Welcome to another weekly Jeopardy! editorial column, where I give my thoughts on happenings in the world of Jeopardy!
Something I’ll Be Disappointed About If It Happens
It seemed to me that Yogesh Raut was hedging his bets a little bit about competing in Jeopardy! Masters; it was something definitely noticeable in his post-tournament interview on YouTube.
And I’d just like to say: while Yogesh is obviously under zero obligation to compete, and it is entirely his choice whether he does or not, I would be very disappointed if he chose not to. Yogesh is one of the best trivia players on the planet, and he’s proven himself to be quite good at Jeopardy!—I would love to see more of that. (And, besides, any James–Yogesh matchup would 100% be must-watch television.)
(And, to Yogesh: you know how to get ahold of me. I’d be happy to help train you in Final Jeopardy betting strategy.)
Here’s An Idea: Stop Using Focus Groups.
People Magazine ran an article this week of an exclusive interview with former host and Executive Producer Mike Richards. I’m not going to link to it because I believe that it is basically an attempt to retcon history. However, there is one thing that I was reminded of thanks to this article: Focus groups are actively harming the show.
It seems as though the two most unpopular things over the last three years have come as the result of focus groups: firstly, Mike Richards polled well with the focus groups (and we all saw how that turned out); secondly, focus groups were the ones who suggested that contestants be forced to read the entirety of category names every time, no matter how long they were. These focus groups are suggesting changes that the general fandom is against; there is absolutely no reason for the show to be wasting money on these groups.
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!
If You Ever Thought The Average Jeopardy! Fan Was Smart…
On Wednesday, when I posted my JIT preview to social media, my posts publicizing the preview opened “Before regular play returns in early April…”, thinking that might possibly stem the flow of people asking when regular play would be returning.
Was I ever wrong.
Multiple people commented on these posts asking if we were ever going back to regular contestants. Has the average Jeopardy! fan lost that much skill in reading comprehension? Or—and I’m becoming more convinced that this might actually be the case—have bot operators decided that criticizing the show’s tournament schedule might make their bots seem more “normal”?
Regardless, the metrics that make the executives care—namely, ratings—are likely unaffected, if my own analytics are to be believed. The Tournament of Champions finals in March 2024 saw just as many people coming to The Jeopardy! Fan as the finals in November 2022 did.
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 Price Is Right Is Doing This. Jeopardy! Should Too.
One thing that I am hearing from my sources who follow other game shows—specifically, in this case, The Price Is Right—is that Price has scheduled a boatload of tapings for May and June of this year, months in which that show is usually in a production hiatus. Presumably, this is insurance against the possibility of a pair of strikes that might affect that show: both SAG-AFTRA’s Network Code (the AFTRA part of SAG-AFTRA) and many IATSE locals are in the middle of contract negotiations with the AMPTP. The Network Code contract ends at the end of June, while the IATSE contracts expire at the end of July.
Strikes by either of these groups would bring Jeopardy! production to a halt, as this isn’t a matter of “taping material that’s already been written”; by way of example, Ken Jennings would be striking if SAG-AFTRA can’t come to a deal. While the camera operators (IATSE Local 600) did reach a tentative agreement this past week, the show’s post-production staff (IATSE Local 700) enters negotiations this coming week. Especially considering that the show has no plans to run any postseason play or tournament play in syndication until 2025, I think that it would be a good idea for Jeopardy! to stockpile as much regular play as it can before any possible strikes and delay its summer production hiatus for a couple of months in order to do so.
In Closing
We’ve got five more quarterfinals next week in the JIT—I can’t wait to watch them!
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