Ken has grown on me over the past week or so. Now like him. A lot.
Tough following a Wooden, a Lombardi...or a K.
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Ken has grown on me over the past week or so. Now like him. A lot.
Tough following a Wooden, a Lombardi...or a K.
My rough eyeball test tells me that Amy is second on that list of winners in winnings per episode, behind Holzhauer and ahead of Amodio. She has benefited from getting way ahead early in most of her matches and then wagering a large, albeit safe, amount of money on daily doubles, which she invariably nails.
New year, new tables. Amy Schneider has moved up to 4th place on both lists, and it's a long way to 3rd. Thanks as always to The Jeopardy! Fan for keeping track of things.
Name Winnings Ken Jennings $2,522,700 James Holzhauer $2,464,216 Matt Amodio $1,519,601 Amy Schneider (active) $855,600 Jason Zuffranieri $534,496 David Madden $432,400 Julia Collins $429,100 Matt Jackson $413,612 Austin Rogers $413,000 Arthur Chu $298,200 Seth Wilson $267,002 Jonathan Fisher $248,100
Name Episodes Ken Jennings 75 Matt Amodio 39 James Holzhauer 33 Amy Schneider (active) 23 Julia Collins 21 David Madden 20 Jason Zuffranieri 20 Matt Jackson 14 Seth Wilson 13 Austin Rogers 13 Arthur Chu 12 Jonathan Fisher 12
Just as Matt Amodio deserves special credit for enduring a revolving door of hosts, I think Amy Schneider should be applauded for enduring the show writers' cruel, Grinch-like streak of recent Final Jeopardy! clues. Friday's episode was a prime example.
MUSIC LEGENDS: Of their July 1957 first meeting at a church fair, one of this pair recalled: “I was a fat schoolboy and… he was drunk”
Earlier in the thread I posted about a different Final Jeopardy! clue about music, where "Lady Marmalade" was a good fit but the correct response "Roxanne" was an even better fit. This time the wrong response that I (and all three contestants) came up was a much better fit than the actual response.
More in spoiler text:
Spoiler!
Thanks for sharing - I have been watching a fair amount but missed this one. The phrase "I was a fat schoolboy" sounds like the opening phrase of one of the most famous songs by the group who everyone guessed. That being said, I am pretty sure they are both Jewish, so they did not come to mind for me due to the church reference. Though I'm not sure who I would have guessed, so I might have ended up with the popular choice. I agree that it is very misleading.
I have enjoyed Amy's run and home she continues to succeed. Her knowledge across a very wide array of topics is very impressive, and she seems to be both enjoying herself and humble.
Does anyone have a hypothesis as to why we've seen 3 of the 4 longest streaks so recently? Has something changed? Yes, I recognize that it used to be that you could only be on 5 shows and then you'd be done, but that rule changed quite some time ago. Seems odd that we are suddenly getting 3 20+ game winners when it was so rare before.
I thought it was either Lennon and McCartney or Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. Given the emphasis on being drunk at presumably a young age, I went with Richards and Jagger.
I truly don't get it. I am finding the Schneider matches boring in the extreme, because there is just no drama at all in the games. I can only think of maybe two times where there was even a mathematical possibility of her losing in FJ, and those I think were still pretty lopsided. I have nothing against Amy, she is far more likable than Holzhauer or Amodio, but she just does not make for compelling TV for me.
I seem to be a contrarian in many things, and I guess I'll just count this as one of those things. When Jeopardy announced they were eliminating the 5-day appearance limit, I was not at all happy. My disapproval at the time has been borne out so far in the long run. I guess my enjoyment of Jeopardy is in sync with my enjoyment of sports in general: I dislike long-term domination and I like competitive action and revolving champions. Yankees, Dodgers, Cowboys, Celtics, Red Wings, Red Devils ... I have hated them all at various times. In this case, I don't really hate Amy ... I hate the system that has allowed her to showcase her talents for such a long time. (Holzhauer, on the other hand, ...)
But then again, I am a Pollyanna (as one such DBR poster called me some time ago, for wanting college sports to be more collegiate and less professional).
Amy is a little boring, but I enjoy seeing players at the top of their game. To me, Jennings, Rutter, Holzhauer, Amodio, and Schneider (and others) are so impressive.
I liked watching Matt. Amy is ok. Obviously very sharp and with no obvious weaknesses.
I don't think shutting people down at five days is the answer, but I do think stepping up the competition when somebody is on a long streak just makes sense, so there might be more drama.
As for why so many long-term winners, I don't really know. It takes either a really strong player or a fluke to dethrone a long-term champ. Maybe it is as simple as that. Strong players beget strong players, maybe?
Amy has a great twitter where she analyzes each of her games.
https://twitter.com/Jeopardamy/statu...12146666455040
I enjoy reading them almost as much as watching her play.
I hadn't considered Richards and Jagger, who are as much of a "pair" as Lennon and McCartney, and also a better fit for the clue.
Some people here answered it correctly. What was the rationale? Knew their personal history? Or, when in doubt, go with the Beatles?
Look, the clue is bad. Poor writing job from the Jeopardy! staff. If all three contestants come up with the same wrong answer, it should prompt some sort of internal review. Not with serious consequences or anything, just a "What happened here and how can we prevent it from happening again?" kind of meeting.
There were many, many "happy-to-be-here" contestants during Matt Amodio's run. They come in all shapes and sizes, but you know the type: never quite settle in, never risk much, never actually play the role of challenger. I'm sure these are all uniformly smart contestants, but the producers probably have a knack of knowing who will tend to wilt or shrink in a TV taping.
The producers are building toward the 30th Tournament of Champions, and in the absence of a permanent host, they will certainly hype it as the most massive ever. (The official site and The Jeopardy! Fan each have a ToC tracker.) It's crazy to see that a 6-time champion, two 5-time champions, and Steve Martin (sort of) will get none of the five top seeds on the opening week.
Also if a strong players is able to win a couple games everything should progressively get easier for them. They are surely more relaxed and most importantly they are perfecting their buzzer timing as they go along. Current champ Amy mentioned in her twitter feed (that rthomas linked above) that it was harder for later afternoon taping contestants because they all get their buzzer practice at the beginning of the day. If going a few hours w/o practice matters, you can imagine how much of an advantage it is for the longer term winners, who get several hours/day of real game practice as they go along their run.
I would like to simultaneously thank you and put you in my doghouse - I've just now started reading her past tweets and they make me both glad you pointed them out and mad you didn't tell me about her feed earlier!
But seriously she does a great job of talking about her thought processes and sources of information, the progression of each game and a bit about the other contestants, all the while being gracious and entertaining in the process. If she continues to win I will be definitely reading here tweets after each show. Thanks for the link!