Did anyone see the finish to this episode? First, the guy who was leading by 8 thousand didn’t write anything in Final Jeopardy, had to handwrite it on an index card type-thing, then couldn’t stop convulsing when he held the card up. The guy played the game pretty cool the whole game; I thought that shaking like a madman was his idea of a joke… until I realized it wasn’t.
Completely bizarre end to the game.
It looked like he had trouble with the pen, which may be related to his nervousness. I don’t know whether the pen malfunctioning caused a rush of adrenaline (it would for me…I’d be all “OMG! OMG! OMG! I KNOW THIS AND I CAN’T WRITE IT DOWN!!”) which made him shake so bad or what. But it seemed obvious that he was just extremely nervous at the end.
I saw this too. His hands were shaking so hard when he held up that card, and you could see that he was freaking out to write down the answer on the electronic board with a bunch of "L"s that were scribbly.
I’ve seen the pen not work before. The most interesting things about that episode was the dinosaurs! I think I found the website for it but it is taking forever to load.
Having seen this thread before seeing the program, I think he was just flummoxed by the technology not working properly and the thoughts that he was going to lose because he couldn’t write down the answer on the screen, and then not being able to grasp and/or lean on the podium like the other players were able to do because they weren’t holding up cards.
I don’t think anything particularly unusual or noteworthy took place.
The pen malfunctioned, but there was a backup system in place, Trebek advised him of the backup system, the guy used the backup system, all was well.
The guy realized he was going to win when his opponents’ wagers were revealed (we didn’t see his reaction at the time) and could barely contain himself when he held up his answer.
This raises a question: are the contestants discouraged from showing emotion until the final outcome is revealed? If I was in that guy’s place, I would have shouted “Hell yeah!” or something similar as soon as I realized I was going to win!
Well that would be a tad unseemly. 
Poor guy!
Agreed. Nothing unusual here, folks.
The other guy beside him sure looked pissed. Like maybe he thought the guy was milking the pen for extra time or something.
I might have been imagining it, but it seemed like there was tension between the eventual winner (Paul, I think) and the returning champion throughout the entire show.
And yes, the dinosaurs were certainly cool.
How much additional time is a contestant allowed if his electronic pen malfunctions and he has to use a pen and paper?
Obviously, the malfunction did not occur at the beginning of the time allotted: He was able to write “Who is La”. It seems to me that he should have been allowed time from the point of malfunction, if that could have been determined.
Not sure why some posters are saying that this is not unusual. How often has something similar happened?
Well, maybe I didn’t phrase what I wanted to say correctly. While what happened is undoubtedly unusual, I don’t believe that anything untoward went on. It was pretty obvious from the way Trebek maintained his cool that the backup plan for a pen malfunctioning was in place and had been rehearsed. The guy’s shaking, IMHO, didn’t seem to be related to the malfunctioning pen. He was just stoked that he won - at least, that’s how I see it.
I don’t know why time matters in this case. When he picked up the card, he immediately began scribbling. It’s not like he took extra time to think further.
You’re right about this incident, but not because he didn’t take extra time to think further. It’s clear that he had already started to write the correct response, and it seems that, when the malfunction occurred, he still had enough time remaining to write the full response.
I’ll retract my comments about this particular incident. But, I’m still wondering in general.
The time allotted includes the time to do two things:
I think that it’s not unusual for someone to *get * the answer with, say, two seconds left, and not have enough time to *write * the complete response, especially if the response is quite long.
It seems that there should be a rule that stipulates how much time a contestant has to write the answer after a malfunction occurs. Everyone else has a time limit.
Just wondering … (obsessively).
The production assistants let the contestants know whether the question will be a What Is or Who Is before they come back from the commercial break just so they have more time to write the actual answer.
When I was on, I also was in the audience for two other tapings; they didn’t do that.
When I was on, I also was in the audience for two other tapings; they didn’t do that.
Well, it seems that today they brought back both the new champ and former champ, probably for some of the reasons mentioned above. (The third contestant was too far behind to be affected.)
Really? Maybe they stopped…I think Jeopardy writer Harry Eisenberg in his 1997 book (or was it Bob Harris in “Prisoner of Trebekistan”?) mentioned that they did that.
I wouldn’t know…I wasn’t called. I’m going to have to try again next year, since they had this year’s online test before I was eligible again.
Could be they did stop. I was on in 2000 and purposely stated that it wasn’t my experience.
Good luck. If you get on, you’ll totally rock. It was one of the top experiences of my life, being able to be a contestant on a show I never thought I would get the chance to be on. If you pass the test (I did it in person), at the next phase in the mock game, make she show a lot of energy and personality – even if you have to fake it. 