Jeopardy!TM is in news again.
I love everything trivia, but — as the winningest Jeopardy champion and trivia whiz Ken Jennings, has noted — knowing trivia is becoming less and less important amateur “skill”.
When I was an untenured professor, one of my post-tenure plans was to take a sabbatical just to train for Jeopardy, and meet Alex Trebek. Alas. Not a surprise, but I am sad to note that my dream did not come true, Trebek having tragically passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer. If I made it to the show, I was going to be a professor and part-time bartender from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The astounding quick-fire buzzer response by James Holzhauer has poured cold water over any vestigial embers of my ambitions. Every serious Jeopardy (TM) aspirant knows that in every episode, many participants know the answer but the first to the buzzer (adroitly timed at the end of the question) wins. Not only he knew more, as a professional poker guy, but he was also going to bust the bets and the buzzer.
Back to Jeopardy!
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Everyone knows Jeopardy is a game show first, and quiz show next — the conceit that you have to give a question to an answer (or get penalized) puts Jeopardy squarely in the game show category. Don’t say “Tom Brady” instead of “Who is Tom Brady?” to “He is the most annoying Super Bowl winningest quarterback” and lose money in double jeopardy. On the other hand, no other quiz show in the US syndicated television roster came close to being a serious quiz show.
Gone are the times, when regular people showed up to win the show. By allowing winners to appear until they are beaten, Jeopardy opened the door for “professional” quizzers, a condition similar to old FIDE days when candidates beat each other in knockout rounds, and the champion awaited for the last guy standing. Since Jeopardy records multiple shows on a single day, the champion gets the “hot hand” on buzzers as the others turn through turnstiles.
I don’t begrudge the champions — more power to them! — but Jeopardy has increasingly become a multi-million dollar show that is stingy with cash prizes, while the studio, hosts, and producers (and who else?!) walk home with the money at the expense of players (who are supposedly in it for love).
Network TV made millions of dollars as Ken Jennings played many weeks to accumulate his “meager” winnings of $2,522,700 for his 75 appearances. Compare his earnings with Alex Trebek who pulled in a cool $10m a year, recording 5 shows a day over 45 days. Not a bad salary for 2 months of work. Stephen Colbert who works tirelessly for more than 160 nights a year, earns a comparable $15 million in a year.
No wonder, Mike Richards, the executive producer of Jeopardy and supposed head of the search committee to find the new host, was chosen to be the next host. Not since Dick Cheney who was the head of GW Bush’s vice-presidential candidate search committee, has someone managed this One Neat Trick. [Richards has insisted that it was “not my decision and never has been,” and the allegations in the past lawsuits don’t “reflect the reality of who I am”] Apparently the other host Mayim Bialik, ex-Blossom star and neuroscience Ph.D., who may or may not be an anti-vaxxer, will host the spinoff shows.
So after a sham rotation of Jeopardy stans (LaVar Burton), sports stars (Aaron Rodgers), TV personalities (Savannah Guthrie, Anderson Cooper), Past champions (Buzzy Cohen, Ken Jennings), and downright bizarre choices (Dr. Oz), Jeopardy selected its executive producer, to be the permanent host.
I suppose the committee’s first choice, the guy who carries the plate of roses and announces “this is the final rose” (without a hint of the irony of obviousness) on The Bachelor, was no longer available.
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Bosses go rich, and players go empty.
Jeopardy’s winners-keep-playing policy expanded Sony’s cash coffers while offering fewer people the opportunity to show up and play on Jeopardy. (It was hard enough show to get on. All participants had to ace a written test, pass a screen test for personality, and buy their own tickets and boarding, to show up on the show).
In the name of encouraging aggressive betting, Jeopardy only pays 1K and 2K to third and second-place finishers, regardless of the winnings. This policy makes not much sense any longer and should go.
Recently, Jeopardy introduced tie-breakers that disallowed two tied champions (after Final Jeopardy) to go to the next episode with their winnings. Here is a famous story (on Ringer). The specious explanation of keeping the flow of contestants does not gel with their history of prize policies.
I suggest 5 things Jeopardy! should do…
1) Increase the bet values (it has been a while since the last update).
2) Let the contestants keep their prizes regardless of their bets.
3) Remove the dumb tiebreaker rules.
4) Retire winners at 5-10 episodes (maybe five) and bring them back for the tournament of champions.
5) Pay the people who show up for the studio schedule, flat expense reimbursements.
PS: None of this really is a pressing issue in the world. Just shows how much I care about Jeopardy!