Another week of Jeopardy! is finished, which means we get another week of Andy’s Weekly Thoughts!
Let Happy People Be Happy!
I was befuddled on Friday with the general reaction to Aaron’s victory celebrations. I don’t understand why some people are so against any display of emotion. To me, it’s the same as a hockey player celebrating an important goal, or a baseball player bat-flipping on a home run. Let happy people be happy!
Yes, I Plan On Covering the UK Jeopardy. But Here’s Why I Won’t Be “Reviewing” It.
With the UK version of Jeopardy, hosted by Stephen Fry, set to debut at some point—the debut date certainly hasn’t been announced—I should make everyone aware of my plans.
Yes, I will provide coverage here on the site of the UK Jeopardy, similar to what I do for US versions. However, I won’t be providing opinions regarding any production decisions made. Why?
Because I am not British.
This show is not made for a North American audience. This show is made for a British audience. A 61-clue-in-20-minute extravaganza is likely too fast-paced for the British teatime palate (as evidenced by one comment that upcoming ToCer Luigi de Guzman made on Reddit, noting that his British friends thought his episodes moved too quickly). It is thus inappropriate for me to enter the reviewing waters, as any review I make would be useless.
That being said, I look forward to giving strategic insight like I do for the US show. I just won’t be commenting on production decisions.
My friends over at Geeks Who Drink have introduced a daily trivia game—Thrice! Existing to make daily clever trivia content accessible to a wide audience, it's a daily challenge that tries to get you to the answer via three separate clues. It has a shareable score functionality to challenge your friends and new questions every day will give you a new daily social ritual. You can find it at thricegame.com.
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Would It Kill Fans To Just Do A Cursory Google Search Before Claiming The Show Is Wrong?
Tuesday’s Final Jeopardy regarding the British line of succession proved to be an embarrassing moment for several Jeopardy fans, as they were under the belief that Prince Harry had somehow removed himself from the British line of succession, making Jeopardy‘s clue incorrect.
I have to say, “Would it have killed you to do a cursory Google search before making such a claim?” Had those fans done so, they would have found the Royal Family website’s own succession list—which very clearly lists Archie sixth.
As I say in the Site Comment Policy, “it’s much more likely that you as a viewer either misunderstood the clue or misremembered the requisite knowledge. We all watch Jeopardy! to learn—use the clue as a learning experience instead of assuming that you already know everything.”
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Are People Expecting Me To Be Upset Over The Celebrity Jeopardy Scheduling?
The schedule for Celebrity Jeopardy has been unveiled over on Futon Critic; the next three quarterfinals have been scheduled for November 15, 29, and December 6, with no more episodes scheduled in 2023. One thing noted is that an episode of Celebrity Family Feud has been scheduled for December 13, which led to one notable Wheel of Fortune fan saying “take that” in the direction of Jeopardy! fans over an episode being apparently bumped.
To that, I have to ask: Are you actually expecting me to be upset about this? Because I’m not.
With episodes scheduled on November 15, 29, and December 6, that brings us to the end of the quarterfinals—it’s a perfect time for the show to take a few weeks’ break for the holidays! All that showing an episode on December 13 does is split the semifinals over a lengthy period—and viewers are more likely to forget about who’s in the finals. Saving the last four episodes for 2024 is a good idea from ABC, in my opinion—I’m certainly not angry at all!
In Closing
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I’m gonna respond to each of these in order…
Let Happy People Be Happy – Absolutely. I saw a lot of people upset at Aaron’s behavior when last night aired, and admittedly, I was one of those people. But I actually took the time to think about it from Aaron’s point of view. He probably didn’t think he would ever make a return to the show, survived a brutal challenge from Hari – who’d have probably cruised to a ToC spot had he actually won his first game in S37 – and managed to come back from a pretty big DD miss to preserve a runaway over two very capable champions. Plus, he did all of that with his children watching in the audience, and didn’t totally embarrass himself. With that in mind, I think he had every right to react the way he did.
UK Jeopardy – I support this decision entirely, and even though I probably won’t be able to watch the show, I’ll still follow the coverage. (I wonder how long it’ll take for the UK version of J! Archive to pop up.)
Google Searching – Admittedly, I’ve had that mindset before of “hey, did the show get something wrong?”. And I’ve always been proved wrong in less than a minute following a Google search. I don’t understand how people are so willing to bypass the searching when it’d probably take less time and energy than complaining about it.
Celebrity Schedule – I don’t actually mind too much. After the car crash that 11/1’s game turned into, I think I need a bit of a breather. Celebrity episodes can either be great or a disaster, and seeing how last season saw the best games of the entire season after the break, I’m not too annoyed by the idea of another break.
On a side note, this month marks five years since I’ve started following the site every single day! It’s amazing to see how much the site has evolved in five years, and I love the fact that there’s enough content and analysis to where older recaps are still just as informative. Here’s to a lot more years 🙂
Thanks for the support Andy (and MasterDoge). I love this site—it made me a better player.
This seems like a good place to put my monthly stats (as I did last month), so I can keep my comments in the daily episode pages reserved for that day’s goings-on. I’ll try to stay topical to Andy’s post when I can🙂🤞
my October stats:
15/22 on FJ! missed on (4,6,9,11,13,24,31). ~68.2%… a much poorer showing than last month’s 80% (but that was only 3 weeks).
55/66 on DDs. A marginal improvement over September (83.3% vs 80%).
Missed DD1 five times (9,16,18,23,27), DD2 three times (18,25,26), and DD3 three times (2,5,11).
Got the quadfecta (FJ! + all three DDs) seven times.
Regarding the new UK Jeopardy! I had read that the time format was going to be one hour. If they otherwise follow our version, it seems like it would run similar to Celebrity Jeopardy! but with even more time for banter. I am hoping for it to be successful, so I’m anxious to see how the time will be filled.
At the end of July, Andy reported the following:
“According to UK game show information source Bother’s Bar [link below], the hour-long episode will consist of two Jeopardy! Rounds (£25/£50/£75/£100/£150), followed by a Double Jeopardy! Round, and then Final Jeopardy.”
https://www.bothersbar.co.uk/?p=14514
Thanks Matt! That is another similarity to CJ! then. Three boards of play, but no Triple Jeopardy and presumably just one extra daily double. I am not keen on the bottom weighting of the clues. It feels to me that that also implies (as the bothersbar site suggests) that the DDs should likely be more likely to appear in the bottom row than they are here. I wonder if they would also seek to inhibit DD hunting?
Maybe they will follow through on the last row REALLY being MORE DIFFICULT and the greater amount is a reward (and a reminder/warning),
Andy, I completely agree with, approve of, or welcome all your ‘Weekly Thoughts’ this time, including your take on some people not searching for the facts online before objecting to J!’s clue/question version.
However, (though I actually think probably most of those people are just obnoxiously overconfident in their own knowledge rather than too lazy to look it up) it does give me hope that maybe enough people are realizing that you cannot believe everything you find on the internet, that a few people now think you cannot believe anything you find on the internet [when actually you just have to be discerning about WHERE you are finding the information, like on a government department’s website, royal family’s own website, a university’s official website, etc. depending on the subject matter in question].
Or maybe they know they are wrong and they just “get off on” thinking that if they make a forceful enough argument a few people will (at least for a moment) believe that they are correct!