Isn’t Jeopardy filmed in front of a studio audience?
Do they bury the studio audience under the Burbank studios like the Pharoahs did with the workers who built the Pyramids.
If he has already lost, someone not employed by the network must know, but I can’t find any leaks.
If keeping things this secret really is possible, maybe JFK or Elvis really are alive.
The studio audience certainly wasn’t bound and gagged and threatened with death if they told (I hope). I’m sure a few have blabbed, but overall there is probably an amount of respect for the secret and the results. It’s only a TV show.
The employees of the game show and the studio probably understand this as well.
Well, it was pretaped in February, and there have been news articles that he is no longer playing. As for the audience who saw him lost, they wouldn’t have known they were seeing anything other than yesterday’s champion losing…
But don’t they announce how many days he has been on, and his total winnings, at the start of each show? I imagine the audience does hear that.
Did he lose or did they just finish taping the season?
On second though, I’m not even sure if I want to know. It would kind of ruin the excitement of watching every day…
Maybe it’s like the news that John Edwards was selected as the Democratic running mate, which was a big secret but was posted on an aviation message board the night before the public announcement. The news is probably out there somewhere.
There was a newspaper article saying that he (and apparently everyone else) wouldn’t comment on whether he finished out the season, or if he lost outright.
Ooh! I can provide a cite! I’m excited.
Yes, the audience does hear that. And of course Alex comments on every show about Ken’s record-breaking streak; I assume he will also express amazement and a sigh of relief on the air when the streak ends. The audience would certainly know “they were seeing anything other than yesterday’s champion losing.”
Jeopardy! is taped at the Sony Pictures Studios (former MGM) in Culver City. Wheel of Fortune is taped in the adjoining soundstage.
According to this message board, Ken will still be winning in September.
It’s simple. Suppose somebody leaks that he loses on the July 17 show. The studio then immediately deliberately leaks (through separate channels) that he lost on the August 3rd show, that he lost on the July 12 show, that he’s still playing, that he lost on the July 22 show, that… Etc.
Please note, by the way, that I (like apparently everyone else) have no idea when he actually does/will lose. I’m just using those dates as a hypothetical example.
??? Simple??? Now I’m confused as all heck.
portentious hrrmph Back when I was on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (the daytime version, with Meredith Viera) they made the contestants sign all sorts of affidavits but obviously could only ask that the audience respect secrecy and keep mum about the outcomes. Which they pretty much did - I was present for two days of taping and probably watched a dozen episodes being played as we waited in the green room in the basement. One of them was Kevin whose-last-name-I-don’t-recall, their first $1 million winner. That was exciting, we were all playing along & shouting & cheering. And the producers just asked the audience members not to mention what they’d seen. The episode taped at the beginning of December & they aired it during the February sweeps & I don’t think the word got out ahead of time.
I haven’t been in a Jeopardy audience, but I have attended many other show tapings. It would be very easy for the producers to leave the audience guessing should they so desire-- and for Alex not to mention his streak during any given show if he happens to be anywhere close to having some competition.
In case you haven’t noticed, at the start of every Jeopardy! show the number of days the returning champion has won, and his total winnings, are both announced and written on screen.
And how would anyone know if Ken “happens to be anywhere close to having some competition” until the game ends?
I’ve been lurking lately on the official Jeopardy message board, where the administrators occasionally delete spoiler information. I can’t find the thread now, but a while back I saw some cryptic references indicating that Ken’s exact number of victories had been posted and then quickly deleted. So the information has been leaked, but it’s not there now.
While the audience at home can see Ken’s numbers, the studio audience cannot, unless they are close enough to a monitor-- and the shot used (ie. the close-up of yesterday’s winner) could easily be done when the audience is not present and edited in later.
As for not mentioning the streak, a decision could be made that if any competitor is within $1000 of Ken to keep mum about the streak, if the producers don’t want the audience to know about the uber-champ losing. Which is all I’m saying-- if they wanted the audience to remain ignorant, it could be easily be done.
The simplest explanation is that he was still winning thru the end of the season. There is no reason for the audience to be told “This is the last taping of the season.” So none of them would be in a position to definitely say so. However, that still leaves money totals and such for leaking.
OTOH, the simplest explanation is best for Physics, and this isn’t Physics.
Drudge should know, but apparently doesn’t. Definitely a sign of complete failure there.
Unless they’ve changed how they tape this, doing this would be a departure from normal procedure – in 1994, when Mama Tiger was on, the audience was brought in at the beginning of the day, and several shows were taped in a row (there was a break in there somewhere, but I don’t remember, maybe after three shows) while we were sitting there. It was all done in real time, except that the contestants were given all the time they wanted to figure out their final bets. They’d have to do some rather drastic changes to their normal procedures to pull this off.
They probably just begged people not to tell. They must have begged really effectively!
Former Jeopardy! champion here. There are several monitors overhead for the studio audience to watch. The studio audience does see and hear the returning champion’s numbers.
Simple logic should tell you that because the returning champ’s numbers are given at the beginning of the show, this would be impossible.
And simple logic says that if the producers decide to announce the total winnings during post-production instead of at the beginning, the audience won’t know
I don’t really care one way or the other. I just figure that if they wanted to keep Ken’s loss a secret, there are many ways to do so.