Anyone been watching Jeopardy lately?

[RobertSeattle]

Ken Jennings must be the smarted MORMON - EVER.

Tom Walsh's television, the one on which he watches marathon episodes of "Jeopardy!" shows, is almost all rabbit ears and very little screen. It doesn't look like the television of a "Jeopardy!" record-holder, which he was until a few weeks ago. His spartanly furnished townhouse on Capitol Hill doesn't seem like the den of a game show titan who earlier this year won more prize money in regular season play than anyone else in the history of the show.

But that's not what Walsh is thinking about as he sits watching the tapes on which a 30-year-old trivia wunderkind from Utah surpasses his record. Then doubles it. Then triples it.

Walsh, 39, ticks up the volume on the tiny set using a remote control that has been imbedded into a small stuffed football, and watches the screen. For the 17th time he watches Ken Jennings win

More...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10774-2004Jun27.html

(He won last night so it's 18 wins in a row)

[sniffa]

1. it's the "aLex & ken show"

i'm rooting for ken. every day we can't miss the show now. he's (cheney expLetive) incredibLe!!!

[Bertha Venation]

2. yeah, and I kinda wish he'd retire

I have this theory that Mormons all have big, perfect teeth. Look at the Osmonds. ;) I dated an ex-Mormon, and that woman had teeth like Mah Jongg tiles. I can't look at Ken anymore when he smiles.

They're gonna call me up one day, the folks at Jeopardy!, and I don't want them to do so until Ken Jennings is done.

[classof56]

3. Sorry, but...

I'm starting to find it a bit boring. However, I understand Ken's streak will be over soon, and at least Jeopardy is not a rerun!

Always glad, though, to see young people with so much knowledge in such depth and breadth. Good for Ken.

[sniffa]

5. you mean he Loses!?

noooo. how do you know this? i want him to win forever.

[Wilber_Stool]

4. I don't think it's because he knows so much,

it's because he's so poised and comfortable he doesn't get flustered like I would.

[sbj405]

6. Am I the only one that's thought of "Quiz Show"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110932/

Movie about game shows being rigged. I hope not. It's definitely brought Jeopardy a lot of press though.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

13. I would say its getting a bit suspect.

Not to take anything away from the guy's intellect, but 18 in a row? Is there a Mr. Van Doren in the house?

[amazona]

7. quit because i don't like unfairness

I watched a few episodes. He put himself forward as a "software engineer." Turns out...he writes questions for quiz shows.

There is no fun and no contest in watching a professional pitted against amateurs. I wouldn't want to watch a pro team against my local high school football team either.

I guess I just don't like unfairness. And it really made me mad that one of the episodes I watched, they asked him a question about Brigham Young -- the dude went to Brigham Young University.

It's just a fake. I've lost all respect for the show.

[lazarus]

8. two problems

Actually, three:

One, how do you know he writes questions for quiz shows? You do realise that's a specific job for a specific show, right?

Two, it's not fake. The 5 day limit has been lifted, and someone's going crazy with it. The odds are very good that, had there not been a 5 day limit all along, we would have had several of these in the past.

Three, the Brigham Young question: I used to participate in College Bowl. I remember taking on BYU in one tournament. I beat them on two bible questions and a specific question about the Mormon religion.

It ain't what ya know, it's how fast you know it. This guy's got his timing down, that's all. I've watched 4 or 5 of his shows, and missed a total of 6 questions so far. If I was competing, would I beat him? I dunno, it depends on the timing of the buzzer. In Jeopardy, if you hit the buzzer before Alex finishes reading it, you're locked out. So you have to buzz in at exactly the right time.

This is probably someone who knows a good deal of trivia (lots of us out here) and who also has impeccable timing.

[amazona]

9. he said he wrote questions for prep quiz bowl or something of that sort

I'll assume if he claimed to write quiz questions then it's true, since there is nothing attractive about putting people without such experience against a person w/ this experience.

To me it's fake. The dude is dumb, he didn't even get the Warren Buffet question. For me it just doesn't pass the smell test. There is no enjoyment in watching one person dominate the buzzer. When you see that someone hits the buzzer without waiting to see if they know the answer to the question, you've got to hit the buzzer too. I don't know why people just sit there and don't figure it out, but it doesn't look or feel like a contest. It just seems like a set-up. They're supposed to be all locked out of hitting the buzzer before the question is read, not just two of the three locked out. One of the programs I watched, not once but several times he admitted he didn't know the answer to the question -- but he had hit the buzzer anyway. Why wouldn't this be a clue to the other players that they must be aggressive players also? Yet they seem to just sit there.

I don't know, I may be wrong but I'm uncomfortable with it and I'm not watching it any more. It has spoiled the program for me, frankly. It just seems too conveniently a way to get more publicity for Jeopardy by having someone rack up a huge prize like on competing shows like Millionaire. In any sport I only want to see contests, I don't want to see *** kickings, call me spoiled, I guess.

[lazarus]

10. for prep quiz bowl?

Heck, I wrote questions for prep quiz bowl. It's not that big a deal.

Here's a clue: Once, on the way to a tournament, I picked up a book called, "The NY Public Library Book of Answers." This was a list of questions and answers that the research people at the NYPL got the most.

At least 2/3 of them were asked in the tournament. Just blind luck? I dunno.

To clue you in to how this sort of thing works, consider this. I answered one question in four words. (In College Bowl, you can interrupt the question.) "This deck of cards..." I immediately buzzed in and said Tarot. Yeah, obvious answer. How about answering it that fast? Just happened.

In another round, I got 17 out of 25 toss ups. That's a total of 8 people competing, and I got 17 out of 25. But I missed a question about Barney that started out, "he's big, he's purple, he's on PBS." Does that make me an idiot? Or is it possible it was just a hole in my knowledge?

As for admitting he didn't know the answer, you're right. It's aggressive play. If the other players won't go for it, it's not his fault.

Don't blame him or the show, blame the other contestants. FWIW, a player took him right to the edge a few days ago by pulling a true daily double right before the end of double Jeopardy. Missed winning by a couple of questions. That was a good one.

And if you think they're going to take a chance on faking it, when the ratings for Jeopardy are always good, and lawyers are all over these game shows anyway, well, okay. But my foil hat conspiracy stuff is saved for the Bush administration.

[amazona]

12. heck you're probably right

Unfortunately even if the dofus-ness of the other players is entirely innocent, it is still spoiled for me. I gotta see a contest not people sitting on their hands. :-(

Maybe I'll give it another try in a couple of days. Right now I'm totally disgusted with it.

On Edit-- I think MacDonald's has way more lawyers than Jeopardy and they got scammed in one of their games for millions back in the late 1990s or early 2000. Lawyers are no proof of anything, all they can do is fight back after a game has been ripped off...if they even know about a rip-off.

[lazarus]

14. about McD's

yeah, they got scammed, but that was a strictly internal fraud case, not a gameshow fixing thing.

[Bill McBlueState]

11. All of us in the northeast

Are going to start wearing t-shirts and ballcaps that say "Ken Sucks!"

It's kinda what we do when confronted with greatness...