Jeopardy Greatest of All Time Special

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bookworm
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Jeopardy Greatest of All Time Special

Post by bookworm »

In January Jeopardy will be airing a special event called The Greatest of All Time featuring a series of matches between Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhauer. If you're any level of a Jeopardy fan this is must see tv!

Unlike past tournaments, which have run as part of the normal episode cycle, this is a separate event airing in prime time for an unknown number of nights like a sports series. It's a really unique format for the show too; it will be very interesting to watch just as an event, let alone because of who is participating.


Speaking of James by the way, was anyone watching that ridiculous run he had? I meant to post about it since I've made threads on other major Jeopardy headlines in the past and that definitely deserved one, but I was kind of at a loss on how to even bring up the subject because it was so unfathomably beyond anything ever experienced in the show's history.
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Post by Monty_Whittaker »

I watched the Film Theory on James' run and how they tried to sabotage him. It was.... Interesting to say the least
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Post by bookworm »

Monty_Whittaker wrote:I watched the Film Theory on James' run and how they tried to sabotage him. It was.... Interesting to say the least
It's interesting, but it's also definitely not accurate. The stats are, but not the conclusion. Standards and Practices would never allow intentionally adjusting the game to influence the outcome. Yes the one he finally lost was different than the others, but not because it was rigged that's just how the board came together that day, plus he finally faced someone whose knowledge base and play style were a perfect counter to his. Emma's win was not a conspiracy or a fluke. If there were doubts about that from their original game they were silenced after their rematch in the Tournament of Champions. He was very close to losing a couple other times in his run before that too; he wasn't invincible it just took the perfect combination of game board and competitor to take him down and he eventually faced that.

If the show were rigging things to force a determined outcome they wouldn't have kicked James out, they would have done the exact opposite. They were absolutely loving his run, it brought the show publicity and mainstream viewership it had never seen before. They would want him to stay on as long as possible, certainly at least until he passed Ken's records.
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Post by Calhoun07 »

Monty_Whittaker wrote:I watched the Film Theory on James' run and how they tried to sabotage him. It was.... Interesting to say the least
I watched the same series and think it was really reaching.

His luck just ran out. His strategy required him to get the Daily Doubles to get far ahead of his opponents. There were a handful of other games he came close to losing when he didn't get all the Daily Doubles. It was clear that was going to be what defeated him. That was his kryptonite.

It wasn't deliberately set up and he didn't throw the game because he was done with it. It was just the luck of the draw on who got to the Daily Doubles first.
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Post by Catspaw »

I don't watch a lot of Jeopardy, but because of this thread, when I noticed that the special was on last night, I watched it. It was amazing! It's crazy how fast those guys are. There were a few errors, but a lot more times where multiple people wanted to say the answer. I'm planning to keep watching tonight! (Well, I'm recording it. I might not actually watch it tonight.) ;)
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Post by Petrichor »

This has been fun to watch! I was ready to turn the TV off after the first game last night... I didn't realize they would be playing two games per night. Glad I didn't miss the second one!

I think it's interesting how well-matched they are (for the most part). I thought James would crush the other two since he's fresh off his winning streak, but they're definitely playing some very close games! Ken is clearly not comfortable placing the large bets like James, but he's still playing quite competitively.
Since Ken and James have each won one match, what will happen if Brad wins tomorrow? :-k
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Post by bookworm »

Petrichor wrote:
Since Ken and James have each won one match, what will happen if Brad wins tomorrow? :-k
The same thing happens regardless of who wins today: they keep playing next week. This goes until someone wins three matches.
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Post by Petrichor »

bookworm wrote:
Petrichor wrote:
Since Ken and James have each won one match, what will happen if Brad wins tomorrow? :-k
The same thing happens regardless of who wins today: they keep playing next week. This goes until someone wins three matches.
Ahhh, okay, I had misunderstood. I thought they were only playing three matches total. This is going to be much longer than I originally thought.
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Post by Catspaw »

It is so amazing watching the three of them play! There are a few questions that I know the answer to, others that I think I would get if I had a minute instead of a few seconds, and way more than I have absolutely no idea! It's crazy the quantity and breadth of info these three guys know. :mad:
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Post by bookworm »

It's been very fun to watch!
No match tonight, it continues next Tuesday.

This isn't a confirmed spoiler, it's just some speculation I've seen, but it could become one so I'll tag it out of abundance of caution:
There was originally an episode scheduled for tonight, then it would resume next Tuesday through Thursday as long as needed, but then they dropped this Friday and added next Friday as an if-needed night instead. This led some to suspect, before the series started airing, that it had ended up only lasting for four matches so they made this change to make it still span two weeks. Now that we're seeing how it plays out that scenario is indeed a possibility. Does Ken end it next match?
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Post by Catspaw »

Very interesting speculation! That seems quite plausible. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
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Post by Petrichor »

:mad:

I'm so glad I got to see this unfold on TV. I remember watching Ken's initial run all those years ago, but somehow the date he was leaving the show was leaked and I was really bummed watching it. I definitely wasn't expecting Ken to win, but he surprised me. Yay! What an exciting moment. \:D/

This was also kind of bittersweet, since, as Alex noted, these contestants probably won't return to Jeopardy again. I also have to wonder how much longer Alex will be hosting the show.

All in all, a fantastic tournament!
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Post by bookworm »

What a performance!
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Post by Catspaw »

Amazing! I was choosing to limit my media last week and didn't actually watch the winning match until today (I had recorded it) and it was very impressive.
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