Watching Power Players I suddenly wondered how does Jeopardy keep stories of winners out of the news when they tape and broadcast? Most events with an audience of that size has many tweets sneak out immediately.
The contestants are contractually required to not reveal the results until after the show airs. It’s possible the could forfeit their winnings.
I’m not sure about how the can enforce that on audiences, however.
Maybe it’s just not very big news… I mean, people who personally know the contestants would care. But does anyone else who doesn’t know them really care?
People care a lot more during a major Tournament . . . or when someone like Ken Jennings is playing.
Having attended many tapings of many game shows (I used to be a professional audience member. No the job sucks, thanks for asking) I can attest that for shows like jeopardy or family feud, they do ask you to turn your phones off. If they catch you with it on, they will kick you out. Some shows, like american idol and such, will actually confiscate everyone’s phones upon entering the studio.
I work in television news and I can tell you that no newsroom in the country gives two shits about a gameshow winner, Ken Jennings aside. I would assume it’s the same for most print and online enterprises. The last time a major gameshow jackpot leaked was the first time “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” awarded the top prize (on what should’ve been a $500 question.) And that leak was by design.
Jeopardy isn’t shown live though. They probably ask to turn the phone off so it doesn’t ring during taping. They show it weeks later so you can always post the results at the end of the day without it making a bit of difference.
I had heard that Al Franken (my senator) was going to be on, and he’s newsworthy enough that I would have expected some local coverage at least. I only caught the Final Jeopardy, and I wish I could have seen the whole episode.
Voice your displeasure to your local station that carries the show. All gameshow distributors alert affiliates when contestants from their particular markets appear. Sounds like your station missed a pretty good promotional opportunity… Or they did promote it but it didn’t reach you. As you can imagine, it’s getting increasingly difficult for local stations to generate awareness these days amidst the cacophony of media content.
True. I was only trying to convey that you will not get away with live tweeting or filming while in the studio very easily.
I would also guess that the news of the winner is embargoed until the show airs. Newspapers respect news embargoes for matters like this.* So if someone called the paper to say they saw someone win on Jeopardy, the newspaper wouldn’t run the story.
*For instance, the name of the winners of the various baseball awards were sent out by the league several hours before it was officially announced. Newspapers and radio/TV stations could not announce it until the embargo ended. It probably dates back from before radio, when someone wanted an article in the paper, but the official announcement was not until after press time. So you’d send a press release out. The newspaper could then cover the announcement.
snfaulkner, you should start an “Ask the Professional Audience Member” thread. I’ve always wondered if they had professional laughers in the audience when taping really bad sitcoms.
The morning after Louie CK broadcast, Google News showed 77 gits. Some were websites that had once been big newspaper sites. There were an estimated 2600 persons watching the taping but somehow at least 77 sites were quiet about it until after the broadcast. I find this curious.
There are. Not all audience members are paid though. Some are tourists. When they can’t give out enough free tickets, the bring in pros to fill the seats. Sometimes though, they don’t even have them in during taping of the sitcom, but bring them in after taping has finished and record a bunch of reaction laughs on cue. And you would never even see what you were supposed to be laughing/clapping/reacting to. Just a director guy say “Ok, now give us a big guffaw bleeding into applause” or “a light chuckle” and so forth for an hour or two. Those were the best. In and out and not have to sit through the terribly tedious taping of terrible terrible television.