movieguru

Yeah, she was a cutie!!

movieguru

Is there a chart that has the pre Trebek eras? They likely don't have all the episodes saved from those days, but I wonder if the winning scores and data was saved from those times. I'm not sure if the show rules were the same back then though. They may not have had the same amount of daily doubles in both segments or the same rules for Final Jeopardy, etc. I know their dollar values were much less, maybe starting out at $10 for the top questions/answers.

JackoOnHisBacko

Wow, James isn't in 1st place after the first round today...
He's back in 1st place after the Double Jeopardy round, but it isn't a runaway...
Well, he still won, but that is the best challenge he has faced yet.

Bill Needle

I've only spot-checked in on his run. Is this the first time he had to get Final Jeopardy correct in order to win?

JackoOnHisBacko

I don't know the answer to that. It has been a long time, at least.

Mabuse

Nick Danger

We're rooting for him to lose. That was an exciting game.

I wonder if the producers will call back people for a consolation round. Two of the people that I watched who James had trouble beating were extremely good.

Shannon Nutt

That guy that almost beat him looked like a Bond villain.

joltman

I've never seen anything for pre-Trebek, I don't know if that much data is available for those episodes.

I'm pretty sure this was the third time. The best known one was where Adam Levin got second place with $54,000.

When they panned to James during Final Jeopardy he looked like he was thinking about it which made me unsure if he was going to get it. I wonder if he purposely does that to make people think he might get it wrong.

mphtrilogy

great game, the dude on the right played an almost perfect game , found the daily double first, doubled it, had the lead at the halfway-mark, but went a tad cold when James nailed the geo catgegories... would have been interesting if the final question wasn't a layup

Nick Danger

When I watch James interact with the other contestants, it makes me think that he does his best to make the show more entertaining. I think he's aware that the business model of Jeopardy is to sell advertising time. He does his bit to help out.

Whether he's doing it out of kindness in return to the people who are giving him money, or whether it's naked self-interest to make the producers want to keep him around longer, it's a sensible thing to do. I'm sure he tips well, too.

fujishig

Yeah, I definitely think he put on a show for Final, the only thing that makes me doubt that is his monotone delivery when he picks which isn't very showman-like.

RichC2

I assume the producers want him there as long as possible -- at least until he beats Jennings. When they took a break to do the Teachers' special, the shows ratings dipped 27%.

Goat3001

I listened to a podcast recently that interviewed James. He says that the Jeopardy producers tell people to have fun with it and it seems that he's getting more comfortable everyday being on the show. So it seems he's just loosening up a bit. I also don't think he needs to do any of it to get the producers to keep him around longer. He's already a lock for the next Tournament of Champions and if they ever try to do a special episode (like Watson), James will be their first call.

Once the other guy got to the first DD in Double Jeopardy and got it right, I thought James was done. Then he went on an impressive run, including the second DD.

Now that people have caught on to his game more, I think we'll see a lot more closer games. No more betting $2000 on Daily Doubles - only way to win now is to hunt for it and bet big.

wishbone

I think James is being a gracious winner. He's laughed or made quick comments when other players tell their intro stories or like this week commented, "Canada schools are doing their job," when Mary got Virginia right on Final Jeopardy. His game play is intimidating enough so why not have some levity on the show.

Jeremy517

I don't think so. When he isn't 100% sure of a FJ answer, he writes down what he thinks and then spends the rest of the time thinking of other possibilities.

PhantomStranger

He's definitely not unbeatable but you have to come in heavily prepared with trivia knowledge and get lucky by beating him to the daily doubles. James looked a little lost in a couple of those categories yesterday. The daily doubles are what you have to immediately target and keep away from James.

movieguru

He scored just over $130K today which is now the second highest one day score in Jeopardy history. He holds 15 of the top 19 one day scores.

OldBoy

I thought it was most that he broke his own today. Either way, I never watched jeopardy, but he makes it fun. And I get some too

Jeremy517

More than that. He has 18 of the top 20, and all of the top 15. Roger Craig has #16, Ken Jennings has #17, and James has the rest.

movieguru

He got $69,033 today. It was another runaway game for him. The other guy had about $9800 and the woman that dressed like the Joker only had $2900 going into Final Jeopardy.

mhg83

I honestly think James survived the season. You know someone would've leaked that by now.

fujishig

Did anyone post the Planet Money podcast? the transcript is here:
https://www.npr.org/templates/transc...ryId=722198188

Kenny Malone is a relative of James (they share nieces, much to Kenny's chagrin) and the whole podcast is about Jeopardy champions and James's run. It goes into why he does the bottom of the board first, then fishes for the Daily Doubles once he has some money, bets it all, and keeps going, managing his risk. It also goes into how most contestants know the majority of the answers so a lot of it has to do with how you buzz in.

Nefarious

A lot of it has to do with the psychology of being risk-averse, especially when it comes to losing money. James' training as a professional gambler has him better suited for this style of play. Jennings was on record early that this has long been discussed as a strategy but that few people have the cojones to actually try it.

You've seen the few games where he's been truly challenged weren't because he lacked knowledge. Some other players took the full on risk because they knew it was do that or go home. Levin played lights out and just barely missed. I don't think James would want to play a set of 5 against him.

fujishig

Oh, that's definitely how he's racking up the money, with the psychology that having a greater than 50% chance to know the answer on an even bet is incredible odds, especially early on when you can still recover from being wiped out, and how psychologically damaging having a huge lead is to the other contestants. When he isn't able to get that first daily double he can't escalate so quickly even if he wipes out the board, and that makes a huge difference.

Has he ever missed out on all three before (like not even getting them as opposed to answering incorrectly)?