Has James Holzhauer broken "Jeopardy!"?

Essentially, that’s it. You either know the trivia or you do not. He does. Both he and his wife seem to be highly intelligent.

 

It's still fun to discuss, though.

Some additional observations:
He is one of the few people I have seen on there who is strong in both older pop music (by that I mean classic rock/classic pop 1960-1990), and newer music (meaning 2010s pop acts). Usually someone is strong in one and not the other, depending on their age.

He is also very strong on actors and actresses.

He did not answer one Shakespeare question yesterday when they had a category in it. One of the challengers answered a lot of those, but there was one question that none of them rang in on. I'm not sure he even attempted to ring in on the ones that the challenger answered. So that appears to be a weakness.

 

What I like best about James is that he just comes in, and "does the job". No showboating, no "personality", no attempts at making himself a spectacle other than just kicking ass and winning. Past champions like Buzzy and Austin were a bit much to take. The show is about the trivia, not the contestants. Give me James and Ken Jennings ANY DAY.

 

It is currently the highest rated syndicated show (except for the Teachers Tourney ran for 2 weeeks.) “Judge” Judy is number 2. Which is appropriate.

Seriously though, who watches Judge Judy???!!! Makes me think of George Carlin: “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

This!

Overrated and gets way too much pub and airtime on Jeopardy.

 

You can say Shakespeare gets too much airtime, but given that it gets that much airtime, I'm not sure how a potential contestant (even Holzhauer) could regard it as overrated. Same thing can be said about the Bible. It'll be interesting to see what category he loses on, when that happens.
(Shakespeare isn't my strong suit, by the way -- my wife is much better at that than I am)

 

I've noticed that James is still doing the shout-outs thing. He's sneaking them into his answers. I find this to be annoying and obnoxious. I'm starting to really NOT like this guy.

And it has nothing to do with jealousy -- I don't have a problem with winning -- after all, I'm a Yankees fan.

 

I keep hoping that when he's far ahead toward the end of an episode he'll intentionally give some ridiculous answers.

"Isaiah prophesied peace when they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into these."
"James?"

"What are fidget spinners?"

 

yeah but how is he at rock and roll trivia! come at me bro!

 

I did touch on that (rock and roll) on my post earlier today (#252), which is above here.

He's pretty good, from what I have observed. Hits all the classic rock questions that I've seen.
A few weeks ago, I do remember seeing him miss (meaning ring in and guess incorrectly) a early to mid-'70s pop music question which you kind of had to be there (at the time) to know -- I don't think he's old enough to have been around at that time - I don't remember the specific question, but it was about a song which was not a #1 (I know the #1s backwards and forwards, and I imagine he does too).

That's another thing he's good at. He very rarely rings in and gives an incorrect answer.

 

The other thing he has in his favor, is not only is he brilliant, and have quick reflexes, he must have had a lot of time to prepare, being a "professional gambler".
It sounds like he bets on sports events. That can't be the type of job that requires a ton of hours.

 

yeah hes got the basic rock trivia down.....but I still think I could take him in a real music trivia game....well, pre-1990 music trivia lol, and probably old movies (literally everything else he would destroy me) was surprised he was stymied by Shakespeare. im torn between wanting an upset and enjoying the streak

 

I'll bet that today he's been reading through some Shakespeare Cliff's Notes!

 

Speaking of work demands, I don’t know where he lives but he must be missing a lot of work for the amount of shows he’s been on. Wonder how he kept his success under wraps from his employers.

 

He's a professional gambler. He ain't got no boss!

 

James took off an entire year from work preparing for this Jeopardy run from what I've heard. He's a professional competing against amateurs.

It's my understanding that Jeopardy's producers knew James was likely going to win a lot on the show. He's not new to trivia-type contests and has been begging to get on the show for a long time. It's not like he came out of nowhere.

Some suspect Jeopardy's producers finally let James on since Alex was diagnosed with cancer and wanted to do something special for his final shows. They've introduced an apex predator into an ecosystem with no natural competition.

 

What? You mean he took a year off of gambling and sports betting? What a sacrifice and all he has to show for it is a measly 2.5 million+ dollars.

Besides his knowledge base he’s quick with the buzzer. People who have been on the show say that buzzer is tricky and there is a real knack to using it. It’s not completely satisfying to see a guy who basically turned it into a full-time job winning so big, but he’s not really cheating. It’s compelling to see how long he can go, and who can finally beat him.

 

yeah I keep picking out a player and thinking they have a shot then midway thru double j theyre way behind. I'll know when I see the comments here exploding one night he got beat

 

That's why he's been able to stay there so long. He has no boss.
Ken Jennings, as I recall, was in a similar situation (I know he was a computer programmer, who might have been out of work at the time he was on Jeopardy).

Since it's only been these two who have been on for so long (30+ shows), I am convinced that some past champions may have "unintentionally intentionally" lost due to work demands. I know I'd probably be in that situation if I won several games in a row.

 

All this is news to me, but if it is true, I would not be surprised.

I would not want to be in line to be one of his opponents. It amazes me when James answers 10 questions in a row without the others even buzzing in. He must have that buzzer down very precisely. There is no way that the other contestants don't also know those answers. I think I am smart enough already that with proper preparation on subjects I am weak on, that I could be on that show. But there is such a thing as a younger person's reflexes that will trump an older person's. James has that down cold.

 

The game shows I remember from the 70s you won Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat...and you liked it!

 

I occasionally watch for this, since it was brought up.
On last night’s show (May 29) the middle contestant turned to shake hands with James, and James certainly DID shake hands with him. I’ll admit I haven’t seen it much, but I also rarely think to look for it...

 

Anyone think James Holzhauer has to ‘worry about work’ if he’s won over 2 million dollars? Come on.

“Jeopardy” is his job until (if) he loses. Then he can start his new job as an assistant GM with the baseball team of his choice.

 

Yeah he's pretty set after Jeopardy.

 

In reality, with his intelligence, he probably was anyway. His wife was on ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ before he ever showed his face. She might have wanted to be, but he is. They are. They probably were even before all of this. He’s extremely gifted.

 

[Moderator edit]
Last night, at the time Jeopardy! would have been on in the DC area, there was a tornado warning covering part of the viewing area (the far southern part, near Fredericksburg VA). So the local TV station's weather department was preempting the show. Apparantly the station was being lit up on social media about this -- so much so that several times, the weatherman tried to explain why they were preempting the show.

So they said they'd replay the show at 1:37 AM this morning (six hours later than it normally would air). I happened to be awake at that time. For whatever reason, it didn't start until 1:45 AM. But they did show the whole show. All I'll say, which I didn't find out until I watched the show, is that one of the challengers was from Washington DC. This might account for some of the social media stuff that was going on (there were probably watch parties etc.).

As far as the station is concerned, they did what they felt they had to do, and they have the power of the airwaves.
You'd wonder, though, that maybe they could have shown the show on a HD side channel for those who wished to watch it at the normal time.