During the closing credits/music of Jeopardy the contestants (always with the winner closest to the audience, I’ve noticed) and Alex Trebek are shown talking, but with no audio of their discussion.
Several dopers have been on the show. Is the discussion “real” or is it “show”, as in “let’s pretend to have a discussion for the cameras”? Assuming it is a natural (though perhaps arranged) discussion, what is discussed? Was a topic suggested (such as Alex starting the conversation with “so, did you do as well as you thought you might?”)? Was it Q&A time for the contestants to ask Trebek questions?
It’s real. It’s pretty brief, though. The closing credits only last a minute or so, and Trebek needs to get back to change into a different suit for the next day’s taping (they tape a whole week’s worth of shows in a single day). There’s nothing really prepped. It’s Trebek just making small talk and congratulating the champion and whatnot.
Actually, unless you’re a multi-day champion, the audience tends to get more interaction with Trebek. During commercial breaks and judges’ breaks, he’ll come out and take questions and entertain the audience. The audience gets to watch 2 or 3 show tapings, so several questions get answered.
There are stage marks so the contestants know where to stand. Since there’s a break in the action, the stage crew directs the contestants on where to stand, and, yes, the champion gets a particular space to stand.
I did manage to ask if he ever experienced “phantom mustache” pain. He never answered and just went back to his dressing room.
Unless I’m being wooshed… They do have the tech, but the audience expects Vanna to have something to do. It wouldn’t make much sense for her to just stand there.
I’m pretty sure it was Jeopardy, and it wasn’t old footage. I’m thinking I might have noticed the clip fragment in a PBS program about how they programmed Watson.
From what I remember, the end of game small talk is just that, small talk. Alex talks to you about what happened in the game, discusses anything interesting, etc.
The first commercial break you don’t have to turn around because the board is already revealed, but the second break, they do ask you to face away from the board just in case any of the clues/categories are revealed on the board. That way nobody has any prior knowledge in case anything goes wrong with the board technically.
As I recall we spent most of those commercial breaks drinking water (it was dry on the set), cracking jokes with Alex and the producers, and getting our makeup touched up.
As others have said, it’s a real discussion. As for what is discussed, it’s whatever Alex feels like talking about. When I was on, one of the contestants was a former Marine, and doing a Ph.D. in History, and his thesis had something to do with modern military history. Alex is apparently a military history buff, so during the post game chit chat he talked about military history with Fidelion, pretty much ignoring Jason and me (well, Jason was a multi-game winner, Alex had been chatting with him plenty). And to whoever said that the winner always stands closest to Alex, not true. I stood next to Alex after my game, and I only came in second. The director guides the contestants over and tells them where to stand.
That was me, and this is kind of interesting. They made a point of having the winner next to Alex, at least for the all the shows I witnessed live, and it’s been a general trend for at least the last couple years. Not to say there haven’t been exceptions.