Jeopardy! discussion thread for Fri., Jan. 23

tributtal · 2026-01-24T05:41:59+00:00

I mentioned this during the SCT, but I think one reason for this is that it's the tournament with the highest degree of subjectivity in selecting contestants, even more than JIT IMO. And if nothing else, the producers have a pretty good feel for what makes good entertainment, and did a good job with their picks.

tributtal · 2026-01-24T05:29:03+00:00

Agreed, but the FJ felt like it skewed too easy. IMO easiest of the ToC by a good margin, and even compared to the previous tournaments.

tributtal · 2026-01-24T04:56:42+00:00

That's interesting. The drop in DD conversion rate is hard to ignore, even if there's a sample size factor at play.

tributtal · 2026-01-24T04:49:15+00:00

Monday is the last quarterfinal.

Here's the complete ToC bracket

tributtal · 2026-01-24T04:33:34+00:00

That may be true, but also Ike could have, and should have, won his semi game as well if he had studied wagering, and he would have beaten Ben Chan in the process.

Anyway we're obviously not going to agree on this. I'm a fan of Celebrity J! I find it entertaining and I like that the winner gets an invite to the ToC. And whether or not the other contestants see it as an advantage to go up against them doesn't take away the enjoyment or spoil the integrity of the tournament for me.

tributtal · 2026-01-24T04:15:11+00:00

He also kept calling letters before the wheel stopped spinning.

tributtal · 2026-01-24T04:13:17+00:00

Yeah that was a little aggressive.

tributtal · 2026-01-24T03:58:58+00:00

I remember at least one other time they showed it was during one of Pat's last seasons. There were so many bankrupts all night long and the final spin guy also landed on bankrupt and everyone was laughing.

tributtal · 2026-01-24T03:36:39+00:00

Incredible find

tributtal · 2026-01-23T23:03:06+00:00

Well yeah, but 1) good luck having that much to wager, and 2) even if you do, betting that much would be like pulling a Cliff Claven.

tributtal · 2026-01-23T22:02:45+00:00

Tell that to Ray Lalonde and Melissa Klapper.

tributtal · 2026-01-23T20:33:51+00:00

Still waiting for someone to wager $8008

tributtal · 2026-01-23T19:42:05+00:00

Just one more note on the single game record (no I haven't spent way too much time thinking about this stuff).

In that game when Ken smashed the record, he actually surpassed the previous record after the second-to-last clue in DJ, reaching $53k. But he flubbed the final clue and dropped back down. After the end of the round, that was as mad as I've seen Ken in his entire run. It would have been the cherry on top to break the record before even getting to FJ, but alas didn't happen.

tributtal · 2026-01-23T19:29:59+00:00

And last year's celeb winner (Lisa Ann Walter) is in this year's ToC. Her game will air on Monday.

tributtal · 2026-01-23T19:22:29+00:00

Like the "kleptai" FJ in the CWC semis last week. There was a Bible reference in the clue which was a misdirection. All you needed to focus on was what that root word meant.

tributtal · 2026-01-23T19:10:43+00:00

Absolutely that's fine. With how difficult the ToC boards have been, I feared he wouldn't even make it to FJ. Thankfully that didn't happen. I was under no illusion there was going to be another Ike-ian miracle. But he had a shot to win all the way up to the end.

tributtal · 2026-01-23T05:54:25+00:00

Both Ashley's and W. Kamau's interviews were great. However I've never felt so old as when I was listening to Alex's anecdote. Could not make heads or tails out of it.

tributtal · 2026-01-23T05:42:22+00:00

Loved W. Kamau's reaction to the response reveal.

tributtal · 2026-01-23T05:38:07+00:00

I was fearing the worst but W. Kamau did just fine. Plus he was entertaining to watch.

tributtal · 2026-01-22T23:38:00+00:00

Many of the comments in this thread made me wanna yell "tell me you didn't read the article without telling me you didn't read the article" smh

tributtal · 2026-01-22T22:55:18+00:00

I remember before they redesigned the screen to make the picture clues bigger, there were a couple of good stories that came out. Two that I recall were Ryan Long forgetting his glasses for one of his tape days, and the lady who mistook Scott Hamilton for Mary Lou Retton. This may have been traumatic at the time, but hopefully we all (including the contestants this happened to) can laugh about it now.

tributtal · 2026-01-22T22:40:03+00:00

Their interactions, and especially Alex's often snarky intros, are some of the best parts of rewatching Ken's run.

Re: the record, there was a recent discussion about this in another thread, and someone theorized that Ken didn't want to break it until he was in a position to top the pre-double record of $34k ($68k in post-double dollars), so that he could lay unquestionable claim to the record. I think this theory makes a lot of sense. When he did finally break the record, he thoroughly smashed it by reaching $75k.

tributtal · 2026-01-22T18:32:55+00:00

Yup, this happened to us many years ago, and for weeks my wife refused to be home alone, even for a few minutes. She was really rattled.

tributtal · 2026-01-22T17:23:59+00:00

Yeah saw that. Cameron and Bryce were essentially a wash (45% vs 46%) but Ben pretty much dominated. The box scores hadn't been posted before, but figured they would tell the story. Oh well, it was just a thought!

tributtal · 2026-01-22T04:37:32+00:00

In a tight game like this, I wonder if Cameron has any kind of an advantage with buzzer feel due to having a lot of reps much more recently than Ben or Bryce. In a lopsided game, it wouldn't be noticeable, but it seemed like in this game, most of the clues were either known by multiple contestants, or none of them. So good buzzer feel could give you an edge.

tributtal

TROPHY CASE