Jeopardy- The World vs Ken Jennings or Whatever It's Called
 

Anyone watching this new tourney that started yesterday where they bring back a bunch of old 5-day and other champions to compete?

I don't really like the format (the winner gets to face Ken at the end) because I'd rather see Ken have to win his way through these people, too. But it's still fun to watch because the questions are a little harder and there's this nice feeling like when watching Ken that you know at least one or even all three of the contestants really is smarter than you.

SI

I met one of the five time winners before. She's the friend of an old co-worker. She's in Finland now, so I'm not sure if she'll be back to compete in this all-star event.

Sounds good. It's a good idea to bring Ken back. Anyone know how Jeopardy's ratings have done since his defeat?

Now that I got a Cox DVR, I'm watching Jeopardy every night when it's convenient. I like the tournament and will enjoy seeing the finals as well.

the questions are so f'n easy now. And I know I haven't gotten smarter. If anything I'm getting dumber.

Yeah, today's was a little less encouraging. All three of them missed questions I knew.

SI

One of the guys on Tuesday night, I think - the first college champ or something like that from back in 1987 - had a Kirk Cameron-like mop of hair back then, and now looks like your accountant. He must have lost 14 pounds of hair. The "then and now" shots at the beginning of the show were stunning.

I regrettably deleted my recordings of the first night or two, since TiVo had them labeled as "Teen Tournament," which we want no part of. I finally decided to actually play it for a minute last night, and saw that I had deleted at least one episode of the super tournament.

But I'll be up to speed soon, I reckon.

But Alex says that the Teen Tournament is his favorite!


Am I the only one who hates Alex and his unfunny jokes? I wish they'd get rid of the part where he talks to the contestants. Their little unfunny anecdotes always suck and his witty comments alway sucks equally. Thank god for the 30-second skip button...

I feel bad for the kid who just won the teen tournament... the poor guy is in this tournament at some point... i feel bad for him, he'll be slaughtered.

I will say though, I figured the questions would be tougher than they are.

I think this tourney is a great idea. I'd like to see some stats on how former 5-day winners did. I don't think anyone dominated as much as Ken did. The % of time final jeopardy was meaningless is overwhelming. I'm curious to see if anyone else dominated like that. Maybe I should TiVo this :)

Well, after getting started back in February (as seen above) we have finally gotten through the first two rounds, and are down to 18 of the original competitors. For those watching every night, this has been a witheringly tedious process -- in my judgment, this has been FAR too broad and long-lasting to have any coherence as a single event.

In any case, now it's building up. Two of the all-time familiar faces -- Brad Rutter and Frank Spangenburg -- have made it this far, but several other formidable players (including Chuck Forrest, regrettably) didn't make it this far. I'm rooting for Frank Spangenburg, the tall NYC beat cop who has been a popular fixture on the various special events over the years since his intial win in, I'm guessing, the late 1980s.

I'm hoping the relative excitement of the next two weeks makes up for the drudgery of the preceding several months.

So Chuck (I've seen him on World News Tonight referred to as 'Charles') bowed out, huh? IIRC, he didn't fare too well in "Super Jeopardy" or whatever it was they came up with a few years back either.

Chuck was a "seeded" player, but lost in a tough three-way second round match, as I recall... I don't remember the circumstances, but he was in the running into the final question, but couldn't win.

I still think that it's lame that Ken Jennings doesn't have to fight his way through the tournament like the others. I realize he is their moneymaker right now, but it just feels cheap that he automatically is in the final.

Yeah, that is stupid. I didn't realize that was the way it was setup and I watched the first round but no KJ. If they are going to set it up like the NCAA Tournament, they should've done it the right way. Thats like giving the #1 seed a bye to the championship.

put him on Who Wants to Be A Super Trillionaire and we'll see what he's made of.

Put him on "Press your luck" and see what he is made of.

Card Sharks

Newlyweds and Threadjack complete.

Did it occur to anyone that maybe Jennings didn't want to be on the show, and he agreed to only do one more episode

No

Did it occur to anyone else that his real name might be Ted Venezuela?

It occurred to me that he would want a guarantee of a specific amount of money in exchange for appearing again, which he will get just by showing up, even if he loses. The 3rd place finisher gets $250K; 2nd place $500K, and the winner, $2M. It's a 3-day total points game. Ken probably figures it's worth $250K at a mininum for an hour and half competition.

It's funny, about once a month now, I have been asking my wife (as she watches the show) are we any closer yet. Finally last Friday she told me that this was the end of the 2nd round. I couldn't believe how long they dragged that out.

From what I understand, he also gets the minimum payout for each of the lower rounds as well. I know that the 9 seaded players each recieved the $15,000 minimum payout in addition to what they won in the second round.

The aforementioned Brad Rutter very narrowly escaped last night's first semifinal match -- he missed on both of the Daily Double questions in the second round, finished the DJ round in last place, but was the only one who got the final question correct, and had deliberately wagered just enoug to beat the leader by one dollar. He even wrote down a wrong answer, but then crossed it out and scribbled in the right one at the last second. Great ending - and he moves on.

Maybe this is like the #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, who needs a buzzer beater to beat Appalachian State, but then goes on to win it all.

That was a great finish last night. The leader looked like he was going to puke when he realized he got the answer wrong AND bet $2 too much.

Monday is the last of the semifinal matches... so far, in five of them, I believe that only one came down to a fairly boring final. The first three semifinal winners were not ahed after the Double Jepardy! round, but instead benefitted by difficult Final Jeopardy! questions -- this applied to both the aforementioned Brad Rutter and Frank Spangenburg.

I think its rigged, but then again, I am getting dumber.

Tonight will be part two of two of the first semifinal -- Frank Spangenburg is in this group, and is in second place, behind by about $10,000 going into tonight. I think he's in trouble - his main opponent, Jerome, is unusually sharp and deep in history and geography -- good things to have in addition to the general knowledge that most everyone has a decent handle on.

Brad Rutter is in the next group, which starts tomorrow. Mrs. Q has resolved to root for "Big Boy" - a nice kid from Kentucky named Chris, who looks to us like he could suit up in checkered clothing and hold a giant tray in front of a family restaurant.

Aw nuts. I completely missed it yesterday. Time to catch back up today

SI

Strange game yesterday - some of the questions none of them knew were extremely easy, and Spangenburg seemed to be a bit off for the entire game (especially when he barely eeked out Buffalo as the NY city with the nickname Nickel City; Uh, helloooo? Anyone home?). Still, I think he ended up in second.

Well, Spangenburg is out. A pretty obvious final jeopardy answer that only the winning contestant got right. Although, I wonder how far in advance these were filmed. If before the Pope died, then I guess this wouldn't have been so obvious. If afterwards, I'm surprised all three didn't get it, although the female was on the right track. The 1963 and 2005 gave it away for me, but again, without all of the press about the Pope's death, I would never have known it.

I'm disappointed - Frank rallied nicely, and got himself to the point where he would capture the overall win by just getting the final jeopardy question right, and betting it all. He did neither, and ended up in second place. Jerome, I thought, imploded a bit in the second round, and was lucky to get away with the win -- but he obviously benefitted from the final jeopardy question.

On to round two... the newly-slimmed-down Brad Rutter, Big Boy, and a slightly annoying guy named John. Mrs. Q and I have split allegiances.

That guy who one last night must be Jon Lovitz's brother.

It had to have been after the pope died, otherwise 2005 would not have been one of the years given.

:redface:

Well, duh. I'd like to blame that on the time of the post, but I won't use that cop out. That was simply sheer stupidity on my part. The question about when it was filmed and 2005 being in the answer were like two ships passing in the night through my brain.

What was the Final Jeopardy question?

I don't recall the specifics, but it basically said, "this period of time has occurred in..." and listed about 4 or 5 years, going as far back as the 300's, then 1963 and 2005.

I saw the answer and the outcome, but missed what category it was in.

Tonight is the first stage of the final... with Ken Jennings finally taking on the two finalists from the intolerably long tournament. I'll be watching, of course.

Jerome is very strong with history and geography -- and that will almost certainly play well in certain categories.

Both Ken and Brad, in my judgment, are basically generalists. I think Brad is probably the best player from the lead-in tournament, and he ought to give Ken a solid challenge. I don't knwo about Jerome, but he is a good player as well.

My line:

Ken 4-5
Brad 2-1
Jerome 8-1

How many days is this supposed to last?

SI

2 days I think.

Go Ken.

The final is over three episodes, now through Wednesday.

My daughter is excited that Ken is on tonight. Honestly. She says she loves Ken. That's how long he was on the first time around - so long as to become an indispensable part of a 5-year old's life.

Ever since he lost, she's been asking when he'll be on again. Since the tournament started, I at least had an answer for that. After the tournament ends, I'll have to answer that question for the foreseeable future with a "probably not for a long, long time, or maybe never." She's gonna break out the tears, I just know she is.

Woo! Jeopardy Time. Very fast paced and fun- going quite fast. Has lived up to the previous billing, mostly (tho, as I type that, there were just 2 straight questions no one got and no more spoilers).

SI

wow, tight game

Quite exiciting, tho, again, some people don't see it for another few hours so we should probably avoid any spoilers about it :)

SI

so this goes through Wednesday?

That's what it sounds like by what people have said here and what Alex said. Now I have to remember to watch both days instead of my on-and-off watching.

SI