Is Something Wrong With Jeopardy?
- Thread starter Mojochi
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it's good for rating now, because it's still only happened a handful of times. But I could see it wearing out its welcome if it keeps happening with this regularity. There's one rule change I would make that would fix this. All categories must be answered top to bottom. You can still switch categories whenever you want, but you have to answer the lowest value clue remaining first. This would get rid of Daily Double hunting, which is what allows people to build up big leads early. It also returns the game to the classic style of play, which is more pleasant to watch.
I can see that working for about halfway through the board. Besides daily double hunting. switching categories keeps the other players off balance. Once about half the board is cleared your jumping around the board continues to keep others off balance and allows you truly go hunting for the DD.
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Oh, I quite agree. Will's a genuinely intelligent, thoughtful man. I think he would be an excellent choice.I actually meant that, BTW.
Not in character as Trebek - that would be disrespectful. I genuinely believe Ferrell would make a great host.
That'll wear thin eventually imho, because the more it happens, the more it'll look inflated... which is kind of where I'm coming from. A lot of the contestants we're seeing in the wake of Schneider are really weak, & there was some of that after Amodio too. The more that dynamic plays out, the less amazing those record breakers will look... especially if more big runs continue to happen, with good competitors going up against them
I'm not sure I totally dislike the big money hunting & buzzer dominating strategies all that much. It does make the games a little more exciting & dynamic, even if it does maybe favor the returning champs exponentially, & I think they're unlikely to return to the 5 day limit, because they do like the media attention of a longer run, & bigger payout, because even Wheel of Fortune has chances to up your winnings considerably, & this is the only way Jeopardy has to achieve that
There's something next level happening, & the ones who intend to dominate have to be ringing in even if they don't know the answer right away, & trust that once they get a few seconds, they'll recall it in time. Amodio was running that gamble a TON.
This is a weird thing to equate it to in here, but it kind of reminds me of the recent trend in NFL pro football, of teams more often trying to convert on 4th down. It's a grand risk in turning the ball over, but the analytics seem to support taking that risk much more than use to be the instinctual predilection. Likewise, Jeopardy might be shifting to favor the bold over the brilliant much more now.
Maybe cut by half the time you must answer. And those who buzz while the question is being read, automatically lose the points and the remaining two get to hear the whole question and play as normal. Or, taking something from another game, the Daily Double can hop around the board after each question, and only the audience, both at home and in the studio, can see where it is.
Right now, no one buzzes in while the question is read though, & I much prefer it that way, because one of the selling points of the show imho is being able to hear it & answer yourself
They could maybe shorten the answer time a bit though. It might discourage people buzzing in before they've got the answer & counting on that time to recall it. Holzhauer & Amodio did a fair bit of that. I couldn't quite tell as easily if Schneider was doing it... probably some
A lot of interesting tells came from the GOAT show, having to see Ken Jennings play the Holzhauer gamble game. He was clearly much more uncomfortable doing it. You gamble with the money AND gamble with the buzzer. The former has always been a game play factor, even if it wasn't quite as riskily done previously. However, the latter is kind of a new development, & it's altered the show in some unfortunate ways maybe.
Daily double hunting isn’t the problem as much as understanding the buzzer timing is more important than best knowing the answers.
Probably not before Eugene Levy, who portrayed him on SCTV, who coincidentally is coming off Schitt's Creek and is probably in need of a job.
Alex even preferred him to Will Ferrell in terms of impression.
Yeah, as aggravating as Holzhauer's style of gameplay could get, he basically took the Forrest Bounce and refined it to its most logical endpoint, and it was a fully legitimate strategy. The thing with Holzhauer is that he was just an arrogant piece of shit and it made him incredibly obnoxious to watch. According to one of my childhood best friends, who competed against him on the high school math team at Naperville North in the Chicago suburbs, he had a swagger to him even at that age, largely because he came from a family that was absolutely loaded.
Edit: Holzhauer also did himself no favors by setting up a website celebrating his Jeopardy run that launched before his first game even aired, and referred to the players he had defeated as "The Vanquished." The dipshit didn't even bother to do more than a half-assed job of disguising the WHOIS info, and it was sniffed out almost immediately after he linked to it on Twitter. About 30 seconds' worth of time on a domain registrar and it became quite obvious who the owner and operator of the website was.
Regarding the buzzer, there's some natural fuzziness to that aspect of the gameplay. A staffer enables a light which signals to the players that the question has been read and they are free to buzz in, however, Ken Jennings has always maintained that the key to his success was getting to know Trebek's cadence, so he could buzz in right at the moment that Trebek was done reading the clue. If someone buzzes in prematurely, they eat a .25-second penalty, which effectively prohibits them from answering the question if someone else has the answer. It's a very, very sensitive aspect of gameplay, and I have no doubt that all of the guest hosts last year having different cadences and rhythms to their speaking styles made it incredibly difficult to practice, especially because people didn't know who'd be hosting when their taping day(s) came up on the calendar.
That being said, Bialik is somehow getting even worse as a host and I really don't understand why Sony is so hellbent on giving her the permanent job. (I don't think Jennings has been particularly great, either, but his current run as host has been significantly better than his initial six-week run after Trebek passed in 2020.)
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I refuse to watch an episode hosted by Bialik, I just can't respect a person who appears in commercials tricking the elderly into buying fake medicine.
I can't disagree with you there. There's something incredibly foul about a show that is, ostensibly, about the celebration of knowledge being hosted by someone who has a legitimate Ph.D. in neuroscience, yet hawks snake-oil brain pills (to say nothing of Bialik's other abhorrent views).
Has anyone heard anything about why Bialik has been hosting this week rather than Jennings? The most I've seen was Jennings making a couple jokes about it on Twitter when people were surprised on Monday, but I haven't seen any kind of explanation. I expect it was probably as simple as "He took the day off, possibly for a holiday," but I'm surprised that it just happened out of nowhere, and doesn't fit with the prior arrangement that was announced with Jennings doing regular shows and Bialik doing tournaments.
I wouldn't be surprised if it were as simple an explanation as she was available to tape a day's worth of episodes in advance of doing the National College Championship tournament, which begins airing next week.
Variety had a total nothingburger of an article about it that almost felt like it was recycled from the earlier announcement back in December about them continuing to split hosting duties for the remainder of Season 38. (Notice the mention of Bialik's series Call Me Kat, which they mention "has been scheduled for a second season" ...that already aired. Her show is renewed for a third season.)
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As much as I love the show, I haven't watched it much after Alex passed. Bialik's okay, Jennings isn't anything but a stand in for someone who could be much better. If they can't find an actual charismatic host, hopefully one who doesn't make racist and sexist jokes, then perhaps it's time to scrap the show and let it rest a while.
Bialik is terrible (her pauses before stating whether an answer is correct or incorrect drive me nuts, as does her constant giggling), but Sony is utterly hellbent on having her because of her Q score or whatever.
Her hawking homeopathic brain pills and her abhorrent political beliefs just make her even more unpalatable to me.
Her hawking homeopathic brain pills and her abhorrent political beliefs just make her even more unpalatable to me.
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Oh yeah, I forgot about the fake brain pills. That's even worse.
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