Jeopardy! Who is the GOAT?

My wife was very impressed that I got Jeet Kune Do & no one on the show did. My shining moment.

 

If there is a perceived weakness to Jennings' voice, a voice coach may be the solution for him.

 

I also was not watching the show regularly when Brad was originally on in 2000 (I had a 70 mile one-way commute then),
but since he was originally a champion during the days of "5-day limits" for champions, I have a hard time seeing how he could have been that obnoxious then that people would remember that now.

Jennings and Holzhauer came on after the "5-day linit" was abolished. Jennings was on for 74 episodes, and Holzhauer for about 30 (more or less?) -- they had a lot more time to make (or not make) asses of themselves.

 

Brad Rutter has an "air" about him that I believe is what turns people who don't know him, against him. He seems to be looking down his nose at everyone, and his mannerisms are stiff. That makes him an easy personality to dislike, based on superficial fluff like that.

 

I looked at the overall stats between Ken Jennings and Holzhauer. Ken had a higher percentage of questions answered per show, but a lower batting average (Ken would miss a few, James Holzhauer missed very seldom.)

Ken's strategy is the better one. If you have a 50% chance to get a question, why not, you have nothing to lose. It's a coin flip. But also, if you do not answer questions, on average the other players are going to get a certain number of dollars per question.

Example. There are $100 worth of question. You buzz in every time first, get 40% of questions. So $40 right, $60 wrong, you are -$20. Your opponents buzz in half of the time on your misses and get them all right. (Assume there is only one opponent for the case of the example.) So there are $60 left, they get $30. They are ahead by $50.

But if you leave all of the questions unanswered, you are at $0. But opponents answered half of the $100 worth of questions, so they have $50. You are still behind $50. Plus, they have all of the daily doubles, where in the first example you will have a 40% shot because you at least have some questions right.

So I think Holzhauer's mistake was focusing too hard on a high question "batting average" instead of being willing to guess a little like Ken does.

 

I generally think Ken has a more exhaustive command of trivia than pretty much anyone else. James knows some subjects extremely well but it's clear there are gaps.

 

That’s your opinion. There are a lot of people who think the Earth is flat (it’s not, it’s an ellipsoid.) And many have the opinion that man has not walked on the moon.

First, it was invitation only. And as we all know, all reality shows are not “real.” The producers can do as they please. They tried to help Rutter by letting him hit all those DD’s. Heck, they even gave him the answers. But the dumba$$ couldn’t get the questions right.

This seemed to me as a validation to pass the torch should Jennings decide to host the show. And as said earlier, the only weakness to Jennings is his voice. However with coaching, could easily be overcome.

Holzhauer has his family and his freedom to be a pro gambler as his priorities. He would not make a good host, and as I have said before, he does not want to.

Rutter would run that show into the ground... as @HGN2001 said, Rutter has an “air” about him. To paraphrase Timothy Leary, people would “Tune in, Turn on, and Turn off, permanently.” Rutter is the GLOAT.

And speaking of which.....

 

We all know that Brad was the GLOAT in the Jeopardy! GOAT tournament.

Here is an interview with the true GLOAT of the original Jeopardy! game show, Stephanie Hull. Who scored a whopping one day total of (-$6,800) . It goes without saying who she thought would win the GOAT tournament.

You know what they say, birds of a feather ...

The Lowest-Scoring Jeopardy! Contestant of All Time on How It All Went Wrong

 

There’s a huge difference between reality shows & game shows. I think there was zero chance of anything to do with Jeopardy being rigged but some people love conspiracy theories.

 

No conspiracy theory here. I am just having fun with the “fixing” thing. However, Rutter getting ALL of those DD’s is the one thing that will not go away for me.

This tournament proved to me three things, (1) Jennings is the GOAT (b) Holzhauer has a tremendous amount of respect for Jennings and is a very, very bright individual and (3) Rutter got his a$$ kicked. Thoroughly. Like a rented mule.

 

There's always a feeling of smug superiority when you know something none of the contestants do!

It's usually sports. They'll know who was the Duke of Earl in 1473 but can't tell you who LeBron James is!

 

Didn't he miss like 9/10. I remember him always being dropped back to zero after a DD or Final. After that what else does he have to do except get really jokey.

 

So it sounds like you agree with me? People believe crazy stuff that's not based in fact, like the Earth being flat, the moon landing being a hoax, and Jeopardy being fixed.

Seeing patterns or intentionality in coincidences (such as Rutter's Daily Doubles) is a hallmark of conspiracy theory, indeed.

As noted, I am skeptical they have any interest in making Jennings the host, or that he has any interest in doing it. Trebek's appeal is that he is an everyman, and seems like a normal guy. And again, TV host is a unique skillset, being comfortable in front of the camera and sort of blandly likable and inoffensive in a way that makes people want to invite you into their homes. Trebek makes it look easy, but it's not that easy to do successfully. And again, Trebek isn't there because he knows it all, so why would that be a criterion for his successor? I think they will choose someone who is a proven success as a host.

 

I believe the game is not fixed because people can go to jail if so and this version of the show has been running for 36-37 years now. I was in the studio this past October in the audience to view an entire week of regular show tapings - 3 morning and 2 afternoon tapings in 1 day. The table of judges and lawyers there are plentiful. Trebek is wonderful and my son and I got to ask him a few questions during the day from the small audience area. Alex takes questions for about 15-20 minutes between the filming of Double and Final Jeopardy. On tv, it seems the contestants only have a short period of time to enter their wagers on Final but its a long time while the staff led by Maggie Speak go over the last part of the show with the contestants.

Further, Shakespeare and the Bible categories that appear regularly have been happening for decades now. I was a live audition contestant about 3.5 years ago and even there they gave plenty of Shakespeare and Bible questions and darn hard I can tell you. You can't avoid them which is why good players like Jennings have studied those subjects thoroughly.

I won my audition game with the real buzzers in hand and was not chosen for the program which is fine for me given my advancing age. My son is next to try and hopefully he will eventually go forward because he is very passionate about this. James live auditioned 3 times before chosen so this is not unusual to get rejected for only 400 spots in an entire year season. Maggie Speak told me that they live audition 2-3 thousand a year before selecting the spots so its not good odds.

Anyway Jennings is the real deal given he now spends his time working with a trivia company (Fleetwit?) and writing his books. James is a monster and he didn't win being blocked from Daily Doubles. He did not get that Final Shakespeare question -Iago- though. They ask that caliber of stuff at the audition which I get wrong myself. I was not surprised Rutter did not do well as he was the weak link on his team in last year's Team Tournament even though his team won.

 

I don't know that anything was settled for me with this tournament. I think James was an equally good player who didn't get some daily double breaks. If it settles it for others that's fine by me.

 

James did not get the Daily Double breaks because he did not control the boards 90% plus of the time like during his run against weaker competition. In this situation, Jennings controlled the boards almost equally to James then adding Rutter who popped in from time to time, James chances fell to much less than you were used to seeing.
Some bad luck for James but I highly doubt there was anything funny going on.

 

My best friend recently played against Holzhauer (lost in the final of the Tournament of Champions), and lost to him handily. The most recent tournament makes it Jennings by a country mile. It was sad to see Rutter so handily walloped, but third in that company is amazing. Honestly, Emma Boettcher would've been the better third pick for a contestant; she played closely to Holzhauer in the Tournament and beat him to end his streak.

 

For me, the most amazing thing about Emma Boettcher was not that she defeated James Holzhauer to end his winning streak - it's that she did so even though she'd never seen a single one of his previous games. Because Jeopardy! episodes are taped so far in advance of their broadcast, none of Jeopardy James's games had aired before she competed against him. Her game was the first one taped that day, so she didn't even have the chance to watch him in action against some of her fellow newcomers before it was her turn.

Also, she won one of the games in the two-game final match in the Tournament of Champions, so she's actually defeated Holzhauer two games out of three.

 

Yep. She has to be in the conversation of best female contestant of all time. My friend, when taping the Teacher Tournament, was alerted of the existence of Holzhauer -- the producer told him "he's going to change the way the game is played." And he did. Which makes Jennings beating him at his own game even more impressive. And Jennings is more than a decade older than Holzhauer.

 

Jeopardy! the 36 season syndicated game show is NOT in question here. It is legit.

The “fixing” is strictly limited to the GOAT Tournament. Which was invitation only. And neither you, nor I, nor anyone else was able to participate unless invited.

That’s the whole point of this discussion. If you are going to play Jeopardy! against Ken Jennings, you better know Shakespeare, and you better have more that a cursory knowledge.

Yes, because Brad kept hitting them one the 1st question of Double Jeopardy! again, and again. Which for all intents and purposes, ended James’ ability to win.

And given your earlier comments, you are essentially saying Maggie Speak does a horrible job of selecting candidates, as James was on for 33 games. (Until they stacked the candidates, DD’s against him.)

Rutter controlled the board slightly more than I did, and I was watching from my couch.

Again, I am not doing the math, but I will wager that Rutter had the highest DD’s / Correct Questions in Jeopardy! Tournament history.

Coincidence? Luck? Fix? Everyone has their own opinions. Mine happens to Lean to the fix side for the GOAT tournament ONLY.

No one knows except for the producers, and by producers, I mean 1 at most.

 

If there was any fixing going on...and I refuse to believe there was...the tournament would have gone its full length. This show scored monster ratings (at least "monster" for a standard network in the times in which we live) and both the producers and the network would have wanted to maximize that fact.

 

I don’t believe the producers are seriously looking at any of these guys as a host. They will want an experienced broadcaster. And my guess is they will look beyond just white males.

As for Brad: he comes across as the kid who didn’t quite fit in growing up, and has developed this awkward bravado to cover up his insecurities. I’m not saying that’s how he actually is, but that’s what it seems like to me. And every time he gets an answer wrong and Alex corrects him, he says something like “Oh, that’s right” or something else to come across as if he knew the answer all along. He’s not an appealing personality, at least on TV.

 

I don't think any of those guys are particularly annoying or off-putting. If anything, James is the edgiest one of the three.

I agree that they're probably looking elsewhere for Alex's replacement.

 

Did not matter. With respect to this particular match, either James wanted off the show, did not want to break Ken’s money record total out of respect, or again, fixed. I have watched more episodes of Jeopardy! than any other show. If it looks like a duck, and waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.

Facts about James’ loss to Emma to end his 32 game win streak and prevent him from eclipsing Jennings money record:

• As champion, to start the game, James hit the DD in the Jeopardy! round on answer ONE, in the $1000 row. He provided the correct question and started with $2000. (Which is the value of 6 answers in the Double J! round.)
• PLAYER 3 (after observing how James played in the Jeopardy! round) started from the bottom in Double Jeopardy! with a $2000 answer. James got it correct.
• James proceeded to the $1600 answer, which was correct. Then the $1200, which Emma provided the correct question.
• Then instead of going for a higher dollar amount (which she observed how James played in the Jeopardy! round, and how Player 3 started the round), she chose the $800 question, which was a Daily Double. She made it a true Daily Double and provided the correct question.
• Emma “found” the other DD in a $2000 answer, and again was correct.
  
• James ‘answered’ 25 correct, 0 wrong, including 1 DD in the Jeopardy! round.
• Emma ‘answered’ 21 correct, 0 wrong, including both DDs in the Double Jeopardy! round.
• Player 3 ‘answered’ 13 correct, 1 wrong, 0 DDs.
• 59 of the 60 answers, had the correct question provided. Only 1 was not. (How often does this occur?)
• At the end of Double Jeopardy! TWO players, James and Emma had over $20k, and Player 3 had over $10k. (Watch and see how many times this happens going forward.)
• The Final Jeopardy! Category was Shakespeare’s Time. (Convenient ehh?)
• ALL THREE players got Final Jeopardy! correct. Emma wagered big and ended with ~$47k, James bet for Emma to miss (correct strategy) and ended with ~$25k and Player 3 finished with $17k. (Again, watch and see how many times ALL three players score at least $17k and the winner nearing $50k going forward in a non-tournament Jeopardy! match.)

Emma found the right clues, at the right time. Luck, skill, coincidence, fix? Everyone has their own opinion.

And Julia Collins is a better Jeopardy! player than Emma, and would probably have faired better than the “Crutter” Rutter in the GOAT Tournament.

Finally, a parting fact, Emma was a THREE game champion. Now an opinion, she does not deserve ANY comparison to the three that were on the stage during the GOAT Tournament. Even Rutter won 5 consecutive matches. And that was when the limit was FIVE.

 

Don't try to put words into my mouth. Maggie is a very intelligent, nice, high energy lady. I believe she does a good job selecting players from thousands who audition each year. Almost everyone who live auditions scores at least 42-43 right out of 50 questions on the home tests- so everyone is pretty good there. James and Ken are super exceptional talents who come along very rarely and stand well above all the rest. James winning 33 and Ken with 74 does not mean she does a horrible job. Also, you have no idea how people will perform in front of Alex, TV cameras and live audience even after they have a great live audition.