My wife and I were wondering, did Matt intentionally under-perform today, or has his post-doctoral work taken his focus away from Jeopardy?
I guess we will find out later this week.
Amy seemed to underperform too. Did they film this episode after cocktail hour?
There is no intentional underperformance on Jeopardy!; that would be considered a form of cheating.
Ken was bleeped . " Oh s__t. " I thought the exhibition was fun but not sure they were playing their best games and some of the questions didn’t seem that hard. I think it’ll still be anybody’s game.
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But this was an exhibition game.
Sure, but it seems doubtful they would have put another contract in place allowing such behavior just for this one game. It’s still run under the Jeopardy! name. Anything could happen, though- but I’d be shocked.
I enjoyed watching them make wild guesses, laughing and knowing that it didn’t matter.
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The exhibition game was fun. I don’t think anyone has said yet why Ken was bleeped - he unintentionally gave away an answer before the category was finished and his reaction was NSFTV.
I do have to say I was a little surprised to open this topic yesterday early afternoon (ET) and see people already commenting on that game, well before it had aired most places. Maybe not technically spoilers but am I the only one who likes to watch things “fresh”? I know this is not something there would be a forum rule about, but would anyone else want to consider a “gentlemen’s agreement” among posters here to hide comments till at least the evening, to give us a chance to catch up?
Here's how
It’s easy to do now with the “hide details” option under the gear icon
I know some will say, if you’re that concerned, just don’t open this thread until you’ve watched that day’s game, but with so many different time zones and work and sleep schedules, that can leave a very narrow window until the next game.
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It wasn’t preempted here on the east coast so I did see it live .
Someone came on here a few months ago before the episode had even aired to announce that one of the contestants that was on a long streak had finally gone down. Now, that post was truly annoying! I think it’s best to err on the safe side and avoid announcing a winner until at least the episode has started to air live.
I don’t think in the instance here from
early yesterday afternoon, much was revealed early (before it would have begun airing on the east coast), except that it was kind of a fun game!
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Not spoilers at all. The final jeopardy answer for 11/7 is “What is the Sword of Damocles” and Sam won would be a spoiler if posted that afternoon. Saying Ken got bleeped is not.
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This is a reasonable, though narrow, definition of spoiler. A broader, and still accepted, definition would include spoiling the narrative of a show, which would include the experience of such a highly unusual element as Ken being bleeped. That said, the former definition seems more workable in a setting such as this.
Waiting until at least the live shows have had a chance to air on the east coast before getting into who won seems like a good idea. So, not before 8pm EST. In some markets, it airs live at different times. For instance, in some places, it’s on at 7pm, in other east coast markets, it’s not on until 730pm.
East Coast bias, much? 
I am assuming that Amy, Matt and Mattea will each appear in one of the three semi-finals. If each wins their game, they would be facing each other in the finals. It will be interesting to see the difference in play compared to the exhibition game.
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@bluebayou Absolutely! But, I think it’s not unreasonable to expect people in other time zones to wait until it’s aired if they don’t want to hear any results. Nobody yesterday spilled any major beans until after 8 pm EST, when it was commented on that maybe Matt and Amy had underperformed (which did imply that Mattea was the winner).
I’d like to see more such exhibition rounds. It seems to me it offers more of the entertainment value producers would like to wring from Celebrity Jeopardy!, while at the same time not allowing the personality and showmanship to entirely overshadow the trivia chops. Seems like the best of all worlds.
All we need is a continuing supply of such super-champions to fill those exhibition rounds. I think they’ll continue to pop up at the regular intervals we’ve seen of late, so hopefully there will be more such rounds in the future.
The one useful tidbit gleaned from the exhibition relates to buzzer speed. During one long stretch in Double Jeopardy, it was clear that both Matt and Mattea knew the material well, and each attempted to ring in immediately on several consecutive clues; Mattea won every time. In games between comparable players, buzzer battles can determine outcomes, so I would give Mattea a slight edge in a hypothetical final among these three (with the caveat that Amy may have been taking it easy with nothing at stake).
Even in games with less comparable players, the buzzer can at least have a big role in the outcome! I think getting the champs time on the buzzer before the semifinals was a big reason for the exhibition round, and they all used that time well.
I too am wagering on Mattea. They’re such a strong player, in a number of dimensions.
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Agree, though I noted there was a lot of Canada-related material in that game, which is obviously Mattea’s wheelhouse. 
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Mattea did seem quicker on the buzzer but now Matt and Amy will know what they are up against in that area. Canada questions , more pop culture type stuff (like in some of the questions yesterday) are what Mattea does have strength in. But, Mattea is also a very strong player overall. Mattea seems to be in good shape and did seem like the strongest player yesterday but I’m not counting out Matt or Amy yet!
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