They tell you this at the contestant search – nobody buys the plane tickets without their eyes open. Plus, people have been known to fly to L.A. for reasons other than appearing on Jeopardy.
Although it’s been many, many years since I’ve seen it happen, I do seem to remember that if the contestants finish in a three-way non-zero tie, they all get sent home and the next show features three new contestants. (Again, tournaments work differently.)
–Cliffy
I’m aware of that, but the song was written for the movie, and the lyrics at least make it clear that she’s an alchoholic. I find it pretty strange that someone with the same name would want to use the song as part of political campaign.
No more “prizes” for second & third place. Now second place gets $2000,third $1000-but 90 days after show airs. They just shot Feb 2004 shows. A friend just came in second. She has to wait until May 2004 for $2000.
Just ask Cheech Marin!
Well, no they don’t make it clear. The lyrics never say what “it” is that should be hidden.
minor nitpick…
Mary Robinson was the President of Ireland, a largely ceremonial position.
I can’t say I remember her using the song, a quick google didn’t yield much…
Any other irish dopers remember?
Yeah, I thought Prime Minister wasn’t quite right, but I was too lazy to look it up. Sorry.
I didn’t know that they had switched to cash for second and third place. It must be the trade-off for doubling the values. Great for winners, not so good for second place. My second place prize was a four-day Bahamas cruise and three days in Disney World for two, worth much more than $2,000, even 12 years ago.
Giving third place $1,000 is probably somewhat better than before. Because of a mistake by one of the Jeopardy! staff, I almost was given the third place prize on my second show (I beat the other player by $1). It was a pair of his/her watches.
Prizes are given 90 days after airdate to allow for errors, rules violations, or cheating to be discovered and investigated. It was the case when I was on in 1991, and I got the impression it was SOP for all game shows.
BTW, I just pulled out and looked through my Jeopardy! folder, and here’s a little-known rule: The maximum you could win in five days of regular (non-tournament) play was $100,000, regardless of your actual game totals. (This was back before the values were doubled: max in Jeopardy was $500, in Double Jeopardy was $1,000. Presumably these days the cap is $200,000. Anyone know for sure?)
Of course, I don’t think they ever had to enforce that rule. IIRC, the top score for a single show was around $27,000, but the average was $7,000, and it was very rare to even approach, much less top, $20,000.
In case you never figured it out, the theoretical maximum you could have won under the old scores was $176,400. Under today’s scores it’s $352,800. (You are the only one to ring in, you answer all clues correctly, you get the Daily Doubles last and in the lowest value positions, “make them true Daily Doubles,” and likewise bet everything on Final Jeopardy.)