Oh dear, I got the cocktail questions almost all correctly. Another run away.
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Hilarious that Matt, a CS PhD candidate , did not get the CS question! He gets everything else right! He looked incredulous that he did not get it. Hope his fellow CS buddies don’t give him any grief!
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How old is he? He is supposedly a third year candidate.
I wasn’t trying to give anything away. I wrote my comment after 10 minutes of the show. I would hate to go against him.
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He’s 30. I’m guessing anybody would hate to go against him. He has lots of knowledge across many different subjects. He is very impressive. I like him.
I thought he was a fifth or sixth year, but I may be wrong.
An article from Yale in August says he is a 5th year student.
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And I posted that article upthread! I probably should have skimmed it instead of guessing. Thanks for confirmation.
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Linkedin profile say he started as Yale research assistant in August 2017. Consistent with 5th year. Profile pic definitely him.
Matt was the only contestant to get Final Jeopardy right yesterday. And it went back to his time in elementary school:
Looking forward to tonights show, I am reminded of the game that James lost. Expectation was that he would beat Ken’s record for the most money won in regular Jeopardy that show. But Emma had other ideas. Tonight we find out if Matt ties James for second most wins and if he does, tomorrow we learn if he takes over second place by himself. Ordinarily there would be a sense of “don’t jinx it” but the results are already set. Just unknown to us.
Monday was the first day of taping for Matt that didn’t involve a new host from the prior taping day. I think Mayim has settled in well. Have been watching the past two weeks focussed on the game (and seeing how Matt does – having seen clip of him on the local high school quiz show I watched as a kid, went to see taped when my high school team was on and on which one of my kids was an alternate for his high school team, knowing his undergrad degree is from my alma mater and his masters is from the school my kids now both attend, having driven by the flea market he recenlty mentioned having worked there as a kid–definitely rooting for him). Not focused on who is the host which I view as a good thing.
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From the ancient Greek ἵππου + κρήνη. Formed by hooves of Pegasus. And people say study of the classics is useless. 
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Or you can just have a daughter who loves horses and know that hippo=horse. 
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I kicked myself when the answer came up–I knew hippo equals horse. Not quick enough.
Or one who loves hippos (river horses).
I am really good at reading the answer, thinking to myself I know the question but not having it come to my mind right away and once someone buzzes in and gives the right answer, saying Yes, thats it. Or sometimes they get it wrong and I can say, No thats not it, still searching for it in my mind and when the second contestant rings in and gives the right question, saying, Yeah, that. With a Matrix like time slowdown, I could be a great Jeopardy champ. Would also need to be able to compete sitting on my couch away from the bright lights and pressure of the stage.
Whats amazing about Matt is he rings in when he knows the question but before its to his tongue and in the time it takes for the host to recognize him and the time the show gives to respond, coming up with the question. Sometimes I think he is just seeking to confirm it in his mind but others it appears he is trying to bring the question from the depths of his brain. Fun to watch.
The Chase (with Ken, James, Brad and the Beast) is much like an NBA game (just watch the last 2 mins of the 4th quarter) in that the final chance is what is most interesting. And watching the Chasers in the final chase is something to behold (at least to me). But in the middle of the game with the mini-chase its fun to watch the Chasers reason out answers. Sometimes they know the answers outright. But often they don’t and they will give their reasoning (multiple choice questions making that much easier) in terms of word origins/derivatives, geography, time, etc. Not only do they know a lot, but they also have an incredible ability to connect what they do know.
There was one time he answered it correctly but after time was up. LeVar Burton was the host that day and screwed up because he ruled the answer wrong without saying time was uo causing another contestant to give a wrong answer.
Why isn’t Matt getting the publicity that James did? Because he’s not winning as much per game?
He’s not as gutsy a player as James. His wagers tend to be more conservative. Also, I seem to recall that Jeopardy didn’t really start promoting James until he got closer to the end of his run. Maybe Matt is sticking around for awhile and the J execs are waiting to turn up the interest. It would be silly to promote this guy and he ends up sticking around for awhile. After awhile the audience would grow tired of the hype. That being said, I do hope to see Matt for many more episodes.
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I say, bring back Emma the Giant Killer. She’d make quick work of him.
James was unique at the time. He had like 16 of the top single game scores of all time. Matt snuck one in there so its 11 or 12 of the top scores and 16 of top 17 single game scores. Other contestants have since taken a similar approach but not to the extreme that James did.
Matt is James lite. He picks the high dollar amounts early to build case to risk on Daily Doubles. But unlike James, who typically made max bets, Matt bets lower amounts (round numbers – he has said in interviews its less likely you make an arithmetic error that way). So he hasn’t won as much as James did. I think he was about 1/2 total winnings of James after 32 games.
Matt is 1/2 way to Ken’s record of wins. Makes Ken’s record that much more impressive. Not sure how the hosting duties would play out but I wonder if Ken would be hosting if Matt reaches Ken’s win streak? Still a long way to go to get there so it may never happen (and odds are against it).
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One thing I don’t like about Matt is his answers give the least amount of information, usually just the last name of a famous person, never a ‘the’ or ‘an’ in front of the answer. For example, the clue was about a pitcher with the initials C.Y. and Matt answers ‘Young’ rather than Cy Young. I think that should have been wrong since both initials were given. Yesterday there was one with the answer “Nolan Ryan” but Matt only said ‘Ryan’ Who ever refers to Nolan Ryan as Ryan?
I realize he doesn’t want to make a mistake by giving too much info, but it makes the flow of the questions stubble a little (and Mayiam pause too).