The number of runs lately is amazing. Up to 4 wins now by this current guy. Interesting .
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Eric has done well so far. He has found 11 of the 12 Daily Doubles in his 4 games. And gotten 9 of them right. May not do as well if he doesn’t find them. Also missed 2 of 4 Final Jeopardy clues. But the last 3 have been runaways so it didn’t matter. Still have time for another 10+ game winner before the season ends. If he can win 6 more games.
Good game tonight.
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Another contestant who will be in the tournament of champions. Eric dominated Daily Doubles in his 6 wins. Though he struggled in Final Jeopardy (got 2 of 7 correct), it didn’t matter because his last 5 wins were runaways. Tonight he didn’t find the daily doubles and still dominated the game but it wasn’t a runaway. He missed final, Megan, contestant in second place, got it right and won the game.
Its interesting that so many people (Mayim tonight) note the score difference (often you see $1 or $2 margins of victory). But the $$ differences are a matter of betting strategies more than evidence of a close game. Contestants typically bet to cover certain situations in terms of other contestants being right or wrong. Those bets by definition will result in close scores if those situations play out. Its more a matter of a question or two deciding the game. Megan found the last daily double today and got it right. Had she missed it or had Eric found it and gotten it right, Eric has a runaway game and Final Jeopardy isn’t relevant. There are runaway games that are decided by one question. Runaway games are often sealed on the last question.
I got Final Jeopardy right. I knew it had to be somebody connected to Watergate. I told my son, “Well, I don’t remember all the actors involved with that, so I would say Nixon, but it’s probably not right.” If I had remembered Dean or Haldeman as two of the contestants did, I probably would have guessed one of them!
Has anyone watched “The Chase?” I saw it last night for the first game. A fast-paced quiz show, where contestants go up against a Chaser. Last night it was James. I looked it up and Ken and Brad have also played the role. I thought James missed a lot of easy questions during the preliminary rounds, which surprised me. But in the final round, wow. His speed in answering questions was impressive.
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Nixon made the statement to Haldeman so he was involved in the conversation. LOL Figured we at home at the benefit of Watergate being mentioned a lot over the past week or two in connection with the 50th anniversary. That was not the case for the contestants when the show was taped.
I have watched The Chase. To me, the Final Chase is clearly the best part of the show. Watching the Chasers answer questions at a rapid fire pace is fun to watch. The head to head chase is also interesting to me to listen to the Chasers explain their process in picking an answer. The contestants are often making guesses (some more educated than others) and the Chasers are often using derivatives of the words or other obscure connections to pick their answers. So hearing their thought process in that part of the game is fun.
Ken, James and Brad were the original Chasers when ABC brought the show back a couple years ago. Then they added The Beast. The Beast and Ken are not on this season and they added 3 new Chasers (including Buzzy Cohen).
Overall, the show is a little too slow for my tastes though. Still watch it sometimes though.
I’ve just skimmed the last couple comments about The Chase since I recorded it and plan to watch it later. Hope you guys will be careful to be vague about specific spoilers if you talk about it in this (Jeopardy) thread!
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Ken Jennings left The Chase somewhat recently, fueling speculation that he will appointed “a host of Jeopardy”, as opposed to his current “hosting Jeopardy”.
Yeah, for some reason that phrasing bothers me, as Jennings in my mind has more Jeopardy cred than Mialyk, who does have a science PhD but is most famous for PLAYING a weird smart person in a sitcom. Her shilling for snake oil products hasn’t helped her reputation in some nerd circles.
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I really hope Ken comes back to host Jeopardy . Mayim could still host the things like the college tournament.
I am probably overreacting but I am very annoyed by Mayim saying something at the end that I believe she has said more than once, including tonight- that a contestant “could not be caught.” Yes, unlikely, but people sometimes do stupid things!
There were little blips online last week that Ken had ‘let slip’ that he’s the new permanent host starting with the next season (fall?). Was that just made up news, old news, just plain wrong?
FWIW, Alex used to say sometimes that contestants in runaway games “could not be caught.” Other than Cliff Clavin on a Cheers episode, I don’t think anyone has lost a runaway game. I think there was a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy who may have done that but its Celebrity Jeopardy so it doesn’t count.
I have seen other instances online of people getting upset at something that Mayim does/says that Alex did/said himself. No doubt there are a lot of people who don’t like her as a host of the show.
I think there is a lot of wishful thinking and people reading into things that they want to see. People online were upset when Ken “stepped down from hosting Jeopardy” to let Mayim host. but from the end of the Mike Richards departure, the show has stated that Ken and Mayim would be trading off hosting duties. We shall see.
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Good game tonight. Surprising Final Jeopardy round!
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I said to my mother that Megan should bet $0 because the only way she’d win was to have the other two get it wrong. Well, Megan won anyway but she could have had $5000+ more if she’d bet $0.
And I got it right.
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Megan made the max bet that would allow her to win with a triple stumper. But another opportunity for her to win was for her to get the final jeopardy right with the other two contestants getting it wrong. In that case, should would win more than she would with betting nothing.
Sarah, who was in second place, could have bet nothing and won in the triple stumper situation. But she would have lost had Megan gotten it right (and Sarah and Steve missed it).
Steve bet to avoid losing to Sarah (if she bet everything) and both of them were right on Final Jeopardy. Given a triple stumper, Steve could have bet nothing and won.
But the most common betting strategy is to bet based on you getting the question right and trying to maximize your chance of winning in either case. Most contestants go with the view that one thing you don’t want to do is be in the lead, get FJ right but get passed up by someone who was behind you going into FJ. With his bet had he gotten FJ right he was guaranteed the win no matter what the other contestants bet or if they got FJ right or wrong.
Sarah was in a tough spot because she couldn’t cover Megan (ensuring that if Sarah got FJ right, Sarah would always beat Megan no matter how much Megan bet or if Megan got FJ right) and at the same time win a triple stumper. Sarah didn’t bet to cover Megan. She also could have bet $1,599 to basically make Megan get FJ right to beat Sarah.
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Or as Robin Roberts called it “Remedial Jeopardy”!
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Might I remind you that she competed on Celebrity Jeopardy against Bob Costas and Keith Oberman. She came in 3rd (aka last) by wagering all her money in FJ and getting it wrong.
In fairness to the Celebrity Jeopardy contestants (though they were not the strongest contestants for sure and that was with dumbed down questions), they weren’t playing to come back, right? And they were playing for charities and I believe guaranteed a minimum amount (maybe $10,000?). If they won more their charity got that higher amount. So betting big on FJ was a chance to increase the amount for your charity when you had a hedge against the downside and you were not coming back for another game even if you won. Very much a different situation with contestants playing in the regular season (or tournaments).
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Interesting shows today and last Friday. On Friday, Megan won her 4th game. But the contestant who was in first going into Final Jeopardy (Megan was in second), started writing the correct response but did not finish it in time. Looked like she was still writing when the FJ music stopped. She left the last letter off the response. Per Jeopardy’s rules, you need to finish your response to be ruled correct. Gives you extra time that the other contestants didn’t have if you don’t take that approach.
Was also interesting that the contestant in first didn’t bet enough to cover Megan’s max bet. Megan didn’t make a max bet so had the contestant in first gotten FJ correct, she would have won (as bets were actually placed) but would have lost had Megan made a maximum bet.
Today Megan became a 5-time champ on a triple stumper. Won $401 today. Second and third place contestants won more in today’s game though only Megan gets to come back tomorrow. Megan made the correct bet today (contestant in first bet to cover Megan who didn’t make a max bet – actually bet more than he needed to cover Megan but would have still lost had he made the cover bet).
Had some recent shows where betting strategy decided the outcomes. Megan has bet well and continues to win though her 5-day total of about $52k is one of the lowest you will see for a 5-time champ. Qualifies her for the Tournament of Champions.
Wonder if the contestant from Friday will qualify for the second chance tournament?
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Buzzy???