It’s time for another Saturday editorial, or, as I like to say these days, “How will I be accused of high crimes, misdemeanors, and various hypocrisies this week?”
Thank You!
I would like to express my gratitude to the show and its web team for its prompt revealing of the semifinal matchups for Group 1 of Champions Wildcard on its website after last night’s game had finished. This allows everyone to spend the weekend speculating what might happen over the next week, and to me, this seems like free publicity for the show as fans discuss the possible outcomes.
For those who haven’t seen, the matchups are:
Monday: Lloyd Sy, Andy Tirrell, Martha Bath
Tuesday: Juveria Zaheer, Alec Chao, Robbi Ramirez
Wednesday: Michael Menkhus, Erin Portman, Ron Cheung
If it’s possible (and really I don’t see why it wouldn’t be) I would also like to see some way of maybe revealing an official bracket that tells viewers when a player’s next game is—this would allow for both fans watching the show and writers covering it a way to remain hyped about the events.
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.
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The ELVIS View
In case you missed it, Jeopardy! posted video online of ELVIS (the Electronic Lockout Verification Information System) in the context of the opening few clues of Tuesday’s Celebrity Jeopardy! final.
I found this to be very interesting information regarding the buzzer timing. What I’d still like to see, though—and I have expressed this wish before—is granular by-clue data of this, especially so that we might be able to see just how good someone like James Holzhauer or Mattea Roach is when it comes to the timing of the buzzer. Ideally, we’d even get the data on how many milliseconds after activation a player attempted to signal. (It’s probably just a pipe dream, but this is probably the last frontier when it comes to show data, so I can dream, right?)
Something That Appears To Have Been Lost In The “Discourse”
One thing that I’m noticing in discussion the last couple of months in the discussion regarding the current competition schedule is the major reason why this has happened: the writer’s strike.
As a reminder: Had the AMPTP not spent months trying to starve out the WGA back over the summer and Jeopardy! gone with its originally intended schedule, this past week would have concluded the 10th week of regular play this season.
“But, Andy,” you ask for the tenth time, “why couldn’t they have just run regular play?” And have people potentially pick between crossing a picket line and risking never being called for the show again? At least those who did choose to cross the picket line to return already had a chance to be on the show. (To say nothing of the fact that the reusing of material could have provided a distinct advantage to those who have likely spent years preparing by studying old material.)
That being said: Under Harry Friedman, the show would often spend the lead-up to a potential strike taping games well in advance—they certainly did this in 2004 and 2017, taping the beginning of the following season the previous April before any potential strike happened (Of course, in both of these cases, no strike happened). If there’s anything that can potentially be learned from this on the show’s end, it’s that Harry Friedman knew what he was doing—Jeopardy! should have set up its Season 39 & 40 production schedule to have a lengthier lead time, thereby allowing Michael Davies to stick to his initial plans all along.
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In Closing
I’m back to a 6-game week next week, with only the five regular games and the last Champions Wildcard Play-In Game on TuneIn on Friday night; have a great week, everyone!
Thank you Andy. I was also quite happy to see next week’s 3 Semifinal matches up and yes, I agree, I don’t see why an official bracket can’t be done and show where the person will next play when they win.
That online video of ELVIS is pretty cool and it’s nice to see the inter-workings of the show like that.
Have a great weekend!
Did someone just decide to call the buzzer system “ELVIS,”and, then came up with that description to make in an acronym?
My bet is that they had “Lockout Verification System” from the beginning just because of what it is for (maybe even from the point of requesting that it be designed and implemented), but upon easily noticing its resemblance to ELVIS it was a no-brainer to add in the ‘Electronic’ and the ‘Information’ (both of which would just be implied in the original LVS and many other electronic information systems). I’ve seen many NASA acronyms that are a much bigger stretch — for example including the 2nd letter of some of the words and even including awkward words that barely fit the circumstance. However, this one looks to be easy to have arrived at except for having no relation to Jeopardy! [For example, had they been able to come up with some term (or acronym) that had some relation to drag racing starts, that would have somewhat related to this Jeopardy! buzzer situation.]
Lisa;
You’re as big as a cynic as I am. Of course they could’ve done ELVES from LVS. (LOL)
LOL, but a large part of my thinking that had to do with spending decades involved with the development of “information systems”. I don’t recall ever naming any myself, but I was aware of the process going on and the resultant names. One was a female name with IS where the actual name would have had an ES.
[Also, LVS does “sound out” as elves, but that is plural and it is one system. Plus, can you imagine if Jeopardy! was asked what controls the buzzer timing and they answered “elves”? Some people would suspect they were hiding something! Not elves, but humans (rather than a computer program), thus with a possibility of human error.]
yeah, it’s bad enough when someone asks who double checks to see who ‘buzzed” in first, and, the reply is ELVIS. the looks that must generate, until it’s explained that ELVIS is an acronym. (Wouldn’t be surprised if there still some looks afterward.)