The thing is, it looks like a French name, on par with Bardot and Godot, for example. So the urge to pronounce it like one is intense, unless one has actually heard it pronounced properly.
After months and months of stiffs and constant weak players, there have been some very good contestants and high quality play in the last week or two. It’s good to see.
I agree! Watching 3rd place move into winning is fun, too.
Interesting surfacing of the caught-cot merger there. I would represent the pronunciation of her name as guh-DAHT, not guh-DAUT.
I’ll spoiler this, but it’s not a big giveaway.
Did anyone else notice that two of the clues in the first round had the same correct response? And they were either consecutive or close to it.
I watched the episode, but didn’t notice. What were the two? The Jeopardy Archive has been down all evening.
Jeopardy Archive is working for me.
THE PLACE TO “B”
CROSBY
I found that pronunciation written out online, and assumed that the other people I’d heard had the merger, and thus said AU and AH the same.
I do tend to say them the same, but I can hear the difference when I’m paying attention (or it’s one of those accents that exaggerates it into a diphthong).
Steel guitar music plays. Contestant guesses steel drums 
Like it was said of Prof. Harold Hill, she don’t know a bass drum from a pipe organ.
There were several clues tonight in which Mayim immediately ruled the contestant incorrect, when I think she should have asked them to be more specific. Both the clue about the White Rabbit (John just said “rabbit”) and drag racing (Jackie said “auto racing.”) I also think the clue about Newfoundland & Labrador, for which John just said “Newfoundland,” was the kind in which Alex, in the past, might have said “we need more” rather than just immediately ruling them incorrect.
I wonder if the producers/judges are continuing to coach Mayim and Ken in how to handle such situations.
I want Ken back! Mayim seems so stiff and off-putting, while Ken is friendly and relaxed.
My Alexa just reminded me - today is JeoparDAY - the celebration of Jeopardy’s 58th(?) birthday.
See here:
I keep hoping she’ll trip on her way back to the podium.
I noticed this too. My understanding has always been that if a contestant says something that is correct but incomplete, then the host will ask for more information, and if the contestant immediately supplies the additional information they are ruled correct.
Last night, IIRC, the answer was “the White Rabbit,” and the contestant answered “rabbit.”
Mayim either hesitated or asked for more info (can’t remember), and the contestant then said “hare.” This was clearly wrong, so the contestant was properly ruled incorrect.
Later in the game, the contestant answered “Newfoundland” instead of “Newfoundland and Labrador.” The contestant’s answer was not wrong, just incomplete, so I don’t think they should have immediately been ruled incorrect. They should have been asked for more information.
Yeah, Mayim is back. Ken is so stiff and boring.
I thought Mayim was abrupt as well, but the answer was wrong. The clue clearly stated an island (Newfoundland) and a chunk of the mainland (Labrador).
I prefer Mayim to Ken. He’s bland, and she’s more upbeat.
But I feel sorry for both of them, having to try and follow an act like Alex. I’t like when a longtime pastor is replaced by a new one. “But Rev. So and So never did it that way!”
It might make a good SNL skit: a contestant comes on with one of those huge throbbing alien heads after having ODed on her brain pills.
I’d love to see HER come on like that.