Agree! I think she is good reading the questions and paces well, but otherwise, it feels like she is acting. Ken seems much more natural/conversational.
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Given Ken has pretty much dedicated his life to the show (longest winning streak, name somewhat synonomous with the show, been on every greatest/all-star tournament the show has had, etc) that makes sense. I wonder if Alex was that way when he first started hosting the show?
Alex had 11 years experience as a game show host before Jeopardy!
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I get that but it wasn’t my point. Did Ken have any hosting experience before he was the first guest host? Do you think Steve Harvey or Drew Carey would be better hosts of Jeopardy than Ken because the formers’ respective experience hosting game shows? Would you expect them to be more natural and conversational? I wouldn’t.
Each game show is at least somewhat unique. Some less than others though. Particularly those that depend on the personality of the host for much of the interest. For those, plug a host with a good personality and experience with game shows, explain the basic rules to him/her and let them run. Expect they will be natural and conversational from the get go. Even if they don’t have the actual game flow/rules down and need to get there with that over time.
Jeopardy is more unique though. Host personality isn’t supposed to be a part of it (as Alex always said, the contestants are the stars of the show). The play and rules are different from other game shows. Questions are more challenging, pronounciation matters, etc.
And having watched Alex in some earliest shows, I don’t think he was as natural and conversational as Ken is at this point. It took time for Alex to get there.
In addition to his love of Jeopardy (where would Ken be without Jeopardy?) and passion for it and trivia in general (on the Chase they call him the Professor), I think a huge edge Ken has in terms of being natural and conversational is that he is likely reading less off the cards than any other host. How many of the answers did he know before they met in pre-show prep? How much other info/detail could he provide about so many of the clues? Mayim is smart but I think she is leaning on the cards a lot more than Ken.
Alex learned a lot in decades of hosting the show. Thousands of categories and clues over the 37 years he was host. Ken is already past him in that regard.
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The Jeopardy college tournament has been interesting so far. A little surprised though with all the stuff nobody seems to be getting, including the correct answer on the first of two final Jeopardy’s tonight.
Even I got that and I am not Jeopardy material!
Watching the second match now, east coast. Husband gets lots correct.
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Of the 9 possible correct answers (2 shows yesterday and first one tonight) in 3 final jeopardy questions, only 2 correct answers.
Lots of incorrect answers and non-answers overall.
And they follow up the second show tonight with 2/3 correct FJ answers. I thought the Brandeis kid was the stronger contestant overall. Makes sense that he won. First game last night, kid from Dartmouth played a very strong game but got FJ wrong and lost to Stanford kid. LSU kid last night and Minnesota kid tonight were clearly the best player in their respective games (and won in runaways).
First game last night had some wildcard possibilities in traditional tournament format. But no wildcard for this tournament.
Interesting so far also to me - 12 colleges so far - 10 of 12 are private colleges. But the only 2 public school contestants both won and have advanced to the semifinals.
And of the remaining 24 contestants (8 more games), there are 7 public school contestants. If my math is right. And it looks like only 2 of those 7 contestants are in the same quarterfinal.
Of the 36 contestants, 9 are from public schools. By pure percentages, 3 should make it to the next round.
#TeamGoldenGophers as ds1 works there and DIL goes to school there!
Also hoping the only SLAC, Pomona, does well. Bummed there aren’t more in the competition, but I get it.
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As a chem teacher, I groaned when the Chem Eng kid from Northwestern buzzed in that Pu was the chemical symbol for platinum!!! (It’s plutonium). After that I’m ashamed to say that I was silently cheering against her. That may or may not make me a bad person, but come on—platinum!!!
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That was a tough start. Her next response was Marie Antoinette as second wife of Henry VIII which wasn’t much better. Stumbled out of the gate.
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Mayim seems more relaxed and comfortable in the college tournament than she does in the regular shows. From what I have read they tried to make the college tournament more fun and with more energy. Would like to see Mayim bring a little of that to the regular show but get the prime time tournament isn’t the regular show.
Also saw where she said there was a steep learning curve in terms of hosting Jeopardy (that is much less true for Ken). She appears to have figured out maximum bets in regular/single Jeopardy (reminding one of the college kids earlier to this week that he could risk $1000 when he had less than that). But last night didn’t remind the kid from Notre Dame that he could risk up to $2000 (he had more than $1000 but less than $2000) in Double Jeopardy. He missed the question so maybe better she didn’t remind him. Maybe she is just thinking its a max of $1000 but its a max of the highest dollar clue in the round (so $1000 in regular Jeopardy and $2000 in double). I expect she will get better at that too and it will just become part of the routine of hosting.
College tournament is 1/2 way through first round. 3 runaway games. One where second place won being only one to answer FJ correct. Other where first place needed to be correct in FJ to win (and she was). And one game where leader got FJ right but it didn’t matter because he would have won even if he didn’t. Expect next round games will be closer with each contestant having won a Jeopardy game.
The woman from Clemson had a worse start than the woman from Northwestern. Looked like it wasn’t going to be her day. But she kept battling and had both other contestants missed FJ (instead of just one), she would have advanced.
Glad the Pomona woman crushed it!
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She was in command of the game from the start. Looks like she will be against the Stanford kid and LSU kid in the next round.
Normally with brackets, you can see who winners will play next. Not sure if there is a way of doing that with the Jeopardy brackets. Or if that is not done in advance but somehow is determined later. The one semifinal bracket is full and the other 3 have just one player each.
There’s this. I haven’t looked to see whether it actually follows a normal bracket pattern.
Pulling for the UT kid tonight!
Woot! Once again, UT beats USC!
Really bummed that the Howard student did a true daily double and lost so much money.
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One of those times when getting the Daily Double (I think she got 2 but didn’t get either?) is not necessarily a good thing if you bet too much and don’t get it correct. She was a strong contestant but the Daily Double actually seemed to work against her.
Would have been a runaway had she gotten that Daily Double right (and everything else remained the same). She was up big and the other 2 contestants had $0 at the time. Looked early like she would run away with it. She found another DD but only bet $3,000 and missed that one as well. Instead its a tie going into Final Jeopardy which she missed and Northeastern kid got right). So another close game and then a runaway.
A quirk of this college championship is that one of the winners of the semi-final round will not become a finalist. There will be four semi-finalist winners but only the top three $$ winners will become finalists.
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Jeopardy plans to have a second chance tournament. And it will precede the Tournament of Champions for this season. Will only be open to contestants from this season (since the last ToCs). At least one contestant from the second chance tournament will feed into the tournament of champions (full details not yet available).
And in terms of the college tournament, will include the semi-finalist winner who doesn’t make it to the final for the college tournament. So the contestant who finishes in 4th in the college tournament will get a spot in the second chance tournament. And the winner of the college tournament will get a slot in the tournament of champions (and could go against the 4th place contestant).
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