I thought those two had amazing chemistry throughout the tournament, it was what I enjoyed most about watching. I found it interesting because I never particularly liked either of them individually. But I really dug the Vegas meets Salt Lake City /not too jaded gambler/not so innocent choirboy buddy vibe and I’d like to see them do something together.
And I think that why Brad …( or whathisface, as we were calling him ) seemed like such a third wheel.
Aw. I’m on Team Ken, but I still hope Whathisface manages to win at least a single game.
I don’t think his being in the third (far right) position helps much either. 
What effect would that have?
I thought it would be James, but Ken seems to play up to the level of his competition.
But what a great idea - the GoAT for Alex’s last hurrah. Awesome.
Regards,
Shodan (who has been forever cured of the notion that I could compete in the same zip code as any of these guys)
As noted above, most of the interaction is between James and Ken. I imagine Brad feels a bit isolated out on the edge like that.
If I were appearing on the show, I don’t think I’d like being in the end spot either. Seems to me a disproportionate number of low scorers occupy it. (Statistics might not bear this out, but it’s still my impression.)
Mundane pointless anecdata: I won my first game from that position.
I don’t watch Jeopardy and I don’t know much about Ken Jennings, but I did read his book on cartography and he’s a very entertaining and witty writer.
Congrats to Ken!
He’s clearly the one who wanted it the most and I’m glad he won this. I think it also meant/means the most to him.
Too bad the game’s done though…I was having fun…
A rematch between Ken and James seems inevitable. Unless Ken decides he doesn’t want to appear with a new host.
Ken was at his best in this tournament. He must have spent a lot of time prepping. His buzzer skills were comparable to James.
James never completely dominated the board like he did on regular Jeopardy.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the one Daily Double where Ken only wagered 5000 – that was the only DD in the entire tournament where a player didn’t bet it all?
I kind of expected Rutter to quit betting it all after consistently tanking on the DDs he got in the early games when starting the second round. But I suppose at some point he decided he was far enough behind, he had nothing to lose by going all in.
Jeopardy! trivia: Ken Jennings won this tournament when he got the last Final Jeopardy correct and James Holzhauer, who would have won the game had he gotten it correct, missed. Brad Rutter won the Decades Tournament when he got the last FJ correct and Jennings, who would have won the last game (and the tournament) had he gotten it correct, missed.
We may never know if ABC tipped off the result of Tuesday’s game in advance when it announced that Tuesday’s normal shows would be repeats if no Game 4 was necessary, but Wednesday’s would be new episodes if no Game 5 was needed.
I don’t think a rematch is inevitable. Sure, Ken and James have an opportunity to make lots of money in rematches, but from Ken’s point of view, he’s got the G.O.A.T. trophy, so does he really want to risk playing again and losing it?
I enjoyed the GOAT even though I only got about 10% of the answers that I normally do. Brad was certainly disappointing. James looked visibly frustrated as Brad kept getting the DDs. IMO, James jab at Brad Rutter’s zero score was not 100% “friendly”, it seemed like Brad was sabotaging James chances.
James seemed to reach is stride in the last game and when he did get the DD it looked like he would win the game. FWIW, Iago was the only FJ that I knew (educated guess)
I noticed the ABC scheduling was a little suspicious when I was looking for shows to record a few days ago. It would have been different if this was presented live (like America’s Got Talent and the ilk), but I wonder if that would be a good idea with Alex’s health. Anyone know how far in advance this was recorded?
Watching the last night questions, I thought they were getting harder and harder, although I got the final JF question right (it helped that I wrote a term paper on Othello in college). The bigwigs at ABC might have been panicking that they’ll lose their audience, but ratings were great (cite needed).
The banter between them all was great. I did grimace when James said Brad’s score of 0 didn’t get updated on the second round; that must have hurt.
I really don’t think James was being malicious. They’ve been razzing each other the whole tournament.
I honestly think Brad punted the last round. He knew the only chance he had was for James to win so he only picked low value clues when he had the chance.
I certainly don’t think he meant to be malicious, which is too strong a word. If he had made this joke early in the tournament, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it, and probably would have laughed. Given Brad’s disappointing performance though, at this point I thought it made James look like a bit of an asshole. I’m not saying he is one, but it was not in good taste.
“…among the many people watching the tournament with great interest was another Jeopardy! record-setter, one whose title is more ignominious: Stephanie Hull, who, on March 12, 2015, ended the game with the lowest score in Jeopardy! history, -$6,800. I spoke to Hull, who’s never given an interview in the nearly five years since that fateful episode aired, on Tuesday afternoon, just before Jennings’ final triumph aired.”
“Well, Wolf Blitzer did worse.”
That was a lot of fun to watch. I was rooting for Ken to win the tournament, but I was also kinda hoping James would win last night to send it to a fifth match.
I was feeling a little bad for Brad until I remembered that he just got paid $250,000 for losing.
Yes, he wasn’t hurting financially.
But even so, it took strength of character to keep playing after that first game, in which it became clear that he wasn’t either as fast on the buzzer-button or as well-prepared as the other two.
He had to know that when the games finally aired his humiliation would increase, as thousands of people would start commenting on his performance. In those conditions, walking out and taking his place at the podium had to be tough.