I'll take Jeopardy! for $2000, Alex

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#ICanHitADraw
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It's about time the (arguably) best game show on TV has it's own thread. I don't know that there are a lot of fans of it here but I know of at least one (DawgDaddy) who watches it pretty regularly.

Mom had two rules for us after we moved out: Never call during a KU basketball game, and never call during Jeopardy! She wouldn't answer the phone so if you were dying, you would have to wait until later! They air two shows a day here: the current show and the show from one year ago. I watch it when I can, more during the winter (the off-season for golf) but lately have been recording it to watch late at night. I try to keep track of how many I get right. Sometimes I feel pretty smart, but more often it's on the other side! But if you get the Final Jeopardy! question right, it is a good day.

Here's the clips from yesterday's Jeopardy! April Fool's show. Took us to the second one while watching the show to figure out what they were doing. We both saw the first one and were like "what the hell". I am ashamed to admit I missed #3 completely.

https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/features/april-fools-10-tricks

I had all 10 clips in spoilers at first, but it took a while for the thread to load even on Google Fiber, so I took them out.
 
My and wife and I watch it every night and it's her favorite show. We saw the April's fool stuff yesterday as well. My wife swears that it looked like Tribeck was wearing shorts at one point, but I didn't see that.

I keep telling my wife she should go on the show. She always does well, but says that the test to get on is a lot tougher than the questions on the show.

Tribeck also cracks me up. He hates grandstanding by the contestants and I love when he condescendingly tells them an answer they got wrong, like it was so obvious. I suppose it is obvious when you have the answers in front of you.
 
A little inside baseball.

I lost on Jeopardy. In 1989. Not that I'm bitter, but are these merely coincidences? You decide:smirk:

I lost to a Canadian. Alex Trebek is Canadian, and in the intro he said how he wanted to see more Canadians on the show.

Said Canadian's mother was a librarian, and "Libraries" was not only a Double Jeopardy category, but also a Daily Double.

Final Jeopardy dealt with the Declaration of Independence. Again totally unfair, because statistically, Canadians know more about American History than Americans.

But I repeat - not bitter.

I hit a DD for Europe, and he asked me how much I wanted to wager on my knowledge of Europe. I wanted to say, "A lot less than I'd be willing to wager on YOUR knowledge of Europe," but I played it straight. And got it right.

Philly Golf Guy's wife is right. When I took the tests - three times - it was 50 questions, 13 minutes, and you had to write the answers, but not in the form of a question. A particularly easy one was "Like a Good Neighbor, they're there" but most of the questions are about as hard as the bottom two categories of the Double Jeopardy board. They are quiet about the passing score, but suggested it was somewhere around 40.

I took the test three times - in Boston, 7 of 50 passed. In NYC, 4 of 200 passed. In Pittsburgh, 11 of 100 passed.

I agree about Alex's on-screen attitude, BUT, the NYC test was brand new and he grabbed one and sat down along the edge of the room. As we sat there waiting for our tests to be graded, I heard one of the staff ask, "How'd you do Alex?" and he said, very matter-of-factly, "I missed four." Remember, 4 of 200 passed this test.

When you get to the show, everyone up there knows most of the answers, although I got what I would consider two bad boards for me, sort of like Weird Al's "This German baroness could suck the chrome off a bumper." You may notice how contestants may get streaky - they answer several in a row, then go quiet - and how contestants press their button multiple times like they are locked out. That's because they ARE locked out. There's a person up in the booth who is not supposed to activate the contestant buttons until Alex says the last syllable in the last word of the answer. If a contestant presses prematurely, (s)he is locked out for something like 0.8 seconds. So you're seeing two things, in my opinion. First, people repeatedly lock themselves out. You're under a lot of stress to get in, because you know the answer if you can just get in. Second, and this is purely my opinion - the booth person purposely changes the timing of the activation periodically if someone seem to have it timed. So if a contestant is sitting on the fastball, booth guy throws a couple of change-ups. They told us they do the activation delay because they found the scores are higher when they do it that way.
 
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Some cute tricks on the April Fool's episode. I liked Todd turning into Watson and Ken Jennings.

Congrats to Reframmellator for being on the show! I had a very similar experience in the live audition. I did my auditions in 2013 and 2015 in NYC and was far less nervous last year after going through it one time. Alex wasn't there since there are probably more auditions than in 1989, but one of the producers (who is absolutely awesome and her name slips my mind at the moment) is there, along with three other people last year. She remembered me from 2013 and from when I auditioned for Sports Jeopardy as well. Hopefully I'll be able to pass the 2017 online test and see if she remembers that I was on crutches last year!

They said that there was no strict passing score, but we tried to get them to give us an idea of what we would need to be considered, but their lips were sealed. I thought that the audition test seemed easier than the online test, but it just depends what questions are on the test. I think I got ~35 right last year and there were a few that I should have been able to answer, but couldn't get the answer out of my brain! There are about 400 contestants selected for the show from the 2,000 hopefuls who audition so the odds really aren't so bad once you get to that stage.

After the written test, they call the potential contestants up in groups of three to play a few minutes of a simulated game to practice selecting categories and using the signaling devices. Neither are particularly easy when you're standing in front of fifty people there so it must be amplified when you're in the studio. They asked questions based on the anecdotes that we listed on the audition form and we talked about ourselves like we would with Alex. This was much easier for me during my second audition as well.

I wasn't allowed to take the 2016 online test since we were still in the current show taping period, but that expires in April (iirc) so if I don't hear from the show in the next month, I'm 0-for-2 and just have to try again next January!
 
Missed out on Final Jeopardy because of a car chase. They got her just on time to miss the end of the show! Only got 9 right anyway.
 
I can't say I watch Jeopardy regularly but I do enjoy turning it on once in a while. I've known 2 guys to be on Jeopardy, one lost on his first try and the other guy I work with and won 6 or 7 times and was part of the tournament of champions.
 
Love me some celebrity jeopardy from SNL
 
I have always loved Jeopardy. I got invited to come take the test for College Week back in the day, and road tripped from Alabama to the UNC campus to do so. Didn't make it to the on stage audition portion (auditorium full of test takers and only 15 show contestants per year from multiple tryouts anyway), but it was a blast. I've done the online test a time or two, but haven't in a while.
 
Always good when you get Final Jeopardy right. Only 12 during the show.
 
I hate it when they pick for answers from a category in a row and then move to another, leaving that last one! #OCD

Got 20 right for Friday's show.
 
Every Friday night when I go to the cigar shop I hang out with my Dads old buddies who watch Jeopardy every Friday. They bet on the last question every time. Whoever gets the question right gets a free stoag.

Friday nights are the only time I watch it and I enjoy it
 
Watch jeopardy every night and have done so for probably 10 years now. That's a lot of trivia.


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Just seeing the thread, I missed the April 1st show as we ate out that night. Great thread, I never keep up with how many I answer but I do pretty well. I agree I love getting the final jeopardy question right and I seem to get it right more often than I miss. I really enjoy getting it right when all three contestants miss.
 
Just seeing the thread, I missed the April 1st show as we ate out that night. Great thread, I never keep up with how many I answer but I do pretty well. I agree I love getting the final jeopardy question right and I seem to get it right more often than I miss. I really enjoy getting it right when all three contestants miss.

Do you guys guess the answer to final before the answer is shown? We do that nightly. There's a bar down town that gives you free beer if you get it right ---> practice :)
 
Anyone watch tonight's episode? Best finish ever
 
Do you guys guess the answer to final before the answer is shown? We do that nightly. There's a bar down town that gives you free beer if you get it right ---> practice :)

Yep, I like final the best.
 
Wow. Today's was straight hard to watch. Power players weren't so powerful today. Hopefully none of those 3 ever get invited back if they do this again.
 
Old post, but . . . He was, but I am not sure why. People lose by a dollar all the time.

Simple math, you do what it takes to win.

Having said that, were I on and the person with the lead going into final I would bet the amount to let the next closer person tie me. I would think that were the tables turned the next day and they in first and I in second they might bet the same way so we could both continue to play and make money. I am surprised no players have ever thought of that, I am sure they are not allowed to talk with each other prior to taping.
 
Simple math, you do what it takes to win.

Having said that, were I on and the person with the lead going into final I would bet the amount to let the next closer person tie me. I would think that were the tables turned the next day and they in first and I in second they might bet the same way so we could both continue to play and make money. I am surprised no players have ever thought of that, I am sure they are not allowed to talk with each other prior to taping.
I thought Alex had mentioned a month or so ago, something about the possibility of a tie-breaker clue if that should happen. So I Googled and came up with this: https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/features/four-rare-jeopardy-scenarios

1. Tie Breakers
There can only be one winner. This has long been the case in tournament play and was recently adapted into regular game play. A tie at the end of Final Jeopardy! sends the game into a tie-breaker clue.
If there are two or three players tied for first place after each contestant unveils their Final Jeopardy! response, Alex will present one more category and read the clue. The clue has no dollar value and does not increase the player’s winnings. The first contestant to buzz in and respond correctly is declared the winner. Should all participating contestants fail to provide a correct response, this process is repeated until one contestant responds correctly. The most recent instance of this rare tie scenario happened in 2014 at the Teen Tournament. Watch below to see how it played out.



 
I thought Alex had mentioned a month or so ago, something about the possibility of a tie-breaker clue if that should happen. So I Googled and came up with this: https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/features/four-rare-jeopardy-scenarios

1. Tie Breakers
There can only be one winner. This has long been the case in tournament play and was recently adapted into regular game play. A tie at the end of Final Jeopardy! sends the game into a tie-breaker clue.
If there are two or three players tied for first place after each contestant unveils their Final Jeopardy! response, Alex will present one more category and read the clue. The clue has no dollar value and does not increase the player’s winnings. The first contestant to buzz in and respond correctly is declared the winner. Should all participating contestants fail to provide a correct response, this process is repeated until one contestant responds correctly. The most recent instance of this rare tie scenario happened in 2014 at the Teen Tournament. Watch below to see how it played out.





But if all 3 end with $0 then none of them win in non-tournaments. Saw it happen for the first time a couple months ago. Alex was like "well, sorry you all lose. we'll have 3 new contestants tomorrow."
 
Thanks Mike, I know in the past people would tie and come back so it makes sense that the producers would anticipate someone coming up with the little scheme I outlined above. I did not know about the tie rule being updated, I like this better.
 
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