When did "Jeopardy!" become "Jeopardy! for Dummies!" (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Stachniak]

I agree with Paul. That question was very easy.

And how convenient that on today, the day Ken loses is also Seinfeld DVD promo day.

 

[TonyD]

answers to questions are only easy if you know the answer.

i think this 75 show run was amazing.

i just cant imagine anyone else doing anything like this anytime soon.

even trebek was stunned.

on nightline tonight he even quoted the princess bride by saying "inconceivable", in the same tone as from the movie.

this was when he was relaying what he thought after jennings lost.

and what the bleep do seinfeld promos have to do with this?

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

On another note, he is donating a reported 10% to his church.

All Mormons are encouraged to give 10% of what they earn to the church. Nice to see he sticks to what he believes.
Anyway, congrats to Ken. An amazing accomplishment. 2700+ correct answers! You will surely find yourself as a question in the Trivial Pursuit 21st Century Edition.

 

[TonyD]

wo i forgot about the tournament of champions.

that will be fun to watch.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

And come on, if she was so sure that answer was H&R Block, why would she only wager a 1 dollar over Jennings 1,400. How clichéd is that - she beat him by 1 buck. Even Trebec said that she just wrote the answer down right away. If she was so sure - she could have just as well bet everything. Especially given the fact that Jennings is supposed to be this 'Super Genius', and if he would have known the answer he would have wagered more then 1 dollar over his earnings - thus destroying her total pot. She would have had a better chance doubling her winnings - if this was a fair fight. I'm sorry; you'll never make me believe this was some extraordinary run.

 

[Mike Slade]

if she was so sure that answer was H&R Block, why would she only wager a 1 dollar over Jennings 1,400.

You wager after the category is given, before the final answer. Also he finished somewhere in the $8000's I think so she won by more than a dollar.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

^I was refering to her inital victory. It seemes suspicious to me - but if they do bet before the category then fair enough.

I still dont believe any of it - but thats just me.

 

[ScottR]

It amazes me how people can be so envious of those who are smarter than themselves. In this country, we always say "you can be anything you want to be" , but when somebody goes out and does something great, he or she is beaten down for it! Ken Jennings is smart. Jeopardy is not rigged. The lesson from today was: No matter how smart you are, there is always someone who knows something you don't. But be proud of what you do know.........Good for you, Ken.

 

[TonyD]

why is there always someone who has to explain things that dont make sense to them with a conspiracy or it was rigged.

give the guy credit. he was good.

were is the reasoning behind, "I still dont believe any of it - but thats just me."

what gives you cause to be so suspicious.

 

[brentl]

He lost on purpose, I've got no doubt of that.

I'd be suprised if you could find 1 person that would say a courier company only works 4 months of the year.... "Sorry sir , we just shut down our courier business for 8 months so we won't be able to deliver your package till July. thank you for a=calling Fed ex!""

Brent

 

[JamieJ]

I'd be suprised if you could find 1 person that would say a courier company only works 4 months of the year....

Actually that wasn't the question. The question was actually "Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year?" So it was "seasonal workers" not the company as a whole. Either way, it was a pretty simple answer.

 

[AjayM]

I think he did it on purpose, or he lost the fire of doing it, or he just had an off day. He seemed very distracted during the game, he missed some questions that he should have known, such as the Daily Double about Bastogne (IMHO of course). Plus in the past 74 shows he's shown a great way to think through an answer, seasonal Fed-Ex workers aren't "white collar".

Either way it was a great run for him, and I can't imagine anybody coming close to his Jeopardy accomplishments for quite some time.

Andrew

 

[chuck_b]

A couple of points -

The Seinfeld issue is because Sony is distributing the DVD's and also owns Jeopardy. The timing of the Seinfeld catagory actually missed the DVD launch by a week. I don't blame them for hawking them.

Paul_Stach: You need to watch the show and understand how it works before doing an "Oliver Stone" on it. Betting is done before the answer is shown (only the catagory is known), so if there is less than a 50% spread between contestants, final Jeopardy is critical.

I thought Ken was a great contestant and finished fairly and as it was probably gonna happen anyway (someone creeps up at the end - not someone blowing him away).

 

[Martin Rendall]

Paul_Stach,

You do know that the Foo Fighters are a manufactured band, right? They have no actual talent themselves.

Martin.

 

[James T]

I honestly didn't believe this many people think there's a conspiracy behind his lost....

The Toronto Star put up an article today regarding a loss and what appears to be a joke conspiracy. Ken was in Ottawa for the weekend before the taping of the show with his wife's family. The article goes on to say that he never should have come to Canada and he looked tired throughout the show.

So if in doubt, blame Canada.

 

[Gregg Shiu]

Paul_Stach: You need to watch the show and understand how it works before doing an "Oliver Stone" on it. Betting is done before the answer is shown (only the catagory is known), so if there is less than a 50% spread between contestants, final Jeopardy is critical.

I'm definitely with Chuck on this one, sometimes you just gotta give the guy props. He's played and won pretty much 15 days of 5 back-to-back games. Not trying to turn this into the Paul-bashing show, since I do admit it seemed weird how he missed some simple questions. However, I saw him on Letterman, and he explained it pretty sincerely that he knew as soon as she started writing the answer down right away, it was game over for him since it's not his expertise. Also, I'm ready to watch today and see her lose.

 

[Dave Miller]

I can't believe I missed last night's show. If he went into final Jeopardy w/ $14K, then he had less than a banner night for him. In interviews, Ken has shared that his strategy has consistently been to ring in first and then figure out the question to the answer. So a lower night in the first two rounds and only being up by $4400 makes for a final round where he could realistically lose. He's been there before, but not often. I've seen several shows where he went into the final round ahead by $20K or more.

He lost on purpose, I've got no doubt of that.

Oliver Stone might be contacting you soon about writing the screenplay for his new movie "Any Given Game Show: The Real Story of Alexander and KWJ." At this point, it is just a working title. "Natural Merv Killers" has also been discussed as a possibility. When the call comes, make sure the line is secure.

Bravo, Ken! It has been fun watching you win. You are a machine.
Peace,
DM

 

[Mike Broadman]

Amazing and sad that people have to come up with some paranoid "explanations" for human accomplishment.

The guy won a lot 'cause he was good. He lost 'cause he f***ed up one day, as everyone does.

The Final Jeopardy question was a bit tricky, and you had to be on the ball and clever enough to think of taxes. I didn't, neither did Ken. Good for anyone who did, especially the contestant who beat him, but if you did, you don't have to be arrogant about it and assume it's so easy. I'm sure there have been plenty of questions you didn't get that others did, and they could claim it's "easy."

Ken got plenty of Final Jeopardy questions wrong. This was one of those times where it happened on a day where he also missed the Daily Doubles and another contestant got Final Jeopardy right. Given the long run, all three were bound to happen on the same day eventually, and it did last night.

 

[BobV]

I don't think anything is/was rigged on Jeopardy, but this I do believe... Ken lost on purpose. There is no way that Fed Ex was the right answer. Even I, who knows the answers to very few questions, knew that it had something to do with some kind of 'tax' company. "4 months" and "white collar" definitely threw anything like Fed Ex out the window. As well, I can't believe he didn't know Bastogne. If I know those answers, Ken does.
I am not putting him down at all, I'm giving him 'props'. I also thought that recently he's looked tired of it and not
'into' it. It seemed to me like he wanted it done, he wanted to go home. The only way he could get off that show was to do it himself.
Good job Ken.

 

[chuck_b]

To keep this conspiracy thing alive....
I do not believe that Ken threw the contest for one second.
He rarely got into trouble in final jeopardy in 74 showings and had just blown two daily doubles to the tune of $10K, which clearly rattled him. The final answer was not that easy - those who got it probably did not also get all the other ones Ken got right. I was surprised at his missing the Patton daily double, but the french hat one seemed really obscure.
I also think if Ken was to lose on purpose, he would have telegraphed it in advance and also would probably not lose to a competitor who really only bested him on one answer (a key one nonetheless) and was not as good as others who fell to him earlier. Throughout the first round, I thought there was no way this was the losing night. The DD's in the DJ round placed him in a have-to-win position and his missing a "easy" question was not that surprising - he easily got the hard ones ;-)