Jeopardy watch....

[75Crazie]

I was rather upset, I thought her answer was relatively clear and complete; it was obvious she came up with the correct answer, and got it in writing in time. And, after a few months of Mayim, I think my only significant criticism of her is that she does not provide clear explanations when they are called for. Alex would have expounded on why the answer (question, actually) was not accepted.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I was rather upset, I thought her answer was relatively clear and complete; it was obvious she came up with the correct answer, and got it in writing in time. And, after a few months of Mayim, I think my only significant criticism of her is that she does not provide clear explanations when they are called for. Alex would have expounded on why the answer (question, actually) was not accepted.

Thanks for confirming. Given the nature of the question, just writing "Harriet" would almost have been sufficient - if you say the name "Harriet," Tubman is the first thing that comes to mind. Given that she had limited time, I wonder if they would have ruled her writing only "Tubman" to be OK as they usually verbally accept last name answers unless it is something like "Smith"?

I wonder if they stopped the game to have a ruling on it before Mayim announced the outcome. The woman who lost seemed surprisingly calm. I would have raised heck.

[75Crazie]

I wonder if they stopped the game to have a ruling on it before Mayim announced the outcome. The woman who lost seemed surprisingly calm. I would have raised heck.

That quite possibly did happen, but in that case ... why not coach Mayim to give a concise explanation to the TV audience? I would have to think Alex would have felt compelled to provide one, as he often did.

[Bluedog]

Thanks for confirming. Given the nature of the question, just writing "Harriet" would almost have been sufficient - if you say the name "Harriet," Tubman is the first thing that comes to mind. Given that she had limited time, I wonder if they would have ruled her writing only "Tubman" to be OK as they usually verbally accept last name answers unless it is something like "Smith"?

I wonder if they stopped the game to have a ruling on it before Mayim announced the outcome. The woman who lost seemed surprisingly calm. I would have raised heck.

Right, she should have just written "Tubman." They will accept it usually unless it's like a president and someone write "Roosevelt" or something along those lines. I will say I see no way that handwriting says "Tubman" so maybe she intentionally had poor handwriting because she wasn't sure the ending? Hard to believe perhaps, but possible...more likely she scribbled as ran out of time. Yes, I'd assume judges took a look to assess beforehand. They let you misspell, but it should be phonetically correct with the right number of syllables. I get why they didn't accept her response as I see no way how she formed the correct pronunciation for Tubman with what she wrote down.

[pfrduke]

Right, she should have just written "Tubman." They will accept it usually unless it's like a president and someone write "Roosevelt" or something along those lines. I will say I see no way that handwriting says "Tubman" so maybe she intentionally had poor handwriting because she wasn't sure the ending? Hard to believe perhaps, but possible...more likely she scribbled as ran out of time. Yes, I'd assume judges took a look to assess beforehand. They let you misspell, but it should be phonetically correct with the right number of syllables. I get why they didn't accept her response as I see no way how she formed the correct pronunciation for Tubman with what she wrote down.

Maybe this is just speaking as someone with really bad handwriting, but having not watched the episode first and so not knowing the correct response when looking at the picture linked in BlueDevil2K’s post, when I saw the picture I said to myself “that looks like Harriet Tubman.”

[75Crazie]

Maybe this is just speaking as someone with really bad handwriting, but having not watched the episode first and so not knowing the correct response when looking at the picture linked in BlueDevil2K’s post, when I saw the picture I said to myself “that looks like Harriet Tubman.”

Ditto. I've seen some fairly bad handwriting accepted in some past episodes, and still think this one looks acceptable to me.

[Phredd3]

I also thought it was clear who she meant. I couldn't quite make out her writing, nor did I go back and check the math.

ETA: https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/u...0741102681.jpg

I didn't watch Jeopardy and have no idea what the category was, but the answer written there is obviously meant to be "Harriet Tubman". Did they DQ her because the first name was misspelled (looks like a double "t" to me)?

Edit: I see from later that they don't DQ for misspellings, so she got jobbed. I disagree with Bluedog. I think she had terrible handwriting, but the letters are clear enough to me. People aren't going to have immaculate handwriting on the screens they use.

[Indoor66]

I didn't watch Jeopardy and have no idea what the category was, but the answer written there is obviously meant to be "Harriet Tubman". Did they DQ her because the first name was misspelled (looks like a double "t" to me)?

I don't believe that accurate spelling is a requirement in Final answers. If the word is discernable and relates to the correct answer, it has been accepted. The host blew it.

[Bluedog]

I'm okay with people disagreeing. I expect if she had ended the word with a stroke to the bottom right to signify an "n" they may have given her the benefit of the doubt. But she ended her stroke in the upper left behind where the letter began indicating she probably ran out of time. Similar to if somebody gives the correct response but after the buzzer; it's then not accepted as a correct response even though the person knew the right response. There's a time element as well.

The response has to do more than "relate" the correct one. It doesn't have to be spelled correctly but should be phonetically the same and have the same number of syllables. I've seen things getting struck down because of an "s" at the end or something like that (e.g. if someone said "John Hopkins" instead of "Johns Hopkins" for the institution, I imagine that would not be acceptable).

[killerleft]

I don't believe that accurate spelling is a requirement in Final answers. If the word is discernable and relates to the correct answer, it has been accepted. The host blew it.

I'm not a big fan of Mayim Bialik, but I'm pretty sure she has no input on any rules decisions. My guess is that the player didn't finish writing before time ran out. Bialik seemed to indicate this was the reason, but didn't really do a good job of it.

[johnb]

It does seem they go with last names, but if you get the wrong first name with the correct last name, it’s wrong (so they might ding you for saying John Hopkins, but you’d probably get credit for “Hopkins”). So there’s no reason to include the 1st name unless you’re sure. So a clear Tubman >> a muddled full name. I’m not sure how that would work in final jeopardy, but in the rest of the game, if they want more, they’ll ask.

I also have bad hand writing, and her answer seemed clear to me. She did have the pen in her hand and wrote something after the music went off. I agree they should have explained it and agree that the last answer was probably a re-do after the “judges” had a chance to mull it over. Neither the host nor contestant hesitated or looked at all surprised that the question was disallowed.

Jeopardy has a great product, but the people in charge don’t seem all that great.

[rsvman]

It does seem they go with last names, but if you get the wrong first name with the correct last name, it’s wrong (so they might ding you for saying John Hopkins, but you’d probably get credit for “Hopkins”). So there’s no reason to include the 1st name unless you’re sure. So a clear Tubman >> a muddled full name. I’m not sure how that would work in final jeopardy, but in the rest of the game, if they want more, they’ll ask.

I also have bad hand writing, and her answer seemed clear to me. She did have the pen in her hand and wrote something after the music went off. I agree they should have explained it and agree that the last answer was probably a re-do after the “judges” had a chance to mull it over. Neither the host nor contestant hesitated or looked at all surprised that the question was disallowed.

Jeopardy has a great product, but the people in charge don’t seem all that great.

Agree with this. I was watching the episode when my feed went wonky so I didn't get to see the end, but anybody who is a contestant on Jeopardy has presumably watched the show a bit, in which case they should know that last names are the key. So, if she was struggling to remember a name during the time allotted, and as the music is about to end remembers the name Harriet Tubman, she should have written "Who is Tubman" and omitted Harriet to save time. 99% sure they would have accepted Tubman without the Harriet.

[budwom]

do they (or can't they) just render the pens inoperable when time is up? Seems pretty easy to do.

[aimo]

Whenever Bialik says "Daily Double!!!" am I the only one who thinks of Babu Genie?!?

babu.jpg

[rsvman]

Whenever Bialik says "Daily Double!!!" am I the only one who thinks of Babu Genie?!?

babu.jpg

Prolly.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

do they (or can't they) just render the pens inoperable when time is up? Seems pretty easy to do.

Mrs. CNC was on Jeopardy about 20 years ago (before I knew her) and said she thinks the screen shuts off but she wasn’t sure. Agreed that it shouldn’t be hard to do.

[aimo]

Prolly.

Apparently. I will go away now. Just like how I learned to stop sharing my dreams. Freaked too many people out.

[brevity]

ETA: https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/u...0741102681.jpg

Here is that image:

jeopardytubman.jpg

I believe the pen does cut off in time. As you watch the episode, you can tell that Sadie is still attempting to write when the time has run out, and puts down her pen a few seconds later. I'm sure the judges can view her screen from another angle when they make their ruling. Sadie seems abnormally calm after their decision, but the reactions of Molly and Megan seem unedited and genuine.

Mayim Bialik absolutely should provide an explanation to the viewer, but I get the feeling that she has been coached by the producers to get through an episode as quickly as possible. Even the contestant interviews seem shorter. Maybe the show is trying to squeeze out more ad revenue?

Other thoughts:

1. Contestants are told the format of their response (What is, who is, where is) before they even see the clue, and are allowed to write that out in advance. So Sadie doesn't lose any of her 30 seconds there.

2. "Who is Tubman?" is absolutely acceptable.

3. It's darkly amusing that Sadie's extraneous T in the extraneous first name ended up costing her the required N in the required last name.

4. Looks like Sadie crossed out an H and an S first. Maybe she thought of Harriet Beecher Stowe? And maybe she still hadn't decided on a last name yet.

5. Earlier in the episode, Sadie gave responses of both first and last names and last names only. In the Pop Rocks category, for example, she said "Who is Kurt Cobain?" and "Who is Steven Tyler?" before "Who is Harrison?" for George Harrison. All were correct.

[Skydog]

I don't think the last name clearly says Tubman as some of you are claiming. It looks like Tulney to me. I think we clearly see "Tubman" because we all already know that is the answer. But there is no way someone who didn't know the name already would read it that way.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Another weird episode tonight. Mayim cuts Megna off very quickly before she could correct herself and spit out the correct answer - I'm really glad the judges corrected that, and I wish Mayim would have more actively apologized. For whatever reason I was not a big fan of the woman in the middle so I was hoping she wouldn't make final Jeopardy after betting so big on the Daily Double - I believe it was a $2,000 question so she should have known it would be hard.

It was a clever bet by the winner as she assumed that the guy in the lead would bet enough to beat her assuming she got it right, and she also assumed the other woman would get it right. $401 has to be one of the lower win amounts, though I'm sure in the history of Jeopardy there has been lower. She keeps pulling out close ones - very different from the other recent 5-day champs who had a bunch of runaways.