Welcome to another Saturday editorial!
Weighing In On The Big YouTuber News Of The Week
I think I can safely say that many Jeopardy! fans who spent time on YouTube since 2019 are happy to see the apparent retirement of YouTuber MatPat this week.
This is a person who essentially took data that I compiled, misinterpreted it, and used it to accuse Jeopardy! of unfathomable things. It has been proven time and time again since then, especially in the era of the Second Chance competition, that a high Combined Coryat is not indicative of easier clues, but of stronger players. MatPat’s so-called “theory” is 100% incorrect.
Moreover, he then decided that it was a good idea to start stumping for the job of Alex Trebek despite these incorrect accusations against the show. This basically caused a situation on social media where it became impossible to actually monitor discussion of the show, because so many of his fans were littering the Jeopardy hashtag on Twitter (back when the site was still generally useable!) with their stumping. This went on for literal months due to the long tail of his videos.
To MatPat, I say good riddance. This community is better off without you.
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.
Are you going on the show and looking for information about how to bet in Final Jeopardy? Check out my Betting Strategy 101 page. If you want to learn how to bet in two-day finals, check out Betting Strategy 102. In case the show uses a tournament with wild cards in the future, there is also a strategy page for betting in tournament quarterfinals.
Are you looking for information on how to stream Jeopardy! in 2024? Find out information here on how to stream from most places in North America!
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You can find game-by-game stats here at The Jeopardy! Fan of all 17 players, now including Adriana Harmeyer, that have won 10 or more games on Jeopardy!
You can now listen to Alex Trebek-hosted Jeopardy! episodes from TuneIn Radio without leaving The Jeopardy! Fan — listen now!
On Contestants’ Quirky Introductions
Mid-week, Reddit had a complaint thread started regarding contestants who do “something quirky during the intro”. While the users on the subreddit definitely disagreed, I did want to put my own thoughts on the matter out here.
Those thoughts can pretty much be summarized as follows: While it makes my job more difficult covering the show, it’s more important that contestants feel comfortable on stage that my comfort level can (and should) take a back seat.
What do I mean by “makes my job more difficult”? I take screenshots of the program every day for various reasons (the graphics I post to Facebook, the winner’s total at the end, etc.)—and my preference for those pictures as much as possible is for the contestant to be facing the camera, hands down, not moving. (Those make the best pictures.)
However: I have absolutely heard from contestants that many of them feel as though doing something quirky gets rid of the nerves for them, and it lets them play better once the game starts. And, being that I want to see everyone play as well as possible on the Alex Trebek Stage, anything the contestant does that will help with that is more important than “getting a good screengrab”.
On Putting Tournament Preliminaries On TuneIn
Last night we saw the first two Jeopardy! games produced as audio-only productions. Personally, I enjoyed both of them, and it’s important for the viewing public to be able to have that transparency of “what happened?”—especially in the case of a fan favorite like Anji Nyquist.
I also think it’s a good idea to put tournament preliminaries elsewhere, as this effectively frees up air time for regular play—which is something that a lot of fans do find important.
There are some things that probably do need to be ironed out regarding the presentation: more score updates from the host, especially at breaks and Daily Doubles, would be very helpful for us who are otherwise struggling to remember the game situation (or who wouldn’t mind a chance to check to make sure they haven’t made a mistake in tracking the game).
All in all, though, I think that this is a positive start, and I think that this sort of thing is a positive way of expanding the show past “230 episodes a year”.
We have many new offerings at The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store! Here are our current featured items, including our new Masters Season 3 Player List T-shirt:
The One Thing Most Likely To Derail Emma Stone’s Attempts To Get On The Show
Obviously, I write this section not knowing what Emma Stone’s score is on the Anytime Test. For all we know, her score could be under that magic passing number. However, I do think that celebrities who are otherwise eligible (i.e. they don’t have ties to the production staff, Sony Pictures, or any station airing the show) should be allowed to be on the regular shows. Heck, “celebrities” have been on the show before: back in the 1980s, Chub Feeney, President of the National League at the time, was a contestant.
And that’s one thing that I think a lot of people have either missed or glossed over in their coverage: contestant eligibility. Being that she is a well-known actress, her being eligible to be on Jeopardy! would very likely mean that she’d need to decline any work tied to Sony Pictures from at least now until when she’s been on, as Standards and Practices would very likely frown upon such a thing.
If Emma is eligible, though, and she is really hoping to get on: I, or many others, would be more than happy to help coach!
In Closing
Enjoy the start of Champions Wildcard next week! My preview will be coming out tomorrow.
(Publisher’s note: The Champions Wildcard preview will now be delayed until Monday, when I expect the full field of Group 1 will be officially unveiled, including the Play-In Game winners, in some fashion by the show.)
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I do not have any comments specific to these “Thoughts”, but just wanted to note how interesting I find all of them and how much I appreciate Andy bringing up these points and writing up these explanations.