… although he was on the ep that triggered this train of thought.
One of the contestants today was outclassed in terms of trigger-finger (not surprising, considering who the returning champion is), and had both failed at a Daily Double answer and had a brain fart on another question that brought her score to negative numbers.
Now, she is in the red, with not much time to go in Double Jeopardy. There is one category left, and her DD was the first in the game. She really needs to make money, and she needs to make it NOW.
Given that, WHY on God’s green earth did she start at the $400 level for the last category?!? Is there ANY reason why she shouldn’t have gone for the $2000 question to both hunt for the other DD (which one of her opponents did seconds later by skipping the $800 question), or at least bring herself out to the red? Am I completely missing some Jeopardy strategy here, or are Jeopardy players somehow falling into a kind of pre-programmed rut?
True, but she knew that there was only one minute left in the round and what were the chances that she was going to take the $400, $800 and $1200 questions with Ken standing right there. She should’ve gone right to the big money.
It’s really easy to criticize, when you’re sitting in your living room.
Standing on that stage is a whole 'nother matter. I tell you that from personal experience.
She might have gotten rattled, and lost track of time. She might have lost confidence in her ability to answer questions at that level (which is silly, since the qualifying test consists of only questions at that level.) Whatever. She was just trying to hold on.
The contestant herders also strongly recommend that you start at the top of the category and move to the bottom. Later answers can refer back to earlier ones.
That being said, I am damn glad I didn’t have to face Ken.
