Here’s another week of editorial thoughts on happenings in the world of Jeopardy!
If You’re That Dissatisfied, There’s Only One Way To Make Your Displeasure Actually Count
I’ve seen a small number of longtime fans complaining on various social media sites about the general direction that the show is taking. And, as much as these fans don’t want to hear it, there’s only one way to make your displeasure actually count.
You will have to go cold turkey and completely ignore the show.
That means: don’t watch, unfollow it on social media, and don’t talk about it on any trackable social media. Because both positive and negative interactions are generally counted identically as interactions. And the show doesn’t just talk about ratings when it gives metrics to potential advertisers: it talks about follower counts, and interactions. So, even if you think your jeremiads have a negative effect, they may have the opposite effect than what you want.
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!
Regarding The “Overexposure of Millionaire”
According to James B. Stewart’s 2005 book DisneyWar, the exposé surrounding Michael Eisner’s tenure at Disney, the decision that most pundits agree sunk Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?—the choice to air the show three nights a week that is still often cited by critics of Michael Davies in Jeopardy! spaces—was not a decision by Davies, or anyone else at his level. That decision was a “not negotiable” decision made by Bob Iger and Michael Eisner. Davies was very much in favor of “saving Millionaire for sweeps and special events”, and it appears as though blaming him for a decision of Iger and Eisner is quite incorrect.
Yes, I Do Hold Some Contestants To A Higher Standard—Here’s Why
I was the recipient of a small amount of criticism on Friday regarding my comments on Scott Nations’s Final Jeopardy bet.
I stand by those comments, because there are some contestants that I hold to higher standards than others when it comes to strategy.
In Scott’s case, I felt that his professional background in modeling financial and options markets to find the best possible returns would be a near-perfectly transferable skill to Final Jeopardy wagering, and was thus extremely disappointed that his Final Jeopardy betting appeared to me as though Scott spent comparatively little time studying potential situations; instead, making a bet that made me believe that Scott thought he was betting from the lead and not second place.
If there are others who I feel should, for professional reasons, be good strategic players, I will also hold those players to the same standard.
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Why I’m Not Covering The Australian Version
The Australian version of Jeopardy, hosted by Stephen Fry, aired this evening in Australia. I gave thought to covering it, but I chose not to. Here’s why:
- 7:30 PM Sydney time is the equivalent of 5:30 AM Eastern. I am someone who enjoys sleeping at that time—even at 7:00 AM Newfoundland time.
- It’s only six episodes.
- Channel Nine in Australia doesn’t have much confidence in it either, as evidenced by its scheduling: Saturday night is even more of a graveyard slot than it is in North America.
- The format, identical to the British version, works for a British daytime audience. It does not work for an Australian prime time audience that already has fans very familiar with the American version. (The American version has a small following in Australia as it airs on a couple of lesser-accessible channels.)
- It will be airing for the next five weeks as Nine burns off its episode order; I’d be surprised if it saw a recommissioning in its current format, though.
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How long is each episode of Jeopardy! Australia?
From the final section: “The format, identical to the British version…”
Thus, one hour.
(In passing, I also note SCP Rule 5.)
Based on David’s “Retro good luck” question yesterday, he may be a newbie here who does not realize that if he really digs in to ‘The Jeopardy Fan’ he can find lots of info on the British version. Someone who hasn’t previously known about other countries’ versions of Jeopardy! may be thinking of “format” as number of clues, value of clues, number of contestants, possibly even not requiring “in the form of a question”, rather than whether 30 minutes or an hour.
Also, I have found it very easy to miss sections or parts of sections in this site because I read fast and the ads pop up slow (and seemingly at random, though probably not actually), by which I mean the ads pop up from nothing (or maybe from a tiny icon?) to a fairly big square or rectangle very quickly once it implements, but slow in terms of how soon an ad does so as I am scrolling (vs going to full size BEFORE I get down to them). Therefore, I can think I have finished reading a section when actually the end of it just got rapidly pushed off my screen or I can miss whole small sections because pop-up ads occurring as I scrolled made it seem like I was “at” the same ad when I was actually now at a new one further down (past a small written section that I missed). Admittedly this is exacerbated by the small size of my screen [a small laptop], but I assume than some people are using a tablet or smartphone and may perhaps have even more trouble than I do. However, my main point is that I have learned to compensate by going back over it all to make sure I have not missed anything (especially if I think I have a question) but it may take some people a while to learn that.
BTW: some ads that do not appear to be covering the comment box actually interfere with typing into it or interfere with posting, but once I close the ad (that appears to be off to the right or at the very bottom) then the comment box and button works. Also, occasionally a whole-screen ad will pop up and even though it has a “close” button, it WILL NOT CLOSE anyway, so I have to use my ‘Back’ or ‘Reload Page’ option to get out of it, resulting in going back a full page and having to get back into where I was (and sometimes losing the comment I had just typed). I HAVE NOT had either of these two problems on any site but tjf.
Andy, today’s thoughts were very interesting and enjoyable, even just finding out that American Jeopardy! does air in Australia. I am wondering if Celebrity Jeopardy! does. I’m guessing not since it is not syndicated like “daily” is, but celebrities these days often have a global fan base, so I think they are missing out if not somehow airing it there.
I very much enjoy the American version of Jeopardy (the only version I am able to watch) in any and all iterations and have nothing to complain about how it is ran. I have been to 2 tapings in person (6 shows) and intend to go again soon. It’s a blast. 🙂
On a side note, for math nerds like me, last season (Season 39) we had 77 Champions in 190 regular shows. This season (Season 40) we will have 78 regular shows, so based on last season’s math, I estimate us having 31 Champions this season. We’ll know come July 26th if this holds true or not. ;_
Andy:
I find your explaination of the burn out of the Regis Philburn version of WWTAM interesting, if only that it goes to show the differences about british and American televison. British TV seems to have several seasons a year, each season lasting only a couple of months. At the end of a British TV season, at least some shows are given a break for the new season, returning the following season. Which is The Chase is a daily show over there, and, just weekly here. WWTAM was (is) more like event TV there, I don’t think it was designed, at least in it original version, to be a multi evening show. I’m somewhat surprised that the half hour daily syndicated version lasted so long.
I am wondering which percentage of teams (and which percentage of contestants, since that is different) win anything here and in the UK because here the chaser seems to win much more often than not. I don’t think American audiences would hold interest in seeing losing day-after-day almost-every-day, so I am wondering if Brits just have a different appreciation/tolerance of that sort of thing or if their teams win more often.
If someone can definitively say that in the American version the chaser loses more often than not, that would be different than my impression, but would kind of prove my point because I FELT LIKE I rarely got to see the contestants win and would not enjoy that daily.