Welcome to another Saturday Editorial, where I talk about some things that have been on my mind over the past week!
What We Learned From The Play-In Games On TuneIn
On March 30, 2023, Michael Davies announced on Inside Jeopardy that every single player who won a game in Season 39 would be invited to Champions Wildcard. Based off that information alone, and the interviews from the players in the play-in games, the results of those Play-In Games made a heck of a lot more sense.
Rachel Clark, who won a game back in April, obviously knew she’d be coming back—she spent her entire summer listening to Jeopardy! Radio on TuneIn. She then proceeded to dominate the second play-in game.
Anji Nyquist on the other hand, expressed surprise at being invited back. This was despite it being very common knowledge at the time of her episodes both taping and airing that all champions would be invited back. Anji struggled significantly in her match as Nik Berry advanced to the quarterfinals.
Receiving an invitation to continue your Jeopardy! journey should not have been a surprise to any of the players competing in Champions Wildcard, and the various outcomes of Rachel and Anji were absolutely not a surprise in light of these interview topics.
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!
Two Things I’m Noticing On UK Jeopardy Regarding The Buzzer
From watching the first 15 episodes of the Stephen Fry-hosted Jeopardy!, there are a couple of things that I’ve noticed when it comes to the buzzer, at least compared to the American version.
Firstly, I think that the show is being edited differently in the UK than the US. In the United States, the amount of “dead time” between the end of the clue and the first player ringing in (ostensibly when the buzzers are activated) in much shorter than it is in the UK. I would say that this is out of necessity—in order to fit in all 61 clues in the 20-minute runtime of an American episode, the show needs to be edited incredibly tightly, with every second counting. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the show has 91 clues and over 45 minutes of runtime; not cutting things as tightly at the end of the clue is one way of extending an episode (and certainly explains why the UK players seem to be slower on the buzzer (when they most likely are not).
The second thing I’ve noticed is something that I think will make things more difficult for a champion to string together a long run of victories. There have been many instances of a defending champion getting the run of play early, but by the time Double Jeopardy rolls around, both challengers have had plenty of time to figure out the buzzer, and the game turns incredibly competitive on the final board. It seems as though giving the players an extra 30 clues is great for keeping the games more competitive and equal between challengers and champions.
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Why I Returned To Twitter
Above all else, The Jeopardy! Fan has been a labour of love for me over the lengthy amount of time I’ve now spent as the site’s publisher, and one of those things that has kept running the site enjoyable for me over the years has been the connections that I’ve been able to make with people in the trivia community. I’ve been fortunate to be able to now count many former contestants among my friends, and that was one thing that I’ve felt I’ve lost over the past few months in my attempts to de-emphasize Twitter: I’m no longer feeling like I’ve been able to make those connections, and it’s been harmful to my enjoyment of this project overall.
So, having kept that in mind, I’ve decided that it’s more important for myself overall to have a presence on Twitter, which explains why I returned to the site this week.
(Editor’s Note: Since there seems to be some confusion—of which I’m not sure if this confusion if wilful or not—this an explanation for “Why did I return?”, not “Why did I leave?” Though it is certainly interesting to see others attempt to somehow get into my thoughts otherwise.)
In Closing
It’s the last full week of January; I hope everyone has a good week!
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You thoughts about the buzzers is compelling me to go ahead and ask here something that I have been intending to write to your mailbag but just keep not getting around to deciding how to word it. So, with the subject already brought up, I am going to just try to wing it.
Noticing that at commercial breaks, between rounds, etc. they tell the players to put down their buzzers, I have been wondering why. I can think of possibilities such as similar to “at ease” in the military, just making for a more relaxed unified look across the panel, preventing the possibility of someone fidgeting with it, or even preventing someone from dropping it when trying to relax(?). But I also wonder if it is to kind of give multiple chances to “level the buzzer playing field” (I guess you could say). What I mean is that maybe someone who had gained perfect buzzer timing might slightly lose it when having to remove then replace it in their hand or someone whose grip just had not been conducive to great buzzer timing might have better luck with the positioning of the buzzer in their hand when they picked it up again. [I have noted that Wheel of Fortune does this, too.]
So, any behind-the-scenes knowledge? Any more-informed guesses? And even if you do not think that the “all must re-initiate their buzzer grip” situation is a REASON, do you think it even has the potential of having an occasional positive or negative affect on one player or another? [I assume that they can kind of adjust their grip during clue sessions if they want to but I don’t recall ever being able to tell that anyone was doing that (at least not with both hands), though of course it is not rare for one to pantomime “my buzzer is not working”.]
All fans of America’s Favorite answer and question quiz should check out today’s (1/20/24) The Lockhorns newspaper comic. The last panel concerns a classic Jeopardy category, and, shows a youthfull Ken Jennings. (Andy; are (many, most) US newspaper comics syndicated to Canadian newspapers? Just curios. I’m sure that you can find the Lockhorns online. [www.gocomics.com])
Maybe it was that ultra-tight editing that caused some viewers to be so upset when Mayim Bialik would take an extra millisecond to give an answer. Sounds like they would absolutely lose their minds watching the UK edition.