average/below average in terms of contestants that Matt has faced.
Second concept was where Matt places in terms of Jeopardy records. He is third in regular season winnings. Something like $1.8 million behind James. Julia’s record of wins is the next closest record (though if he wins/won today with at least $14k, Matt would move into 5th place for all time Jeopardy winnings (counting tournaments). And although Matt is one win behind Julia, he is $200k ahead of her in regular season winnings.
I agree that Matt bets big but not all the way that James did. Matt picks high value clues with the goal of getting them right and building up $$ before hitting daily doubles. James did that too. But I think James was more comfortable with large bets (in part I think he was more comfortable doing the quick math in his head about how much to risk). Matt bets big on final Jeopardy as well but I think James typically bet the most he could in a runaway game without risking a loss if he got it wrong. Matt last night bet $25k. Max bet without risk of loss was $28,399. I think James would likely have gone with the max bet. Sometimes comfort with the category can play a role in that too.
Your description of Matt’s strategy is spot-on. I missed the early play to walk the dog (nature called, what can I say?). When I got back in , it was “get to know the contestants” time, and Matt already had in excess of 14K!
Matt has really grown on me. I love baseball and loved when he told the story yesterday about throwing out the first pitch at the Akron RubberDucks game. Minor League baseball games can be great fun. We saw the Joliet Slammers on the 4th of July when we were visiting the Chicago area. Baseball, hot dogs, beer, and fireworks on a beautiful night. Doesn’t get any better!