Ringmaster

Something didn't feel right about James' performance. Anyone know what the Vegas odds were for James to win tonight? It would be interesting to see who bet against James in this episode.

andicus

I'm amazed that any betting is allowed on a pre-taped show, considering quite a few people know who's going to win each episode.

Deftones

And you felt a need to go into thread where there is the very possibility if being spoiled. Suck it up up cupcake.

joltman

A few thoughts on this game:

• It was the first taping day after Alex announced his condition, which he actually did in the middle of the previous taping day (for those that don't know, they tape all 5 Mon-Fri games in one day). This would explain why James' daughter had a card for him. I wonder if that threw James off his game, having a day to process that
• The fact is that while not as good as usual, James still played a very good game and only lost because of the daily doubles, he still got more correct answers than Emma
• Both of his competitors were good. It was a record number of correct responses as only one clue was not answered correctly (oddly enough a top row clue from the Double Jeopardy round)
• It's kind of crazy to think that even though James' run was so long, it finished filming before any of it aired (this episode was recorded on March 12, his first episode aired April 4)

joltman

Also I love the fact that James has a sense of humor about this. His twitter profile picture right now is a still from Weird Al's I Lost on Jeopardy video

wishbone

^ I saw James' high five to Emma Boettcher on the news this morning. A great run and a lot of fun to watch. I look forward to seeing James again on Tournament of Champions, All-Star Games, etc.

Goat3001

Apropos of nothing, I think it's great that with all the content out there and all the things that are vying for our time and money, that Jeopardy can still manage to capture the attention of the American populace. I know that James' run only made him a minor celebrity but everyone I talk to seems to not only know about him but have actively made time to try to watch him. I think that's awesome.

Deftones

He also tweeted out about inviting Drake to that taping, which was fantastic.

Red Dog

Gotta give her credit. James didn't lose it; she won it. Great timing on the buzzer to prevent him taking control of the board and finding the DDs. Doubled down on her first DD which put her into a lead and she held on. Answered everything she buzzed in on correctly. This was the recipe for an upset. So weird that it happened the game where he was poised to take the $ record.

And I have no problem with his FJ wager. He knew she was going to wager enough to put her ahead by $1 if he went all in, so no point in doing that. Just stay ahead of the 3rd place guy and hope she gets it wrong. Classic game theory. And at some of the conspiracy theories going around about him being tired and wanting to go home.

Unfortunately, all the scuttlebutt yesterday with the spoilers made it kind of a letdown. Then again in today's day and age, I'm surprised it stayed a secret this long.

Red Dog

That's awesome.

And I loved his tweet re: the conspiracy theory about him throwing it because he wants to go home to be with his daughter:

whotony

wishbone

I think his wife enjoyed doing that.

whotony

Michael Corvin

Going into Final Jeopardy, didn't Trebek say that between the three of them they only missed a single question? That's damn impressive.

Red Dog

Yep. I think the contestants that beat the players with the 3 or 4 highest Jeopardy win streaks lost in their subsequent match.

PhantomStranger

I don't think the producers wanted James to beat Ken Jennings's all-time money total, which he would have if he won on Monday.

Monday's contestants seem to have been hand-picked to topple James. Emma wrote her Masters' thesis on Jeopardy, having studied its questions. The other guy was apparently a Trivial Pursuit savant that had memorized the entire first edition of the game. And make no mistake, the third place guy answering enough questions kept the scores closer than normal.

James did have the bad luck of hitting the Daily Double on the first question.

Kdogg

PhantomStranger

The producers are legally allowed to pick whomever they wanted to challenge James. But this was not an ordinary panel of contestants. They loaded it up with two top-notch challengers to give James a real fight. The producers have a huge pool of applicants, they are not chosen at random.

This was always the scenario I envisioned James losing in, one with two strong opponents and them getting a little lucky by stealing the daily doubles.

Red Dog

Yeah, because he's only bringing them the highest ratings they've had in years. Give me a break.

Jeremy517

Remember the whole quiz show scandal? They're not allowed to rig shows against a contestant. And, like Red Dog pointed out, they obviously wouldn't want to in this case anyways.

The questions and answers are set months before taping, the daily doubles are placed months before taping, and the contestants are notified of when they're going to appear on the show a month in advance.

There is no conspiracy here. Why did he run into a very smart competitor? Because everyone on the show is smart, and many are extremely smart. The actual online tests are quite difficult. You can't fake your way on to the show.

fujishig

James didn't even get onto the show on the first try either.

I know they tape a bunch at once, are competitors able to watch the shows that haven't aired? Because it definitely seemed like the later contestants were onto his strategy.

Kdogg

PerryD

can't tell if it was posted already, but Jeopardy has posted the full episode online:

PhantomStranger

Jeopardy's producers have always manipulated the parameters for maximum entertainment. When Ken Jennings was on his run, they actually changed how new contestants were tested for the show by allowing them practice on Jeopardy's buzzer system, because they believed Ken's buzzer advantage was too much of an obstacle to overcome for regular challengers.

This is all public knowledge.

Jeremy517

Surely you can tell the difference between doing something that applies to all contestants to make it for fair for newcomers and rigging the show against one person?